Second Year

My second year at Ohio State has certainly been an interesting year. There have been plenty of ups and downs that have defined each semester. My fall semester, I took on the challenge of taking honors courses for the first time at Ohio State. After stumbling out of the gate in these courses, I was able to regain steady footing. Academically, after regaining the steady footing, things were much more like the first year, and were smooth sailing.

 

Professionally, this fall was unlike any other I had previously experienced at Ohio State. This fall, I embarked on the internship search for the first time in my college career. Walking into my first career fair was pretty daunting as I did not know what to expect, nor was I perfectly confident that I had prepared the right way. After a few discussions with recruiters, I was able to gain the confidence necessary to start performing very well with the recruiters I really wanted to talk to. While it was disheartening to hear on a fairly consistent basis that they are not looking for sophomore accountants to fill any internship positions, I was still able to find success. I believe my failure to land an internship interview at the career fair led me to receive the two opportunities I will have this summer. This upcoming summer, I will be a finance/accounting intern for UPS down in Atlanta. In addition, I have been invited to partake in Crowe Horwath’s Learn2Lead program, which is a major stepping stone to getting an internship with them the following summer. The greatest help I feel I received in this was actually by going through mock interviews at Fisher following my struggles at the career fairs. While I cannot recall the name of who helped me at the moment, I am extremely thankful for their help.

 

Personally, I enjoyed my fall semester at Ohio State incredibly and felt myself grow more as a person, as I lived off campus and did not have a meal plan. This made me feel as if I was truly living independently for the first time, as I did not have the dining halls to fall back on for each and every meal.

This spring semester, however I have seen the largest growth in myself since moving to Ohio State. By studying abroad, I have been forced to become truly and fully independent, as unlike at Ohio State, here, I knew no one. I had to go out and meet new people from all over the world, and adapt to tons of different cultures on the fly. Overall, this has been an incredible experience and it has truly changed my outlook on the world. I feel I will be coming back to OSU and the United States feeling as if the things in life that felt like they were flying at me are not moving as fast anymore. Now, instead of getting overwhelmed and stressed at everything I have to do, I feel much calmer even when the most daunting tasks hang over my head. Now, I take a much more methodical and rational approach to everything and it has helped me remain calm, cool and collected rather than running around like I was blind. I cannot wait to be able to implement this new style at Ohio State as I feel it will translate very well.

 

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

On this nice weekend, the Business Scholars Program offered a trip to attend a Columbus Clippers game, which doubled as a professional networking event. This was one of the first weekends I was here at Ohio State, and it provided me with one of the first opportunities to get to know some of my fellow Business Scholars. Obviously, everyone in the Scholars program is interested in business, and is academically driven. During this event, I was able to get to meet many people from my program and interact with them outside of an academic setting for the first time. This helped me get to really meet all the members from the program, and become good friends with many. The connections that I was able to make that day with the other Business Scholars helped set me up with many of the good friendships that I was able to use a strong support group to help all of us manage our first year in college.

About Me

Hi, my name is Clayton Davis. I am from Atlanta, GA, and am currently a first year student at The Ohio State University. I was directly admitted into the Fisher School of Business, and was selected to be a member of the Business Scholars Program. I grew up in the South, but my family ties brought me back to study at The Ohio State University. I am currently involved with pledging Phi Delta Theta, a social fraternity, and I am the pledge class president for this Spring’s pledges. I am interested in learning about different cultures, and better understanding our ever globalizing world, and will be studying in Milan during the Spring semester of my second year.