G.O.A.L.S.

The Columbus to-do-list project was an amazing way to get us freshman out and into our new home. I am from Cincinnati, which is growing a strong downtown community with new restaurants and things to do, and I have heard nothing but good things about the city of Columbus. I was very excited to explore this new city, that I could not pick a category at first and just wanted to explore. The first time I went to downtown Columbus was for a Kendrick Lamar concert, which was the best concert I have ever been to. It was at the Life Communities Pavilion, which is very similar to Riverbend, which is a common location for concerts near where I live (I see Jimmy Buffett perform there every summer). The next thing I did was explore the area around Columbus. I went to Easton mall with my sister and cousins not too long ago and boy was I blown away at how nice it was. My favorite part of it was seeing the Tesla dealership right at the mall. I absolutely love Tesla’s and so it was nice to check that out with one of my cousins while my sister and my other cousin were shopping for clothes. After shopping at Easton mall, we all went to dinner at Bakersfield, a Mexican restaurant in the Short North. This restaurant had the best tacos money could buy, and turns out that is only four dollars a taco (they are a bit small, but very delicious)! A confession about me is that I am a total foodie, I love everything about food: the way it looks, and of course, the way it tastes. Therefore, I decided to do my Columbus-to-do list on great foods in Columbus. I did a bit of research, and found a place called the North Market. It has so many different types of foods, I knew I would have no trouble in this place. My roommate and I decided to go together since we could split everything, which meant being able to buy more food.
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In order to get to North Market, we took a Cota bus to a spot a little past the Short North, where the North Market was located. When we arrived to North Market, we knew right away that this was a good decision. The outside of the building looks very inviting and homey. This is complimented to when we walked inside. Instantly feeling welcomed into a conglomerate of food, we started our journey. First, we went to a place called Firdous Express, which was a greek restaurant. We, of course, had to try a gyro from it and it was one of the best gyro’s I have had in my entire life. My taste buds, and my stomach, were hungry for more, but there was so much more still to try. The gyro had onions, lettuce, tzatziki sauce, and some other heavenly spices that I cannot name off of the top of my head. All of this was wrapped in a warm, fresh pita.
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The second place we visited to acquire more food was called the Best of the Wurst, which is a clever use of wurst, as in bratwurst. I sought this place out before we went mostly because of my German heritage. I absolutely love German food, and was pleased that the North Market contained such items. The chosen bratwurst was Chicago-stlyed, and contained mustard, relish, onions, diced tomatoes, a sliced dill spear pickle alongside of the bratwurst, and all of these messy ingredients were kept together in a poppy seed hotdog bun. One bite of this caused a party in my mouth, and everyone was invited. What was truly spectacular about this bratwurst was that although it had a lot of ingredients that looked overwhelming, each ingredient added to the flavor of another ingredient, one did not dominate another. The next thing I want to do in Columbus is visit German Village. I visited my extended family in Germany a few summers ago, and ever since then I have been craving Wienerschnittzle, but not to my surprise, not many restaurants serve that item.
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The third place we visited was Bubbles: the tea & juice company. This place caught my eye because of how healthy and organic it appeared to be. There were numerous fresh fruits around the counters of the place, and to be honest, I was really feeling a smoothie. The smoothie I got is an all-time favorite of mine: piña colada. This smoothie always brings back memories of going to the beach with my family, because I normally order one or two during the vacation (non-alcoholic of course). This was the best piña colada I think I have truly ever had. Drinking it around the North Market made me feel like I could go outside and it would be eighty-five degrees and sunny outside, and the beach little ways from the market. This is one of the things I enjoy food most for: the memories it brings back and the memories it makes. To me, food is like a picture. You can forget details here and there, but once you eat something that was the same as you ate somewhere else at a different time, all of those warm and great memories come back as you take the first bite.
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Next was Omega, a small bakery in the far left corner of the market. Looking at all of the delicious breads, one spoke out to me: a pretzel roll. Only being a dollar, I got one for myself, and can easily be the best decision I made in my life. The pretzel bread had the most wonderful texture. Biting into it, it was soft like a soft pretzel, but also a little hard, almost like a Snyder’s hard pretzel. Normally when I eat a soft pretzel, mustard, especially German mustard, is necessary. However, there was none around, and I was not complaining at all. The pretzel roll itself had the most amazing taste, I feel as if putting mustard on it would disrespect it in some way.
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Right next to the Omega bakery was a Mexican restaurant called Dos Hermanos. My roommate and I split an order of two tacos with barbacoa as the meat, which each came with lettuce and onions on top, and two slices of limes and two cups of salsa on the side. After sprinkling some lime juice over the top of the tacos and drizzling on some hot salsa, the taco was ready for consumption. This taco was very, very delicious, not just because of the perfectly seasoned pork and the fresh salsa, but also because of the fresh tortilla. The tortilla had a distinct taste that I have never experienced before because these were fresh, authentically Mexican tortillas.
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We were sadly just about done with our North Market experience, due to our full belly’s and almost empty wallets, when we saw Btretzel. Yes, another bakery, but one that only makes bakery items with pretzel bread. Although we had had a pretzel roll earlier, the temptation was too much and we decided to each get a small pretzel stick, which had cinnamon sugar all over. The fresh, salty taste of pretzel was complimented by the sweet taste of cinnamon sugar, an unstoppable combination. This concluded the journey we took, but also the journey our taste buds took, and we went back onto the bus to take us back up High Street with very satisfied stomachs.

My experience at North Market was phenomenal. I am most certainly going to go back someday because although I tried a decent amount of food, there is still much more to find at North Market. I would highly recommend going to this great place to anyone who enjoys food (which hopefully is just about everyone).

Career

I watched the two Ted Talks that were discussing product design, under the engineering topic. The first video talked about how when it comes to products, we should not necessarily think of ways to make it environmentally friendly by choosing the materials it is made of, but also think of how the actual use of the product affects the environment. One example that was given was the refrigerator. It is so necessary and common for each household, that the demand will not change, and therefore the company can choose to focus on changing the functionality of it without consequence. One major issue to the environment is food waste, due to families buying to much produce, and the produce would go bad before the family would eat it, and therefore it would be thrown out. One of the problems is that the refrigerators do not keep the produce in a place that would actually keep it fresh longer, and therefore reduce food waste. The second video discussed how we can learn from the environment in order to make some of our problems dissipate. One example is the fact that our immune system naturally tries to keep us healthy, and if we are not, it fixes itself. This idea was taken to computers where they can now naturally fix some problems that may occur. These two videos have impacted my thinking on sustainable design with the fact that I have not even thought of any of this before in my entire life. It amazes me that companies have started to consider what materials they are using and how that impacts the environment, but none have really started to think about what kind of impact that product would have on the environment. Also, it amazes me that companies have started to learn from the environment (to an extent) in order to improve products, through biomimicry. These videos have produced a growing interest for the job I hope to have in the future, being a chemical engineer. I hope to create a fuel that is completely environmentally friendly, perhaps plant-based, in order to wipe out pollution coming from gasoline. In this modern era, automobile companies are trying so hard to have better gas efficiency, but oil companies are failing to recognize that the original problem is the gasoline itself. Better gasoline efficiency only decreases the problem slightly, but does not get rid of it.

Artifacts

My sapling mentor’s name is Jacob Shaw, but he just goes by Jake. He is a sophomore majoring in molecular genetics. The first question I asked him was how he chose his major. He told me a story about a biology class he took in high school, and how he severely struggled in the genetics unit. After that unit was over, he kept thinking about it, and could not get over how intriguing the subject was to him. He decided to research the major and became absolutely fascinated in extinction, mostly involving dinosaurs, and bringing back other extinct species. He told me that when finally choosing a major, he decided go to with molecular genetics, because he would rather do something challenging and interesting than easy and boring. This made me realize that I am doing the same thing with my major, chemical engineering. I love chemistry and think it is extremely interesting, but it is a lot of work and effort. Jake explained to me that there is nothing better than studying what you love.

 

My next question for Jake was how he has chosen to get involved on campus. He said that last year, he talked to his friends to form an intramural team, but the plans all fell through. Then, some friends of his joined golf club, paid the entrance fee, but only went to the driving range and golf course once or twice and did not really get much out of it. Part of it was transportation since he did not have a car. Finally, he just decided to be very involved with Environment and Natural Resources Scholars by going to the weekly events and participating in service affiliated with ENR scholars. This year, however, he joined barbeque club with some friends and absolutely loves it. He told me that this is a club that is a perfect fit for him and that he will be very involved with it. So far he has been to all the events and makes sure to dress for the theme (one of the grill out themes was Hawaiian). I asked more about the club and he told me that there are grill competitions that have two separate teams: the grill team and the bake team. Jake really wants to join the grill team. He taught me that it is better to join one or maybe two clubs so I do not spread myself out too thinly. Joining one or two clubs would give me the chance to become involved with the club and meet new people. So far, I have not found a club that I have decided to join, but I know that I still have plenty of time to find one. Jake has shown me that I may not find a club I want to really involve myself with freshman year, and that is okay. However, I should try some clubs to see if they would be ones I want to join, and not get wrapped up in school work and friends so much that I miss out on opportunities to join a club.

 

Jake had a lot of great advice for a freshman in the Environment and Natural Resources scholars program. He said to go through the events that are posted weekly and find the ones that I would really want to do. By doing this, I can make sure I attend the events that really sound interesting to me and not miss it. He also said to go to more than the required amount of events because they are a lot of fun and it is a great way to get to know fellow ENR scholars students. He also taught me to not be afraid to try events that may not seem too appealing by their description, which is almost the same as the oldest moto ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ The example he gave was the honeysuckle event he did in the past. It did not seem too appealing when he first heard about it, but decided to go anyways and it turned out to be one of his favorite ENR events. Another piece of advice is to really try to connect with the other ENR scholars; everyone joined this scholars program with similar interests, so he told me to use that to my advantage and make lots of new friends to help build my foundation here at Ohio State. I really am trying to follow this advice because it would be a great way to make such a big school feel more manageable.

 

Going back to his major, Jake has one of the coolest dream jobs I have ever heard of in my life. Being a molecular genetics major and having the biggest affinity to dinosaurs that I have ever seen, his dream job is to open and own his own Jurassic Park. He wanted to do this since he was six, but as he grew older, pushed it to the back of his mind to do something more ‘practical’ like becoming a vet. However, he quickly realized that he could not be a vet because he could never put an animal down since he is such an animal lover. Later, when he found out about genetics, he realized he could be apart of studies that try to find ways to bring extinct animals back into existence, such as the Tasmanian tiger and the passenger pigeon. However, these, too are realistic jobs, but he ultimately would like to find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life, and hopefully one day own his own brachiosaurus.

 

Finally, the last lesson Jake taught me was his most important thing that he has learned at OSU: find a way to balance your academics and your social life. Obviously school is the number one priority, but do not drown yourself in academics and let your social life fade away. I learned to be on top of my studies so that I have time to do activities and social things with friends. However, everyone finds that balance differently. Jake’s way of balancing schoolwork and his social life is that he needs small distractions while doing work, so doing homework in a common room in Morrill is not a problem. I, on the other hand, need to be by myself and be with friends after doing homework as a stress reliever.

 

Jake is a great mentor and I have and will continue to learn a lot from him. I feel very comfortable talking to him and truly try to take in his advice to use in my daily life. I have already begun to try and get as much homework done ahead of time as I can so that I can relax towards the end of the week and weekend. I also will try the longboarding club to see if that is something that I want to get involved with. I have not made any meetings so far, mostly because I forget, but I do want to try it soon. I also want to attend more swing dancing meetings because even though I am not very good, swing dancing is a lot of fun.

About Me

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Hi! My name is Peter Dittrich, and I am majoring in Chemical Engineering at The Ohio State University. I went to St. Xavier High School, which is an all-male Catholic high school. My favorite thing about my high school was all the traditions that it had and that I could also be a part of those traditions. One of my favorite things to do was sing my school’s Alma Mater after each mass and sporting event, arms linking each student together. So, naturally, I immediately loved the fact that Ohio State also had many traditions that I could partake in (such as singing Carmen Ohio). Other than the traditions, I loved the community of my high school and the people within that community. Here at Ohio State, as a freshman, I have already begun to feel comfortable here with this new, very large community. It helps to have joined such a great Scholars program, such as the Environment and Natural Resources Scholars.

One of the most meaningful things I did in high school was community service. Once a week, I went to an elementary school in an underprivileged area, and played with the kids there. It was not a lot of work, some classmates and I from my high school would just play games in the gym with the kids, but it was fun and a great experience. I am excited to be continuing community service with ENR scholars, joining my love for the outdoors, and my love for community service.

Community, as one might be able to tell so far, is very important to me. In high school, I was on the Cross Country team in the fall, and then the swim team during the winter. I love both sports, and each has their own unique community, which made it impossible not to do both. To be able to share similar experiences, such as long, thirteen mile runs, or early, five thirty A.M. swim practices, is what truly builds a strong community. What I look forward to this new scholars program is to build another, unique community. The two communities that I was greatly involved in during high school have greatly influenced me and have made me the person I am today. I look forward to what this new community will bring to my life.