Sophomore Year G.O.A.L.S. Reflection

Since my freshman year, I have taken a substantial step toward increasing my Global Awareness. With the assistance of STEP (Second-Year Transformational Experience Program), I will be traveling to Great Britain for a month this May in order to learn more about their history and culture. The British way of life has fascinated me from a young age as I’ve always found their movies, music, and literature to be so high in quality. I look forward to spending a month there visiting sites, interacting with locals, and further immersing myself in the practices of the United Kingdom. I look forward to learning from the perspectives of my fellow students and becoming more aware of how a foreign society functions differently from the United States.

Regarding Original Inquiry, I’ve had many opportunities to pursue creative projects. Over the course of my college career, I have made several short videos as class assignments and produced three short films on my own time just to get the experience. I’ve formed a tight-knit friend group in my film class and look forward to making many more personal projects with them so that we can develop as filmmakers. I’m already planning to help one of them write a script this summer so that we can shoot it with her STEP money during the fall semester. Additionally, I’ve taken an active role in performing by joining Backburner Sketch Comedy. Performing comedy in front of an audience has allowed me to overcome my fear of being spectated and helped me find my voice in a world that can often feel deafening.

When I started college, I was a psychology major and I expected to be enriched academically by taking psych classes that would challenge me and interest me at the same time. Then I took 1.25 semesters of psych classes and decided to return to my first love: film. I’ve loved film since I was 13 and now that I’m two semesters into the major, I have no regrets. I look forward to taking classes about screenwriting and film analysis. Most of my production classes are behind me but I have two part-time jobs that involve production and I love all the time I spend working with visual media. My GE’s have so far enhanced my understanding of the world and exposed me to new concepts that will help me be a more informed citizen. Generally, I am confident that my chosen academic path will help me to be a successful director/ screenwriter one day.

In addition to Backburner Sketch Comedy, I am an active member of The Sundial Humor Magazine and the Ohio Union Television Club. I don’t yet feel ready for an executive position in any of these clubs, but I plan to run for something my senior year. It will depend on what my mindset is a year from now, but still, these clubs have allowed me to grow in my confidence, which is helpful for leadership outside of the club. The aforementioned personal film projects have also allowed me to grow as a leader. Since I wrote and directed those three short films, I was the driving creative force and I had to instruct everyone on what they were supposed to be doing to make my vision a reality.

As far as service is concerned, the summers between my freshman-sophomore and sophomore-junior years of high school, I volunteered as a missionary in Marseille, France distributing Christian literature to locals. I’ve also volunteered at my church setting up for the annual children’s carnival as well as preparing food for a men’s shelter. I’ve also volunteered my photography skills at a robotics camp. In high school, I accumulated over 200 hours of community service and continue to find ways to serve my community today. When I’m home for breaks, I have a legally blind neighbor who I routinely help with tasks around the house. Over spring break, I even took her to Wal-Mart to buy a new microwave. It was a long afternoon, but I was happy to help.