Diversity

  I attended the Japanese Student Organization’s Undokai event. This is a Japanese sports festival where a diverse set of people come together to compete against each other by being a part of the red team and white team. I attended this event, because of my Japanese cultural heritage. I have never been to school in Japan, so I have never been able to experience the true “Undokai”. I learned that many people who were not Japanese were interested in Japanese culture as well.
I think that the president of the JSO club did a great job trying to explain the cultural importance of Undokai. He helped make everyone feel a part of the event. A Japanese teacher also came to give a small speech before the festivities began. We all stretched to the Japanese song “Radio Taisou”. In this stretching, many childish stretches left us laughing. Undokai is a family-friendly event and every Japanese child grows up experiencing it each year.
There were many activities such as the two-legged race, relay, tug-a-war, jump rope, mystery race, and Japanese dodge ball. In Japanese dodgeball, the rules were slightly different. The American players including myself learned these slightly different rules and played the game. At first, I didn’t accept the different rules and thought of them as strange. But slowly, as the game progressed, I realized how much fun it was to learn to play the same game but in a different culture’s perspective.
One event I found interesting was the “Mary-batsu-Quiz”. In this event, every participant stood in the middle of the field. The president of JSO asked us questions about Japan and we had to go to the side that said “true” or “false”. My red team’s strategy was to make sure we had about half of our members on each side of the field per question. This way, even if we missed a question, we would have lots of people remaining.
My favorite event was the calvary race. The red and white team had to create teams of 4. Three people were on the bottom while they held up on person on the top. The object of the game was to steal the opposing team’s hats. My team’s strategy was to have a lightweight person on our heads while we ran away from all the other teams. This was a success and we helped the red team gain points.
Although in the end my team, the red team lost, I had lots of fun and gained Japanese cultural experience with my OSU classmates.
Diversity and Inclusion impacts STEM, my classmates, and our daily routines because each person has a different cultural background. We need to respect each other to be successful and collaborate ideas. I think there is enough diversity at The Ohio State University. There are many cultural clubs such as the Korean Student Organization(KSA), the Chinese American Student Association(CASA), and the Asian American Association (AAA) to name a few. To gain more cultural insight, it is important to branch out and experience new cultural events.

 

 

Campus Resource

I attended the session Building Mastery: Skills for a Drama Free Life at the Younkin Success Center. I scheduled the appointment through the First Year Success Series Link for my survey class. When I signed up for this session, I was hoping to learn more about how to deal with stress and time management.  I think that I am an overachiever, so if an assignment is not perfect, I tend to feel stress. Because of my perfectionism, I also worry about getting enough sleep each night.

I thought that being a part of the Building Mastery: Skills for a Drama Free life speech was extremely helpful in giving me advice on how to deal with stress at college and life in general. My favorite part of attending the session was the mindfulness exercise we performed. The lights were dimmed, and we were told to close our eyes. At first, I was confused and didn’t understand the purpose of closing my eyes. Then a deep voice started talking. We were told to focus on the voice and take deep breaths. The voice told us to empty our thoughts and just focus on the present and what was in front of us. That day, I was a little stressed out because classes had just started and I had so many assignments piling up. The mindfulness helped me relax my mind and empty out all my negative thoughts.

Furthermore, I learned about ways to cope with stress. Some examples are listening to music, taking a walk, and cleaning your room. These are all good things to distract your mind until you calm down. After being calmed down, that is when one should confront the situation. One big issue many people have is that they waste time with being troubled by the thought of something difficult. I learned that confronting the situation is the best way to solve the problem, even if it may not be the most efficient solution. Furthermore, if someone ever has an issue with another person, the best way to resolve it is to talk to that person face to face. Texting can create miscommunication because words can be interpreted differently from person to person. Phoning someone can be better than texting, but it is impossible to tell their facial expressions. If a one on one conversation would create more conflict, then a third neutral person can intervene to be the mediator of the conversation.

I believe this session was something important to be offered at The Ohio State University. Learning how to deal with stress and procrastination can change how students enjoy their college experience at Ohio State. The only downside to this session was that not many people signed up to take it because they weren’t informed about the meeting. I was a little skeptical at first because there were only five other people. I think that this session should be offered again sometime a little later in the year when people have started to get into the routine of school.

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Campus Seminar Post

I attended a campus seminar at my home Computer Science department on September 4, 2019. I found out about this seminar through the Association of Computing Machinery Women’s Chapter at Ohio State. During this talk, Northrop Grumman came to explain about buffer overflow. This is when a program overwrites memory and is triggered by malformed inputs. Northrop Grumman is one of the world’s leading weapons manufacturers and military technology provider. They make technological systems that are on land, sea, air, and outer space. The gentlemen who came to speak to us were from the cybersecurity department of the company. 

I went to the seminar with my friend Grace, who is also in my Software 1 class and my friend Harshi who is also a STEM Scholar. When I went to the seminar I also met two of my friends who were also Computer Science majors. There were a lot of upperclassmen at the event. At first, I was intimidated, because I had no idea what buffer overflow was, and how that connected to the real world. I was confused with what was happening on the screen because the Northrop Grumman employers dived right into showing an example of this buffer overflow. By going to this event, I learned that this is something malicious hackers can perform to intrude into secure code. By the end of the seminar, I was still confused by the specifics of what happened, but I learned that code needs to be secure and tested so information doesn’t cross into the wrong hands.

The Northrop Grumman employers entered several passwords into the big screen. They inputted a long line of letters causing the program to crash. This lets them log onto the account that they were trying to hack into. There were several more requirements they had to override such as the number of upper and lower case letters and special characters they had to input. This was similar to the password system that Ohio State uses to log onto the buckeye link. It was intriguing to learn about how coding applied to the real world and how programmers worked to keep their programs secure.

Even though I was confused with most of the lectures, I thought that this seminar was interesting and I should try to attend more events across campus. I think that attending public university events like these helps me build a community of friends who are also women computer scientists like me.

On October 8, I decided I wanted to branch out and attend a STEM Organic Molecular Chemistry seminar during my break in between my classes. However, when I went to the lecture building, the Chemistry seminar seemed to be canceled. The three other STEM Scholars who were with me were upset that they couldn’t attend the lecture. But by trying to attend the event, I met the three STEM Scholars and became acquaintances with them.

Campus Seminar events are a great way to branch out of comfort zones. I was able to learn about new topics and meet new people.

Academic Support

In the second week of September, I had to prepare for my first midterm of my college career. I was very nervous, because midterms are worth almost a third of our grade, and can determine our GPA. To prepare for our midterm, I made a study plan. I planned out days to take my five practice Calculus 2 midterms. After taking the midterm I would grade myself with the answer key. Then, if I still had questions, I decided to ask for help at the Math and Statistics Learning Center. I also decided to go over some of the homework problems that the TA’s gave to us in recitation. And in the end, I decided to create my own study sheet of my own common mistakes and formulas I needed to remember.

In the past, I had never had a real math tutor. My “math tutors” were usually my peers taking the same class as me. The only problem with asking my peers was that I felt bad that they had to spend time helping me when they were not getting paid. My friends were always kind and explained problems thoroughly, but I felt like a bad friend when I had to waste their time. The benefit of the math tutors was that I could stay as long as I wanted and ask as many questions as I wanted because the tutors were there getting paid.

At the Math and Statistics Learning Center, I received help on all the questions and concepts I didn’t understand. The tutors made sure that I grasped each concept, and gave me additional scenarios when I didn’t understand something in a particular situation. I went for help everyday until the math exam. After going to the Math and Statistics Learning Center each day, I started to see some familiar faces. I made a few friends who were also struggling in the Calculus 2 class. This is extremely beneficial, because we can ask each other for help when the tutoring center is not open.

Seeking for help impacts student success positively. After going to the Math and Statistics Learning Center for a week, I improved on my midterm score by 20%. When I took the midterm, I saw many familiar problems and concepts. This made me confident and motivated me during the midterm test. Unfortunately, my midterm score was not where I wanted it to be, but now I know for the next midterm to start studying at least two weeks beforehand. I think Ohio State has provided me with enough resources to improve, and now it is just a matter of my hand work and intelligence to receive an acceptable score on my midterm.

After going to the Math and Statistics Learning Center, it inspired me to want to tutor others as well. But to be able to do that, I must grasp the mathematical concepts completely. In the past, I have tutored junior high students in algebra and pre-calc. It was extremely satisfying when the student was able to understand an idea from my own teaching.

Student Organizations

Over the past few weeks, I have gone to many student organizationse including ones related to my cultural background. My favorite organizations were the Japanese Student Organization and the Oshaberikai.

I first encountered JSO at the involvement fair. My friend’s brothers were part of the JSO e-board, so I decided to visit the JSO booth. Here, I met other upperclassmen who were Japanese. It is important to meet other upperclassmen because they have more experience in college and can give advice on college life, internships, and study tips. Branching out also helps make new friends. I found it very fortunate when I met a boy who was a sophomore in the same Computer Science and Engineering major as me. He told me which computer labs I could use since I don’t have my own lap top. He also told me I could contact him anytime I had questions. Another upperclassmen was a musician like me. She gave me advice on what kind of musical ensembles there are and how to try out for them. 

At the Japanese Student Organization(JSO), there was a barbecue cook out. Since I knew some of the officers, I helped a little with setting up. The food that the JSO officers made was extremely delicious! It reminded me of the food my mother made back at home. They had Japanese rice balls, veggies, chicken on sticks, and kakigoori (shaved ice ice cones). I got to meet many new Japanese people in the community. I found it ironic when I met a new Japanese boy who lived in the floor above me. I was surprised because I didn’t know there was someone from the Japanese community who lived so close to me. I also brought some of my non-Japanese friends to the meeting and they seemed to enjoy eating and socializing with others in the Asian community.

The Oshaberikai had many people interested in speaking Japanese. At first I was uncertain about going, because I thought the club was only for people trying to learn Japanese. However, it was definitely worth going to because I met many new friends and helped people try to converse in Japanese. It was extremely interesting to know that there were lots of people interested in the Japanese culture. I was surprised by the number of Americans who knew how to speak Japanese. During the meeting we played introduction bingo, and asked questions to each other in Japanese.

On September 8, there was a JSO officers meeting. The upperclassmen that I met at the previous meeting invited me to come join the e-board meeting because I signed up to be an officer assistant. Officer Assistants help the main e-board members with ideas and help set up for events. I went with my new friend Takuma to the e-board meeting and we helped plan the next JSO event. The upcoming events include the Japanese Sports Festival, Ramen night, and the JSO Halloween party. I hope that in the future, I can become a part of the JSO e-board. I love spreading the Japanese culture with other people. I’m so happy that my cultural background is an important part of me.

 

 

 

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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. 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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. 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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation includes both a description of the artifact and a reflection on why it is important to you, what you learned, and what it means for your next steps.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]