For our second Explore Columbus, my mentee Eliza and I went to the North Market, in the Short North off of High Street. We went on April 15, 2021 after discussing many different days/times that we could do it. Since finals are approaching, and move out is dwelling on us, we wanted this experience to be fun and relaxing so that we could take our minds off of the end of the semester. We chose the North Market because it has a variety of restaurants and cafés inside, so we were not limited to just one thing. Eliza told me she had only ever been one time before, and didn’t get to see it all. For this visit, my mentee and I were joined by the mentorship pair of Abby Williams and Abby Jarrold. Abby W. is one of my best friends (who I met through ACES) and Abby J. and Eliza both joined KKG a month or so prior after recruitment, so we thought that we could all enjoy each other and hang out. I actually picked up Abby W. before our mentees and took her to get her vaccine prior to going out. After waiting her 15 minutes, we headed to Smith Steeb to pick up our sweet mentees. As we were jamming out to the radio and on our way to eat, I unfortunately passed the street. This seems to be a common denominator for these exploring trips because I also had directional troubles last semester. I made a quick turn, hoping to go around in a circle and then get back to where I wanted to go; little did I know, construction would ruin my plans yet again, and led me to the highway. Have no fear, we plugged into the GPS, but BAM! The exit we needed to take was also closed, just our luck. The thought of parking on the highway and scaling the wall up to North Market occurred for a split second haha. But nevertheless, we persisted and finally made it to our destination. North Market is in the center of downtown, a public indoor market with a ton of different restaurants, merchants and farmers. It is local and fresh, which is something that I love. Being from Georgia, the North Market kind of reminds me of Ponce City Market right off of I-85 in the heart of Atlanta. There are many other independent restaurants, shops and apartment buildings surrounding the area, and it reminds me of why I love Columbus so much. The afternoon was grey and a little rainy, but we made the best of it; as soon as we stepped inside, we were met with so many colors, sights and smells and immediately started exploring. We walked around the first floor, just taking everything in, and admiring all that we saw. We stopped at almost every stall and looked at what they had, all while trying to decide what we each wanted to get to eat and drink. I decided to get an authentic New York egg bagel with their secret recipe Jalapeño cream cheese. Abby W. decided to get pasta (that she would save half for dinner). Abby J. decided to get strawberry bubble tea, which I was tempted to go get because it looked so refreshing. My mentee Eliza decided to wait and get ice cream as a little dessert treat after we all finished our meals. We then wandered upstairs to find a nice place to sit and enjoy. Luckily, we found a big (socially distanced) table enough for the four of us to sit around and chat about different things. We talked about our classes this semester, and what we wanted to take in the fall, plans we had over the summer, and how this year has been for us. After chatting for about an hour, we all walked back downstairs, washed our hands and waited in line for the jewel of Columbus: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. The server was so sweet and struck up great conversation. We headed back to my car, and drove down High Street taking in the views and people on our way back towards campus. I dropped Eliza and Abby J. off at Smith Steeb, and then took Abby back to her place. Everything about our visit was great, and was really needed for a little self-care/friendship break! Doing this trip with Abby W. and Abby J. was super enjoyable, and I hope we can all get together next semester when we are back on campus.

Talking to my mentee Eliza for our interview this semester was really fun, especially since we have grown a lot closer this year (even if it wasn’t as “normal” as we would have liked it to be). Eliza and I did our interview outside of our Explore Columbus, unlike last semester; this semester has been really hectic for the both of us and this is what worked out best! Aside from the questions on our sheet, we both got carried away and talked about a ton of different things in our lives. Eliza has finally declared her major after coming into Ohio State as an undecided and she is actually now a Human Development and Family Science major. Since we now share a major, we talked about classes that we’ve loved, professors to look for, and different opportunities to take! She said that with her new major she is really enjoying the material but doesn’t think she has learned/retained as much as she hoped with all of her classes being online. Her study habits have improved now that she has realized that she needs to separate room and work, so she usually goes to the library or finds a spot outside to do work/study. Throughout this semester, campus has still been dull because of the pandemic but has opened up a bit. My mentee has taken the opportunities to join a couple more clubs and actually went through recruitment and joined a sorority. Here’s the craziest thing; she is now in my sorority (Kappa Kappa Gamma) and is actually my little sister in the chapter! So, we are not only mentor/mentee pairs but Big Sis/Lil Sis pairs as well! It has been really fun to share something that I love on campus with her, and see how this has made campus feel more like a home to her. On the topic of ACES, I asked her some different questions. First, how was her first semester in the program and what surprised her the most. She said that it had honestly been kind of tough since everything had to be virtual but she is excited to get more involved next year when we can do more. She was also surprised at the variety of majors that participate in the program, and how it is not just limited to education majors. Just like last semester, she also told me that she loves living in Smith-Steeb and living around people that share similar interests and values to her, but it is really cool to see how everyone is different and the environment is really accepting. She said she’s going to miss the vibes of Floor 5 next year, which I can attest to missing myself (Room 524 forever). Some recommendations that Eliza had for the program is of course waiting to see how things will be next year when (hopefully) we can do things in person, specifically service events and knowing more about them ahead of time because she is sometimes overwhelmed with school and work so she found it difficult to fit in events if they were announced last minute. I told her that my first year, events were announced with a pretty good time frame in advance so that people could have it on their radars, but we have all had to adapt to the pandemic life. We then moved on to the topic of career plans, and she has not had any change of heart about wanting to become a child life specialist. Just like last semester she has not had any opportunities for internships or field experience but is hoping for it in the fall. One of the final things she talked about was what her favorite memories were from last semester; exploring Columbus with new friends and meeting new people took the cake. She told me that this year she has really been focusing more on her mental health and wants everyone around her to take some time for self-care as well. Eliza is truly one of the best people I have met on Ohio State’s campus, and I am truly so grateful that ACES led us to meeting. We really want to see each other over the summer, and are planning to visit each other’s hometowns. Maybe you will get to see a little ACES x KKG reunion in the next couple of months.

For our Explore Columbus assignment, my mentee Eliza and I went to The Roosevelt Coffeehouse. We went on November 2^nd, 2020 after planning a week or so in advance. It allowed us to prep a time that worked for both of us, granted that we all have different class schedules and we wanted to make sure they were open for seating due to COVID-19. We chose to go to Roosevelt because it is one of my favorite coffee shops in the city, and I have made it my goal (like I did last year with my mentor) to try to find the best coffeehouse in Columbus. Eliza had never been, and she was totally on board with going to check it out. On our Explore Columbus we were joined by another mentor/mentee pair, Emma Fry and Dayna Snow. Emma was my roommate last year, and we really wanted to get two first years together and have them bond as well. I drove in my car to pick Emma up first, and then the two of us went to go pick Eliza and Dayna up from Smith-Steeb around 10 in the morning. We then navigated through the streets and construction of Columbus to get to Roosevelt. Roosevelt has two locations in Columbus so Emma and I randomly picked one on the maps, and it ended up being the location neither Emma or I had gone to before. This was exciting because even though we knew the coffee and the vibes of Roosevelt, none of the four of us had been to this physical location and we all got to experience it for the first time together. Getting to the location was somewhat difficult, just because the usual roads I would have taken were blocked off or closed for construction. But no worries, we improvised and got to a parking garage right around the corner from Roosevelt. The coffeehouse is located downtown right past Spaghetti Warehouse, which is a wild place in itself, and next to some new apartment complexes; apart from the construction going on everywhere, the day was beautiful and a little chilly, but the sun was shining and really lightened the mood from the previous grey days. This coffee shop was not only beautiful and modern on the inside, but they get extra points in my book for being so well organized and taking COVID-19 precautions very seriously. As a matter of fact, we noticed the employee get up from behind the counter and immediately disinfect a table someone was sitting at when they left, and wipe down the keypads for the cash register and card reader. They even validated parking so we were all set! As we stood in line to order, the barista was very sweet and gave us a minute to think on what we wanted, and even gave us some of his personal recommendation. I ended up getting an iced mocha with almond milk, and Eliza got a hot latte. While we waited for our drinks to be made, we were lucky to find a big (socially distanced) table enough for the four of us to sit around and chat. We talked both between our mentee/mentor pairs as well as with the whole group. Our drinks got there and we all sipped them throughout the conversations, and they were delicious. A perfect little pick me up for that morning. Eliza and I talked about how our semesters were going with COVID-19 and everything, and then Emma and I shared how our first years were pre-covid, as well as how it was adjusting when we got sent home for the remainder of spring semester. Emma and I respectively decided that now would be a great time to do our mentorship interviews and got to it. After our interviews were done, we all were having such a great time that we ended up staying for two hours. This is the funny part; while I was chatting, I mindlessly was folding a piece of paper that I soon dumped in my empty coffee cup. What was that paper you may ask? Oh, none other than our parking ticket, that we needed validated as well as to turn in to exit the garage. So little old me unfolds it, runs to the bathroom, tries my best to dry and smooth it out, and says a little prayer that it will scan. I go back to the table and everyone is laughing, but in the end I had to laugh too since I was so caught up in talking with the other girls. We walked back to the car, and the ticket amazingly scanned. Plus, our parking was free! We took a more scenic route home, by the river and then down through Victorian Village (which I could look at all day), and dropped Eliza and Dayna off to start their school day. Everything about the morning was great, and I would recommend everyone go to Roosevelt. I learned a lot from this experience, from driving downtown and being adaptable, to new things about my mentee. This was such a great time and I loved going with Emma and Dayna as well!

ARTIFACT 2: CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH PAPER

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EEWi3-zt-WkkBV-4Q1j41kldDN3mQ3iFUS-M2o8ac5U/edit?usp=sharing

For this artifact, I chose my research paper I had to write for my child development course. As a Human Development and Family Science major, this is one of my required major classes I need to graduate. Throughout the semester, we learned and talked about the cognitive, physical, and emotional development of different stages of childhood. As part of our main percentage of our grade in the course, we had to go to Schoenbaum Family Center and observe groups of children in their daycare/preschool facilities and choose a topic related to something we learned in the course, then write this review on it. It was a project that I felt very comfortable with and enjoyed doing. For my first official paper of my college career, I received a 98 on it and was very proud of myself. From learning about this topic, I will take it into my future career as an occupational therapist/educator.

ARTIFACT 1: ACES FILM PROJECT

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-IdeTFFBw41OM1CnDL5M3VHQqlZIfusD1zxUOrSWbrA/edit?usp=sharing

This artifact is a group project that I completed in my first semester of my first year with a group of people in my scholars program. The goal of this assignment was to reflect on the concepts and pillars demonstrated in the ACES Seminar course as well as the program as a whole, and apply them to a film of our choosing. We applied the ACES pillars: positive social change, advocacy, community, and service to the film Boy Erased. For this project, we were assigned a group with different members of our scholars’ program and had to effectively work together to choose a movie that exemplified the pillars of ACES. The first example of collaboration is figuring out a movie that seemed interesting to all of us. Following that, we had to collaborate on schedules to see what time worked for us to watch the movie together, figure out where to watch it, and afterwards we had to split the project up into parts and divide it equally between us. My group dynamics were very good the entire time and we all worked well together. No one was afraid to speak up if something was going wrong, or there was a question or some type of other issue. We all worked responsibly and finished the project in a timely manner.

[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.]