The Ohio State University’s Honors program lists its five goals for its students out in a convenient acronym to remember: G.O.A.L.S. Striving towards these five ideals has helped countless other students at OSU succeed and go on to do great things in the world, and I hope to do the same by laying out the goals and devising specific plans to adhere to them for my next four years in Columbus.
Global Awareness
OSU wants its students to become not only successful in Columbus or even the United States, but also internationally. I find this to be very important, especially since I have traveled out of the country. Doing this taught me that there is so much more to see and experience outside of the bubble I have lived in my whole life, and venturing to explore outside my comfort zone will only make me a better person. I plan to cultivate an appreciation and in-depth experience with global citizenship by double-majoring in French, so that I can better appreciate Francophone cultures and challenge myself to become fluent in another language. I also hope to study abroad, utilizing programs such as S.T.E.P. With these experiences I can find job opportunities in places such as Quebec or France, or hopefully work with Doctors Without Borders later in life, since many of the African countries they work with speak French.
Original Inquiry
There is much that can be learned in textbooks or online, but students with a true passion for learning don’t settle just for that – they want to create new knowledge, to venture to places that have yet to be explored. As a hardworking and curious student, I have wanted to create my own original inquiry for research my entire life. I plan on doing this by applying to a summer undergraduate research fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital over the summer, and after that I will explore my options on campus. I plan to either approach a professor whose work interests me and ask if they have any research positions available, or I will apply to some of the many research labs in Columbus.
Academic Enrichment
One strives towards academic enrichment by taking the hardest classes available to them and aiming to succeed as much as they can in those challenging courses. I have done this my whole life, particularly in high school, during which I took all AP classes and achieved a perfect GPA. I plan on doing the same at Ohio State by taking several of the honors courses that are available to me through the honors program and striving to attain the highest grades that I possibly can, through doing all my homework, studying, and attending every class possible. With the knowledge that they will be more challenging than the average class, I know that I will be so much more fulfilled after the rigorous workload is finally over, as well as more prepared for my future classes and career.
Leadership Development
In every program, class, club, etc., there are the people that show up and do what they’re told. And that’s it. While there’s nothing wrong with that, so much more can be done by becoming a leader – by starting a new club, by organizing volunteer and community outreach events. In high school, I was the captain of the cross country team, which gave me my first taste in leadership, but at OSU I know I can do so much more. What I’ve already started doing is meeting new people in my classes and organizing study sessions with them for midterms, so that we all mutually benefit off each other’s different skill sets and knowledge. I hope to further my leadership skills in later years, though. I’m going to take this year to explore my options, by choosing what student organizations I want to be apart of, and by next year, since I’ll know what I’m interested, I can explore leadership opportunities in those clubs and how I can put the time and dedication in them to allow them to improve.
Service Engagement
One of the things I’m most excited for by moving to Columbus is all the service opportunities it has, through the university and the city itself, in an area I’m particularly interested in – the LGBT+ community. In high school, I joined my school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and advocated for LGBT+ issues there, as well as did a TED talk about accepting different gender identities, and I am thrilled about all the opportunities I’ve already learned about in Columbus. I plan to volunteer at a health clinic called Equitas, which specializes in queer patients and satisfies my need for volunteering with patients in my medical school application as well as my personal desire to help the queer community. I also plan on joining some of the LGBT+ specific service groups on campus, and possibly some that are specific to pre-med students.