Year in Review

Service:

Volunteering in this past year has been an amazing experience. As my first year went by, I helped in many events like fundraising for a soup kitchen, making sandwiches for the homeless, and making cards for children at hospitals. Surprisingly, I to garnered 20 hours of community service. I didn’t think it was possible for me to do 20 hours of service and be a full-time student, but with the extra time that I had I managed to do it, and I’m glad I did.

My most memorable experience of volunteering was participating in MLK Day of Service. This is a day where OSU students get to help in different areas in Columbus. I went with an organization called Ladies of Leadership. The service people assigned us to a senior home. I talked to the elders and they shared their life stories and lessons. I also helped set up books and cleaned a room. It was very eye-opening. I got to see the amount of work it takes to care for the residents and what a day in the life of the residents was like.

To summarize my volunteering experience, I worked with Muslim Students Associations to make sandwiches for the homeless every Sunday for a least an hour. With HSS, I made cards for those in need for an hour. I did a community commitment with my peer mentor for 3 hours which was amazing. I also helped with fundraisers like Columbus Aid for India to raise money for children in India.  It’s shocking how far the year has gone and how much I accomplished. I hope to do more in the future.

 

Yearly Review:

Coming to OSU has changed me as a person. When I first came, I was a timid girl who didn’t think I could achieve anything at a huge university. But after joining many clubs and meeting new people, I realized that my perceived notion was false.  I also thought that I wouldn’t make any friends as a commuter student but that thought was also false. I discovered more students who commuters and full-time students like me. It made me feel more welcome at the university.

The way I viewed college started to change. At first, I feared it and what the future would hold. Now as the year is ending, I view it as a place of opportunity and a place to grow. And I want to continue growing into my next year and the years following that.

My goals for next year is to mentor some incoming freshman so they don’t feel alone in the large campus. I also want to go out of my comfort zone and try something new like doing research, study abroad, or joining a club that I’ve never heard of before. Hopefully, my sophomore year will be a success.

G.O.A.L.S.

Interviewing an Upperclassman

I decided to interview an upperclassman who was in the same major as me. Her name is Jeffrin and she is a junior. I asked her some questions and the answers she gave were really helpful.

Me: What is your major/career path?

Her: My major is biochemistry and I am pre-medicine.

Me: Why did you choose this major?

Her: I took biology and chemistry in high school and I really enjoy those classes. I didn’t want to choose a major that was just biology or just chemistry so I combined the two.

Me: Why do you want to be a doctor and what kind of doctor do you want to be?

Her: I want to be a doctor to help others and not for the money. I want to be a doctor in the pediatric or cardiology field.

Me: What was the hardest class you took at OSU?

Her: The hardest class I took was physics 1251.  Calculus 2 was also pretty hard because it was a weed-out class. These classes made me consider changing my major until I took by first biochemistry course and I liked it.

Me: What clubs were you involved in?

Her: I wasn’t really involved in any clubs. I was more into community service.

Me: What is the biggest challenge you overcame?

Her: The biggest challenge for me was transitioning from high school to college and adjusting to the way the classes were set up. There are a lot of professors that I had to know.

Me: How do you maintain the responsibilities that you have to do and relax for the week?

Her: I plan out the week to make sure when I have time to do things.

Me: Do you work?

Her: I work at Harding Hospital. I’m also a Sunday School Teacher and a Karate Teacher.

Me: Were you involved in research?

Her: Yes, I was part of a research experience for undergraduate students that specialized with a faculty member presenting their work.

Me: What is your favorite major course?

Her: Biochemistry

Me: How was organic chemistry?

Her: It was a lot of work. You are going to have to study a lot.

Me: Did you use the tutoring services available in this university?

Her: Yes I used to MSLC and I used the LRC for chemistry.

Me: What is your favorite place to study?

Her: The pharmaceutical science library.

Me: What would you have done differently your freshman year?

Her: I would have not take general chemistry in college and used my AP credit.

Me: What is the most helpful resource that you used on campus?

Her: The math department helped me with calculus 2.

Me: What advice do you have for future biochem majors?

Her: Take advantage of AP credit and because it worth it in the end.

 

Update: The interviewee got accepted into medical school. This is the advice she gave

Me: Congratulations on getting into medical school. Do you think that staying in your major helped you?

Her: Yes it really did. Everyone was telling me about how P-Biochem would be hard but it wasn’t that bad

Me: Do you have any advice for me?

Her: I recommend that you take physics over the summer because it was a really difficult class. I also hope you don’t give up.

Me: Ok, thank you we definitely need to meet up soon.

 

Career

The Health Science Scholars Seminar class is designed to relate the health sciences with different aspects of life, especially the life of a college student like maintaining a healthy lifestyle, finding out a health related major that is best related to an individual, and using resources to help the student out as they navigate through college.

One of the first assignments involved dealing with stress. As a college student, stress is something that we will deal with A LOT. This assignment helped students identify whether they had positive or negative stress and how to cope with it. The next assignments dealt with health related majors and careers and specifically which ones would be the best fit for you. This involved a lot of exploring and finding out what you liked in a career. In the end, the amount that you make doesn’t matter but the joyfulness that you feel while doing the job. Image result for biochemist

Because of the assignments that I did in the earlier sections of the course, I do have a clearer understanding of my major and secondary path of study. My major now is biochemistry but that will likely change because I as a change as an individual, some of the things that interest me now may not interest me in the future. But I understand what having a biochemistry as a major is all about and the careers that are associated with it. If biochemistry doesn’t interest me, my secondary plan is to major in medical lab sciences and pursue another job in the health field. I learned more about this major and more through the Majors Exploration Fair and it sparked my interest on health related careers.

OSU has many resources when it comes to finding a major that would suit a future career choice. During the Major’s Exploration Fair, I talked to a person at the University Exploration group if I was confused about the major that I had chosen. They talked to me about the different classes that I could take to explore different majors and to look online at all the 200+ majors that OSU has to offer. I can also go online to find out the careers that are usually associated with those specific majors and see if they interest me.

One of the hardest things to do as a college student is balancing your life and making sure everything is getting done. It seems almost impossible to maintain a great academic, extracurricular, and social life while being healthy. But this can be achievable. My goal is of course to make the best grades that I can but to not overwhelm myself at the same time. I will give myself a time limit to get as much work done as I possibly can. Then I’ll go out, maybe to enjoy the scene outside, hang out with a friend, or just chill. To maintain my extracurricular activities, I won’t join too many of them. I choose at most 5 that are important to me and and ones that I will be able to make time for. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, I’ll try to incorporate more fruits and veggies in my diet and walk instead of taking the bus. Even though these are small steps, they can lead to bigger steps in the future. Essentially, I’m trying to do things that I know I can stay committed to and so that I don’t burden myself with too many things.

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My HSS peer mentor, Riley, has honestly been a blessing to me. I can ask him anything because he basically went through the same situations that I am in now. He always looks out for me and gives great advice. That’s basically how I feel every time I meet someone who is older than me, whether they are an upperclassmen, faculty member, T.A. etc. They want to set students on the right path because they know that the transition from being a senior in high school to a freshman is college is rough. I know that if I’m confused about something, I can always ask someone for help because they have more knowledge in the situation than I do. That’s what’s great about OSU, because there are so many people willing to help.

 

You can always learn something new everyday, whether you are a baby that came out of your mother’s womb or someone who is 99. I think that I still have a lot of learning to do and that humbles me as a person. Next semester, I want to get more involved, especially in the health related field. I want to help organize food drives and highway cleans up, and just a lot of service activities. I want to balance my social life and find friends that will be positive influences on me instead of negative ones. I also want to stop procrastinating and doing my assignments in a timely manner. In my future years at OSU, I want to be a hardworking, determined, and happy woman. I know that as the years go by I going to have at least 50 breakdowns, 100 all nighters, and times where I’m just confused at the situation that I’m in. But as long as I never give up and that I essentially enjoy what I do, then I know that I will be fine.

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About Me

Hi! My name is Oumou Fofana. I am a Guinean-American, Muslim, and the oldest of five children. I am also a first-generation American and will be the first in my family to go to college. I really excited to go to OSU, but I’m also pretty nervous. I come from the Westside of Columbus, and I went to Franklin Heights High School. The school was kind of crazy and fun, but I managed to pull through and graduate. Some of the most meaningful memories I have there are competing in the Quest Games, which is where each graduating class competes in games with each other; Teachers’ Appreciation Breakfast, where the National Honors Society at my school made breakfast for the teachers; Culture Day, where students dress up in outfits that represent their culture; and so many other things. I hope to gain many more memories and experiences at OSU. My academic goal for OSU is to stop my habit of procrastination. I want to ask for help more and challenge myself as a student.