My name is Andrew Foster and I am a first year physics student attending The Ohio State University. I lived in a tiny town in Pennsylvania called Etters and coming from a small municipality has given me the drive to fulfill all of my goals and made sure I strive as much as possible for greatness because bringing achievement and respect back home to my stomping grounds would give my community something they could hang their hat on with pride. Furthermore, my parents had always instilled a set of high standards on me and I made sure that, no matter what, I would not compromise myself as not to disappoint them. I learned later on that the best way to ensure I don’t let them down is to create my own set of even more stringent ideals and I’ve stuck to them ever since. Whether it’s making sure I don’t let an opportunity slip through my hands, not finishing work until I’m happy with the result, or even simply making sure I keep my sleep schedule (somewhat) straight. Keeping these morals with me, I plan on accomplishing several academic and extracurricular milestones during my college career such as conducting significant undergraduate research, giving back to my adopted home of Columbus through community service and educational events, and being exposed to as many learning experiences as possible, such as studying abroad, to expand my global awareness.
In addition to putting in my best effort for college, I hope to reap just as much out of it. Thankfully, being a part of The Ohio State University gives me access to some of the worlds absolute finest equipment and facilities; and I intend on utilizing what every department has to offer. Ever since I was a kid playing with his toy Hess truck around the Christmas tree, I’ve had an almost unquenchable thirst for discovering the true meaning and mechanics of everything around me. Much to the dismay of my mother who would find the present she had just bought me in a thousand pieces all over the floor, I would stop at nothing to find the answer I was looking for and connect the dots of what it all really means. Hopefully at my time in Ohio State, however, I’ll be able to conduct my research without completely breaking what I’m looking at. Also, instead of plastic cars and wind up toys, I aim to dissect new interests like potential uses for gravitational waves and shedding more light upon the light and matter dualities. What I love, though, is that when I ask myself why I want to do this, it’s the same answer I would give myself when I was a boy wanting to know how my toys worked; I just want to know how it works and why it does.
Following my tenure at Ohio State, I plan on continuing to seek out answers by pursuing a graduate degree in physics. Currently, I am using my time at undergraduate to determine what precisely I want to study in graduate school. To do this, I’ll be traveling several different routes to gain experience in a plethora of physics based disciplines such as different internships in research based organizations and preforming my own inquiries on phenomena from all branches of physics. One thing I am sure of, however, is that because of the pride I take in producing high quality work and combining that with my sheer curiosity in what I’m examining, no matter what I end up doing, I’ll be endlessly devoted to my job and happily spend my nights thinking about what I want to accomplish when I wake up in the morning.
What’s more, so long as I’m able to conduct valuable research, I don’t prioritize what environment I’m in. Whether it’s a large group of professors and physicists on a collaborative project, or just an assistant and I conducting experiments, all I care about is that the information we provide is meaningful. With that said, just because I don’t care which community I’m a part of, that doesn’t mean I won’t care about the people within that community. Not only would it be unwise to have colleagues not on the same page as one another, but empowering those around you and building good relations with everyone involved will yield more success and ultimately create a foundation that further advancements can be forged from. For example, when a partner and I were preparing for a Science Olympiad competition, I ensured communication between us was always open and we were able to share and improve upon our ideas. As a result of our work together, we placed as one of the top teams in Pennsylvania. So going from experience, I know the importance of keeping those in a society healthy and the prosperity that comes from such effort.
In short, I stared my journey of finding out about the world around me when I was in kindergarten, and developing from a set of morals I imposed at the same time, I plan on continuing that journey at The Ohio State University through excelling at every opportunity I find myself at and by giving back to those who provide for me.