CV

Over spring break, I took on the challenge of trying to teach my dog to stand on his hind legs when I said “up”. My original plan for the 10 hour spring project was to learn Claire de Lune on the piano, however, once the covid-19 pandemic hit, I no longer had access to a piano. I was at home and desperately trying to come up with a project that would take 1o hours, be achievable at home, and be something I enjoyed doing. Inspiration struck when I was grabbing a snack from the kitchen one day and my dog started begging on his hind legs. I had no idea my dog could even stand on his hind legs. This made me wonder if I could teach him to stand on his hind legs on command.

I first consulted YouTube to see if there was a tutorial on how to teach your dog to stand on its hind legs. After watching the short video, I decided to try it with my dog. I held a treat above his nose as shown in the video and said “up” but instead of standing on his hind legs, he just stared at it. The unsuccessful attempts went on for about two hours over the span of a few days until I decided to give up because it didn’t seem to be working. A week later, I decided to try it again with a fresher mindset. I consulted the training modules from my Four Paws for Ability online orientation. There were no specific sections about training a dog to stand on its hind legs, but there was a general theme when it came to teaching a dog commands. I followed the basic principles: take breaks frequently, stay patient, and give praise for a job well done. I once again tried to teach my dog the command and after some trial and error, I found that if I held the treat above his nose and raised it up sharply, he would stand on his hind legs. It took many repetitions but I eventually got him to stand on his hind legs without a treat, on command.

Time management was a bit of a challenge at first because I wanted to try to complete the project in only a few days. This strategy did not work because training with dogs should take course over shorter intervals to hold their attention span and avoid frustration. I changed my approach to training for no more than 15 minutes consecutively. The main thing I would do differently in a year-long Capstone project would be to have a more thorough plan for achieving my goal in the beginning, rather than formulating the plan as I go. This was a bit unavoidable because of the pandemic, but better preparation will hopefully be more possible next year.

The diversity presentation I recently went to was about the journey of Afghan refugees across the globe. The presentation was called Joël van Houdt which translates to “Where are you going”. I think that even just the title of the presentation was a powerful indicator of the struggles that many Afghan refugees have been going through since the United States military withdrew from Afghanistan. There were images of countless refugees simply searching for a place to live with no place to call home. A man spoke about how photographs of people that he took made impacts about the lives of people around him and raised awareness for the refugee situation in Afghanistan and other surrounding middle eastern countries. This brought to my attention problems that were impacting other peoples’ lives that I wasn’t totally aware of before.

Diversity and Inclusion impacts STEM a great deal, especially because STEM is a mainly male dominated field. This can be discouraging at times because of the stereotype about men being “better” than females in science and math while females are “better” at writing and literature. Being an Asian-American female on a pre-medicine track can also be discouraging at times. Although the world has come a far way in gender equality, there is still much room for improvement. The gender wage gap exists, especially in STEM fields. I remember even in my early education, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always responded that I wanted to be a doctor. To that, I was always met with a “how will you make time to have children?” or “have you considered being a nurse instead?”. This kind of mindset is toxic. Stereotypes and gender roles are not okay, especially in telling a child what they can or can’t do based on their race, gender, or ethnicity. The field of medicine that I aspire to go into is neurosurgery. Neurosurgery is a 90% male dominated field. 

Another large stereotype that I face everyday is being an Asian-American. While it is unfortunate, it is true that being an Asian-American is one of the very first things people notice about me and remember me by. 

I believe that the solution to ignorance is education. Educating people about subjects that may be “taboo”. Educating people that a person’s race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. does not change who they are fundamentally as people or their ability to perform a job. The views of the world have come a long way in the past one hundred years, however, it seems that in the past few years we have taken steps back. The United States as a country is becoming not only more and more anti-immigrant but anti-anything that is different than what is seen as someone who fits the profile of “an American living the American dream”.

The Ohio State University addresses diversity and inclusion in a very serious manner. Outward discrimination of others is prohibited. There are also countless clubs on campus dedicated to spreading the message of diversity and inclusion. In my own experience, I have seen incredible women in my own field doing amazing things which inspires me. A club called WISE (women in surgery empowerment club) has women who are in the medical field, especially surgery, talk about their experiences of getting where they are and how they have overcome challenges based on their gender. This is just one of many incredible campus resources which have helped me stay motivated in achieving my goals.

Tonight I attended a seminar about climate change and global warming. I went with two friends who are also in STEM EE scholars which made me feel comfortable because I wasn’t alone. There were many other undergraduate students present who attended the seminar, however, another thing that caught my attention was the attendance of older adults as well, some who appeared to be in their sixties and seventies. This reminded me of the fact that you are never too old to learn. This also made me more aware of the widespread issue that global warming is. Global warming affects every single being on planet Earth. The effects of climate change do not discriminate- they affect everyone and everything.

Most of the content was relatively understandable. The speaker used plenty of graphs to show trends over time (carbon dioxide emission, sea levels, etc.). There were, however, some points the speaker brought up that I had no idea what he was talking about- some on the atomic level and others on the macroscopic level. I could have never imagined the countless different effects that climate change has on the world. While the scientific aspect of climate change is immensely important, there is also an economic aspect as well. Humans are not known for their strong-willdness with delayed gratification. This appears in possible to solutions in climate change as well. Why pay more money now to fund renewable energy sources for the longterm when you can buy energy from fossil fuels for an extremely low price now?

Climate change affects everyone. It is our problem and it is not a problem for tomorrow- it’s a problem for now. It’s not only about what may happen in the future, it’s about what effects of climate change we are experiencing now. UC Berkley was shut down for three days due to the threat of wildfires, caused by the drought in California which brings me to my next point: climate change causes drought. Water aquifers have been depleted, leaving millions without water. Drought, heat waves, water shortages, crop failures, and rising sea levels can cause hundreds of millions of refugees to migrate from their inhabitable homes in only a few short decades. The most water stressed areas are those closest to the equator and Ohio seems to fall right on the edge of the trend. Spring rain instead of snow in areas that snow happens frequently can cause glaciers to melt in streams instead of steady trickles which can cause floods. The problem is real and immediate. The projected sea level for 2100 should not occur naturally for another several millennia. The increasing population of the world makes it harder and harder for complete sustainability to be achieved.

There was an interesting quote presented at the seminar that really made me think about climate change. “If you don’t change directions, you will end up where you are heading”. In relation to climate change, if we, the inhabitants of Earth, do not take action to slow the effects of climate change, life as we know it will change permanently and Earth will eventually become inhabitable. We only have one planet. We must protect it.

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