Year in Review

Global Awareness is one of the most important facets of my education at OSU, both in and outside of the classroom. Autumn of freshman year, for instance, I took an honors ancient slavery course dedicated to the practice (and the ideology) of slavery in ancient greco-roman civilizations. The parallels I found between the ancient civilizations and modern ones allowed me deeper insight into both ancient human cultures and human nature itself. Additionally, I have been attending a number of cultural clubs. For example, I routinely attend meetings of the Japanese student organization and am exposed to new foods and, media, and people — all of which deepen my appreciation for the culture and broaden my admittedly limited cultural horizons. I plan to continue expanding these horizons by taking classes and attending events that force me to confront my underlying assumptions about the world, allowing me to develop a deeper appreciation for and understanding of diversity.

Original Inquiry, in one of its many forms, is the eventual goal of almost all types of education. As such, I find it incredibly important to pursue fulfilling and impactful lines of inquiry. To this end, I have engaged in interdisciplinary research. I currently work in a neuromodulation lab at OSU under Dr. Vibhor Krishna to perform artificial intelligence driven analysis of patient data to identify regions of clinical interest in Parkinson’s or other diseases. This experience has taught me the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and informed my search for a career. I hope to continue this research and take higher level math and biology classes that can help further my understanding of the fields in which I now work.

Academic Enrichment  is a central theme in my academic curriculum: I have taken a number of honors and upper level courses, ranging from Honors Ancient Slavery to honors organic chemistry. My Honors Contract reflects this rigor and extends it. My choice of classes is dictated by my educational and research ambitions. Specifically, I would like to do research at the intersection of computational mathematics and biology. This will likely require a graduate degree.  To that end, I hope to take graduate-level classes in my major areas (Math and Data Analytics), with a focus on the biological implications of these fields. I will, for instance, take high level bioinformatics courses as well as courses in mathematical biology.

Leadership Development is crucial to my development as a student and person. As such, I actively seek it out. For instance, my lab often calls upon me to fully take ownership of my own research — a task that requires me to oversee collaboration with people from disparate scientific backgrounds and routinely present my work in relatively large research forums. While my leadership experience is limited now, I hope to engage in many more cocurricular activities next semester. For instance, I hope to join the leadership of Robot Wars to teach people about the use of reinforcement learning through the enjoyable forum of robot fighting. While these current and future leadership activities may seem wildly disparate, they teach me many of the same things about responsibility and service leadership.

Service Engagement is an important part of my life. I make a point to contently take part in service activities. For example, I often volunteer with the Dublin Food Pantry during large festivals to collect cans and other food items to be donated to be distributed to people who can’t afford it. Additionally, I occasionally volunteer at Goodwill to  help distribute low cost used goods and clothes to people, helping collect and price donations. I hope to continue both these lines of service and add new ones. I would, for instance, like to volunteer closer to campus by being involved in OSU fundraisers such as buckeyethon or outreach programs to underserved communities in and around Columbus.

 

 

G.O.A.L.S.

  • The ability to attain global awareness is one of the great advantages afforded by modern college education: the diverse environment allows (and sometimes forces) students to examine new ways of thinking through cultural or political clubs and, in doing so, better appreciate them. I, for example, am involved with a number of activities which expand my global horizons — Indian students association, which allows me to connect with my ethnic culture in novel ways —  History of Ancient Slavery (3213H), which allows me insight into ancient cultures starkly different from that of modern America — and Japanese club — which allows me to better understand eastern philosophy and culture.
  • Original inquiry consists of being able to ask and answer new questions through activities such as research and advanced coursework. To participate, I hope to get involved in bioanalytics research, possibly analyzing methylization patterns in cancerous DNA. I also hope to participate in graduate level math and biology courses that require me to develop my understanding through independent study or designing and executing experiments — allowing me to gain the skills to better participate in and independently conduct research.
  • Academic enrichment simply means challenging myself academically by taking classes that not only allow me to explore my majors deeply but a whole host of areas. As such, I plan to take a wide-range of classes, ranging from Honors history to advanced statistics.
  • Leadership is an important, nearly essential, for any student who hopes to enter the workforce — most white-collar jobs are collaborative, requiring you to work with and occasionally lead groups of people. To hone this skill, I hope to move into leadership positions in certain clubs such as AI club and SIAM (Students in Industrial and Applied Mathematics), allowing me valuable experience coming up with and implementing my own ideas on an organizational level.
  • Service is vital: As an honors student in the sciences, I find it important to use the abilities I will develop in college, academic and otherwise, to better society. Research firmly grounded in helping people, for example, such as cancer research that can make diagnosing cancer cheaper and, by extension, more accessible to economically disadvantaged people. Less intellectual pursuits, too, can be valuable service: simply donating time to local causes which I support — everything from providing tutoring for struggling high-school students to helping cook dishes for a local food pantry — can make an enormous impact in a given community.

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  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.]

Artifacts

[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.]

About Me

[Your “About Me” is a brief biographical statement that might include your intended major, your academic interests, your goals, as well as the things that make you unique.  Definitely include a picture! Also, remember that you can always update this post at any point. 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.]