Global Awareness

Original Inquiry

Academic Enrichment

Leadership Development

During my senior year of high school, I was the captain of my varsity softball team. While our season was cut short because of COVID-19, I was still able to be a leader through all of the pre-season practices and games that my teammates and I participated in. I led the team in warm-ups, and I set an example for the underclassman. I made sure to include everyone and give my teammates support during hard practices and games. I always cheered my teammates on at our games, and I gave them feedback when they asked for help. Outside of softball, I helped tutor many of my teammates and I read over many of their papers for their English classes. As a student-athlete, it was important to me that I was able to be a leader not only when we were at softball, but also when we were at school. Being a leader for my teammates gave me a lot of confidence in myself. I showed my teammates that it is okay to make mistakes and that it is important to work hard and overcome obstacles. As a captain, I also demonstrated to my teammates how crucial it is that we support one another. I felt like I learned a lot from being a captain for my teammates, and I grew as a leader.

Summary of Mentorship Experience

My first-year mentee was Sofia Rahal. Sofia is a Communications Analysis and Engagement major. Sofia is from Kentucky, and she ended up going to Ohio State University because she has family in Columbus and heard good things about this school. Before coming to Ohio State University, she had never taken a tour of the campus or thought much about going to school here. However, after she applied, the Morrill Scholars Program here at Ohio State University offered her a full-ride scholarship to attend this college. After receiving the news about her full ride to Ohio State University, she decided to accept the offer and attend this school. So far she has really enjoyed Ohio State University, and has had a lot of fun being in the ACES program. Right now she lives in the Smith Steeb Residence Hall with other first-year members from ACES, and next year she will be living in a single on north campus in a residence hall called Jones Tower. She loved having a roommate this year, but she is excited to have her own space next year and start to be more independent. After getting to know my mentee over the course of this academic year, I learned that we have a lot of similarities and differences. We have very similar personalities and we are interested in a lot of the same activities. For example, we are both very bubbly, kind, and smart. We also enjoy constantly listening to music and going to live concerts. We also both enjoy watching throwback movies like the ‘Hannah Montana: The Movie,’ and spending countless hours scrolling through Tik Tok. Besides this, we also have a lot of differences. Sofia is more introverted and prefers to relax at home on the weekends, and I am more extroverted and prefer to hang out with my friends on the weekends. Another difference between the two of us is that Sofia likes taking math classes, and I prefer to take English classes. My mentee grew from the first semester to the second in a lot of ways. The main way she grew was in discovering herself and what she wanted to do with her life. She quickly found out that she did not want to major in Actuarial Science and decided that she instead had a passion for Communication Analysis and Engagement. Seeing her become comfortable in her decision to switch majors was amazing because I saw her grow in her confidence and happiness. I grew as a mentor and leader throughout the year in a lot of ways also. I became more confident in myself as a mentor and a leader, and I was able to grow into someone who looks out for others. From being a second-year mentor I learned how to be supportive and flexible with Sofia. From sending her good luck texts for her exams to sending her pictures from a concert I went to, I learned how to be there as a mentor and a friend. The mentoring experience helped me with my leadership development because it taught me how to be a confident person and how to carry on conversations. Before being a mentor, I lacked confidence and was terrified to start conversations with people I did not know. However, being a mentor helped me to grow in these ways. My mentee helped me in areas of mentoring, socialization, and orientation because she taught me how to listen and be supportive. Learning how to listen to my mentee and be interested in what she has to say was a great lesson for me because I was able to learn so much about her by doing so. I also easily became friends with her because she always had a fun story to tell me or something interesting to say, so we were able to bond fairly easily. Benefits of a mentoring program are that we get to grow as leaders and develop friendships with others. Having a mentorship program also allows students to stay connected with their community and get to have a personal connection with other members. Also, it allows people to learn how to support other people and listen to the stories and advice they have. Lastly, I think a benefit of a mentoring program like the one we have in ACES is that it gives everyone the opportunity to be a mentee and a mentor. Being a mentee versus a mentor are completely different experiences, and being able to be on both ends of this is a very valuable experience. Being able to experience both perspectives helps you to grow as a person, as a leader, and as a friend.

Service Engagement

One service opportunity I participated in this past semester was picking up trash along the Olentangy River. I did this service event with FLOW, which is an organization that regularly tries to make the Earth a less polluted place. I plan on continuing to participate in FLOW’s clean-up events because I think it is extremely important that we keep nature free of pollutants and foreign objects and plants that are harmful to the native environment. This service event contributed to my understanding of how crucial it is to solve climate change and make more environmentally friendly choices. When I first arrived at this service project, I was not expecting to collect nearly as much trash as we did. I was surprised that so much trash ends up near and in the river, and I can only imagine what this sort of pollution looks like in other rivers and bodies of water. I was aware that pollution is harming our oceans, and I have even seen pictures of garbage floating in the oceans and endangering wildlife. However, collecting the trash in the Olentangy River made this problem more real to me. I understood then that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that humans need to take care of the Earth better.