Welcome to my Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio. My name is Mitchell Giese and I am a freshmen at The Ohio State University. I am a Computer Science Engineering pre-major and STEM EE Scholar. Right now you can go to my About Me page to read a little more about me if you would like. I will continue to update this site as the year goes on to track my progress and experiences throughout my first year!
Year in Review
[ “Year in Review” is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student. You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]
G.O.A.L.S.
[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.
Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]
Career
Artifact 1
One of the most useful and memorable experiences I have had in through STEM EE Scholars thus far were the Google events. During the week of September 5, 2016, Google sent representatives to the university to give talks and share with students useful information pertaining to the field of Software Engineering. These talks included a Google Info Session, Lightning Talks with OSU alumni, a Resume Review session, a Navigating The Process Presentation on applying for a software engineering role and tips for successful interviewing, and finally a Google Intern Panel with previous Google interns who could share their invaluable experience and knowledge on the process and position.
Of these talks, I found the the Google Info Session and the Intern Panel to be the most useful. The Info Session was a great way for me to learn about the application and interview process and prepare myself to apply for internships later this year and in my years to come. The Intern Panel was very different however, as it provided me with some uncanny advice on ways to make myself stand out to employers an what to be looking for and avoiding in an employer. I will definitely remember the things they said as I being to pursue internships and it will help to have a better idea of what I should be expecting.
About Me
My name is Mitchell Giese. I grew up in Hilliard, Ohio and graduated from Hilliard Bradley High School in the year 2016. I come from a close knit family of 5, and am the oldest of the 3 kids with twin sisters just 3 years behind me in school. I was not spoiled growing up, but my parents always gave me the opportunity to pursue my interest and grow in skill and academia. I have always worked hard in school, motivated by my parents dedication to me and an effort to give back to them, and that hard work has mostly led to success. I strive for greatness in everything that I do and am never satisfied until a project is completed according to my high self expectations.
One of the biggest factors in my life that contributed to my character development inside and out of the classroom was the Boy Scouts of America. My father was an Eagle Scout, so I joined at a young age looking to follow in his footsteps. Before long, it became so much more to me than I ever could have imagined. Through scouts I learned how to be a better citizen and a better family member. I became a more trustworthy, loyal, courteous, and obedient young man. As I stood before my Eagle Board just after my 18th birthday, I presented them with my knowledge and experience in an attempt to convince them I was deserving of the highest rank in scouting, Eagle. It was in that moment that I realized just how much the organization had done for me, and had molded me into the man I am today.
On another side of my life, I have always had a passionate love of technology. Growing up, I saw many instances of technology changing the world all around me. From the development of high definition televisions, to smartphones, and of course, the incredible advancements of the personal computer. Our everyday lives have changed in such big ways over the past two decades as the result of such things. These things and so much more inspired me to one day be a part of this change, and that started for me, my freshmen year of high school. That year, I took a semester long Intro to Computer Science course and knew instantly it was what I wanted to do with my life. It was an opportunity to work with and study technology, and for someone with aspirations like my own, the endless possibilities and catalyst for innovation were a calling. But in a surprising twist, my school’s computer science teacher retired without a replacement the following year forcing me to broaden my horizons and continue my technological exploration.
For the next two years I partook in my schools engineering curriculum. I enjoyed the problem solving aspects and innovative mindset behind engineering, and had a great time in those classes. I continued to study computer science on my own time playing around a bit with android app development. I also join a Computer Science Explorers post through the Ohio State University that gave me a chance to learn some basic programming and build up my syntactic learning and logic development skills. My senior year, my Computer Science teacher came back out of retirement creating yet another frustrating situation for me: Do I continue with engineering and complete the curriculum, or go back to my original, beloved calling?
I decided to go back, skipping all the prerequisite courses, and jumping into the highest offered class, AP Computer Science A. I originally expected to struggle without the proper prerequisites, but I soon found that JAVA was like a second language to me, and I became almost like a teachers assistant in class helping others and sharing the knowledge that came so easily to me. At the end of the year I earned a 5 on the AP test.
I had long ago decided I wanted pursue a higher education in order to continue my development, however as the time came to start looking at schools and applying, I found myself once again torn between the computer engineering and computer science majors. That is, until I found Computer Science Engineering at The Ohio State University. Finally, a major that combines computer science and the problem solving innovative outlook of engineering. Then, throughout my application process I found the scholars program, and more specifically, the STEM EE Scholars. There wasn’t even a question about the other program options, I knew STEM was it, and here I am today – a STEM EE Scholar and Computer Science Engineering major at The Ohio State University. I am so excited to see what awesome experiences these amazing programs and university have in store for me!