Before attending a diversity meeting I had little to no expectations as to what the event would be about. I decided to attend the diversity STEM event on 11/13. I really did not know what the event I was attending was about and I was very surprised once the presentation began. All I knew coming in was that the presentation was about “diversity”. In my head I thought that diversity can mean a lot of different things and was very curious to see what take/topics the meeting would be about. The meeting started off by identifying that we were meeting on the land of many indigenous people. I found this very surprising and never even would have though about the past of the land we are on. They offered the thanks to the indigenous people of the land out of respect to the past cultures and heritages that called this land home for many years. Some of the key topics that the diversity event training pushed were social identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression and privilege. Overall this meeting helped push how many groups are minoritized and discriminated which is not okay. In today’s society, although we live in a much more diverse society as compared to that of society 100 years ago, or even 25 years ago, our society is still far from perfect. There definitely has been a positive trend in diversity in all aspects of society. As you look around the world today you see many minorities becoming leaders in many fields whether that be politics, industry, and research. When you compare this to how things were in the past there is a big difference. For hundreds of years women who have conducted hours of award winning research have been snubbed of their recognition on their work. 200 years ago both colored men and any women weren’t even allowed to vote in elections for their leaders. Now, when you look at the world today you see middle schools with a diverse group of students ranging from all cultures and areas of the world and it is a very unique thing that people did not get to experience in the past. Allowing everyone to express their own opinions and allowing equality of opportunity is something that is necessary in society in order for it to progress in the right way. I have watched as my home town of Plainview, New York has become more and more diverse every year. I have observed every year at home that the elementary school graduating class has become much more diverse with a vast amount of cultures. Overall, diversity and discrimination has been and always will be a big issue in the world. No matter what happens, certain groups will always believe that they are better than other groups. However, there are ways to make society a safer and more diverse environment. If every individual just accepted the people around them we would have a much healthier and progressive society. I am very glad I attended the diversity meeting because it helped bring up the issues of diversity in society today.

Last week on 10/16 I attended a research seminar which to my surprise was quite intriguing. At first I expected to not be able to follow along with the research that was presented, but to my surprise not only was the research very interesting it was also exciting. I attended the “lightning talks” research seminar with my roommate and a couple of other friends from the STEM scholars program. There was a lot of undergraduates at this research seminar which made me feel much more comfortable with the research that was being presented to the audience. There was two different research presenters during the quick one hour seminar. The first speakers research was very intriguing. It looked into protein engineering and the making of amino acids along with the applications that the research could hold to. The research was not only interesting, but I was able to follow along pretty well with the presenter as he explained his data and trends that were observed in the lab. The reason why this research was so interesting to me was for many reasons. Since I am a chemical engineer, this research fit right into my alley. I thought it was so cool how they were able to look at amino acids at a microscopic level and were able to look at how each amino acid folds and its contents. After the presentation was over I had a couple questions for the presenter. One question I asked was if undergraduates were involved in his research. I was expecting the answer to his question to be a no, but to my surprise there were multiple undergraduates on his team. He explained to me how his undergraduates are very important to his research and without them it would not have been where it was today. In addition he told me about an undergraduate student who had a big break through which helped the amino acid research progress immensely in the right direction. The other question I had for the researcher was how long he had been conducting his research. He told me he had been working in the field of protein engineering for over 10 years which blew my mind. He clearly was an expert in his field and it was crazy to see someone that devoted to a specific topic for that long. Although his research is probably not the research that I would pick to help in, it did help expose me to the truth that you can be an undergraduate and help with important and complex research. I learned that you do not have to be an expert in the field in order to help out in the research. This is because most of the research that goes on in the lab must be taught to you and you just need laboratory background knowledge to be able to help out. Going to this seminar definitely brought the idea of participating in someones research in the future. It seems like a great experience that also can look really good for future employers.

At first when I was tasked with visiting one of the many campus resources that the university has to offer I thought this was silly and that it was wasting my time. However, after searching through a list of non academic resources that The Ohio State University offers, a couple crossed my interest but there was one I saw that could benefit me immediately. The reason why this could benefit me is because I felt that I wasn’t keeping the best nutrition habits since coming to college. This is mainly due to the fact there are certain days that going out to get a meal feels way too time consuming because of all of the work that I have to do. Although I go to the gym 5 days a week I felt that there was something missing. Currently with engineering it is very tough to maintain good grades and at the same time maintain a balanced and good nutrition/diet, and also a healthy lifestyle. So, my roommate and I both scheduled appointments at the wellness center. I scheduled a nutrition coaching session in the hopes of finding out what I could do to possibly improve my nutrition. My desires were met after I met with the nutrition coach for about 30 minutes. We discussed my rough calorie intake as well as other factors such as what foods I was taking in and how much water I was drinking. We came to many conclusions as to what I could do to help my nutrition. Some of the recommendations were keeping meals in my fridge so I do not have to leave my dorm for some meals and still have a healthy food option as compared to ramen and mac and cheese. Also we came to the realization that my calorie intake fluctuates too much and on certain days it needs to be raised. This would benefit me in multiple aspects of my life. It would allow me to be more awake and alert during the day, as well as improve the work that I am doing and studying. Overall this visit was a great success and I have never been more glad to be forced to do something. This is because although I knew my nutrition was starting to become an issue, I did not really have the time to think about it, so being forced to think about really helped me make that initial initiative. After this event I feel like more people should be pushed to try and spread their horizons and try something new. This is because college can be very overwhelming and time consuming and it makes it very hard to think about yourself and your well being. In addition, right now most college students are at the point where they like to be around things that are common to them and in their “comfort zone”. So, I challenge everyone out there to push themselves out of their comfort zone a little bit and visit a campus resource because there is so much benefit that comes from it.

Two weeks ago I went to the biweekly meeting for the STEM Outreach student organization. I found out about this student organization at the student organization convention several weeks ago. Of all of the organizations that spoke at this convention, the STEM Outreach was the one that I felt an immediate connection to. This is due to multiple aspects of the organization which I have practiced in high school and wish to continue in college. In high school, I was President of my High school’s FIRST Robotics team. FIRST is an organization that not only pushed for creation and creativity, but it also pushes for the spread of creativity to those who aren’t fortunate enough to be apart of it. Our team would volunteer hundreds of hours a year to schools and other areas teaching kids some of the basics of robotics. Some of these things included teaching kids how to conduct electricity through play-doh. The STEM Outreach club does this same type of outreach to local schools in the Columbus area. Teaching them a lesson on a scientific topic. As I entered the meeting I was very excited to see what it would be about, and I was happily greeted with a massive pizza pie waiting in the front of the room for any members of the meeting to take from. Once the meeting began they gave some updates on future events and then quickly went into a demo on one of the presentations that we will be doing at the local schools. This presentation was creating a homemade flashlight out of the provided materials. Some of these materials included a cardboard cutout (which would turn into the shell of our flashlight), a battery, wire, tape, and a paper clip. The leader of the presentation then took us through all of the steps showing us how to create our flashlight.

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As I was going through the steps making this very simple flashlight even I, a 18 year old college student, became excited by going through the steps and getting to the final outcome. This made me wonder how much the kids at the schools love doing these activities. I can’t wait to soon see their amazed faces as they figure out how to conduct electricity from a battery to a small light bulb. The reason why I already love this club so much is that I feel all kids deserve to be exposed to all types of activities so that they can start to grow some kind of idea of what they want to do later on in life. One thing that I have always felt is unfair and also hindering the growth of society, is the unequal access to opportunity throughout the country. Thankfully, I grew up in a very good school district which exposed me to many different career fields and definitely helped guide me to the major that I am currently studying, chemical engineering. Unfortunately there are a lot of kids out there who aren’t exposed to the wide array of paths that they can choose. This is why I feel so strongly about the STEM Outreach organization and many other organizations like this that are offered at OSU because of the impact they have on the future adults of the world. I’m so glad I joined this organization and can’t wait to further participate in it!

A couple of days before my Calculus l midterm I decided to go to the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center (MSLC) seeking to receive academic support on the homework I had due that day along with some tips on how to further study for my upcoming midterm. My first impression of the MSLC was that it would be a waste of time because throughout my life I have always been someone to study and also do work alone at my desk at home. However, once I was seated at the MSLC I realized that not only was I getting math help there, but I was also putting myself into an environment that is more suited to do work in.

I began my online Calculus homework and was breezing through the first few questions. After several minutes I came across a question that I began to struggle with and became lost on. So I raised my pink card which indicates to one of the tutors that I needed help. I am a type of person who really doesn’t seek help from others so at first I was a little weary of raising my card. However, to my surprise I was greeted by a very nice undergraduate student who helped me understand the problem. I was very pleased that he did not just simply show me how to do the problem, rather he quickly wrote down a few things that helped me greatly understand the limit problem that I was struggling with. While I had the tutors attention I asked him what were the best ways to study for the midterm. He said looking at your notes is a great resource, but the only way to truly understand math is to actually do it. My brother who is currently a junior here at OSU had many words of advice for me, but the one that really sticks out to me is “practice, practice, practice… that’s the only way you are gonna understand how to actually do math”. And this is true, throughout High School I had struggled in math until I finally realized what the issue was. My issue was that I did understand what was going on in any specific problem, and if I looked at the solution I would understand how they arose to it, but I would not be able to actually produce it when handed the problem. I finally realized that all I had to do was more and more practice problems and that is the biggest tip I can give to anyone who struggles in math or any topic.

While I was talking to the tutor he also gave me information on how to access practice review sheets for the midterm that were located on the MSLC OSU website. These review sheets came along with answer keys with worked out problems so that you can check over your work and actually see where you went wrong. This ended up being a great resource for me as I continued to study for my midterm that was yesterday and it really helped me prepare and get the grade that I wanted. I’m so glad that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and went to seek help at the MSLC because if I didn’t I would have struggled with my homework, but more importantly I may have done worse on my midterm.

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