My saplings mentor, Zoe Tyrity, was incredibly helpful and kind during our meeting. Zoe is a rank three Evolution and Ecology major, like myself, and she is class ranked as 3. She offered a wide variety of information to help me through not only my first year, but for the years to come during my college experience. I asked a series of questions during out meeting in order to get to know Zoe and the university better.

1. How did you decide on the major you have chosen?

Zoe was always very interested in animals while growing up but she also found an interest in biology. While looking at majors and their requirements, Zoe found evolution and ecology to be the perfect combination between her love of science and her love of animals. She was also fascinated by the courses available for the major, such as Dynamics of Dinosaurs. Discovering a major with such a wide range of choices and interesting classes helped Zoe make her decision. This helped me realize that it would be helpful for me to look deeper into my class requirements to discover how to get the most out of my major. I also realized how much I had in common with Zoe when it comes to our career goals.

2. What types of volunteer hours, internships, etc. have you done since you have been a student at OSU? How did you first get involved with them?

Zoe became involved with many of her volunteering and internship opportunities through ENR Scholars. She learned that volunteer work builds connections with important people in her field and helped her experience more things that apply to her career. Zoe also learned the value of exploring connections, whether that is with people at school or in her personal life. She earned a research position at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. over this coming summer through connections from a family friend. I thought this was very helpful information because it outlined the importance of staying involved in ENR Scholars for my own and others’ benefit.

3. What ENR Scholars opportunities are you glad you participated in?

Zoe participated in many of the ENR events such as wetland projects and rock climbing sessions at the Ohio State Outdoor Adventure Center. She also participated in many of the ENR volunteering opportunities. However, her favorite ENR event was the Hocking Hills camping trip because of how close it made her to the other scholars. I also enjoyed the camping trip for the same reasons and I hope to have a similar amount of opportunities through ENR as Zoe did. I also realized how important it is to find my own ways to become involved outside of ENR, such as going to OAC on my own time and finding my own volunteering opportunities and clubs.

4. What do you plan to do with your major after graduation? Graduate or Professional School? Enter the work force?

Zoe’s plans for graduation are not set in stone but she has a fairly good idea of how she wants the next few years to go. She plans to take advantage of AP credit and graduate a year early and then hopefully acquire a job related to her major. She hopes this job would possibly be a continuation of her internship at the Smithsonian or at an organization such as the Cleveland aquarium. Once exploring her career options, Zoe plans to consider different paths such as graduate school, museum work, conservation work, or research. These ideas directly corresponded to how I hope to spend my time after high school. I hope to have a similar type of job and to hopefully go to graduate school if need be. Knowing that a second year has a similar path in mind was reassuring for my major choices and my current path.

5. How do you balance academics and involvement? Do you have any tips?

Zoe has found a few different ways to balance academics, involvement, and time with friends. She has found that scheduling a few classes with friends helps to motivate her to put in as much effort as possible and it helps to have friends to study with. She has also found that keeping an updated planner is very helpful with schoolwork and involvement as it can show you the time you have available and keeps activities and schoolwork organized and well spread out. Zoe also found that becoming involved in residence activities helps to make more friends and finding time to relax in the midst of working hard is beneficial to everyone. This advice was extremely helpful because it made me realize being organized is the most efficient way to get the most out of both my personal life and my academic life in college.