Author: gottenger.2

Vision Statement

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In the upcoming years, I plan to study hard and work on my application for Veterinary school. I will continue to accumulate Veterinary hours and Animals hours to make my application more competitive. In doing so, I will also be gaining more knowledge in the field which I wish to spend the rest of my life. Furthermore, I am going to take the GRE which is a requirement for some vet schools. I also plan to have fun in my remaining years of college with all of the friends I have made inside and outside of my scholar’s program before the real hard work begins. I wish to stay involved with scholars as much as I can and still keep in touch with Melissa and update her on my life. I hope to do well academically while balancing extracurriculars and adventures with my friends. Most importantly, I want to maintain the awesome relationship I have with my roommates that I lived with my freshman and sophomore year, and will continue to live with until the end of my college career.

Here is a photo of myself and my amazing roommates Kristen, Brittaney, and Hannah

Abstract

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My Honors and Scholars e-portfolio includes some of my most memorable scholar’s event in my Freshman year as a bio sci scholar. It also includes a brief synopsis about myself and my life. Also included in the e-portfolio are my G.O.A.L.S for my college career and how I plan to attain them. I also included some artifacts about myself and events that have occurred so far in my college career; I describe how these artifacts have shaped me. In order to keep myself on track, a vision statement/statement of action has also been included in this e-portfolio. Lastly, I have a synopsis of both my first and second year at THE Ohio State University.

Scholar’s Events

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One of the scholar’s events that I attended was Moonlight canoeing. This event allowed me as a freshman to interact with other Bio Sci scholars that are a few years above me. For example, my canoeing partner was a senior and happened to be from the same state and me and was pursuing the same major. I was able to interact with her and discuss my future and how I plan to achieve my goals of applying to vet school. She told me about her experiences and gave me tips on what I should do. Furthermore, the moonlight canoeing allowed me to experience and see Columbus in a way that I would never have before. I also learned to use teamwork in order to work with my canoe partner to get the canoe moving. My partner and I even used a code word designated to tell me when I should switch the side which I was paddling.

Welcome to my Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio

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Hi, welcome to my Honors & Scholars E-portfolio, this E-Portfolio contains information about my family history, the experiences that shaped me as a person, and what I hope to accomplish in the future. My experiences at The Ohio State University are documented along with specific information about my experiences in the Biological Sciences scholars program. An Artifact displays a personal experience of mine and how I grew and learned from it. The G.O.A.L.S portion of this E-portfolio describes what it means to be a successful Biological Sciences Scholar.

Year in Review

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1st Semester Freshman Year in Review

This past semester I have had the opportunity to participate in several Biosci scholars events. Already through my participation in scholars community service events and other activities, I have learned so much about my myself and have created lifelong friendships. I have grown so much as a person and have matured and grown more confident in myself and in my skills. Through service, I have learned the volunteer work of one individual can make a lasting impact on the life of another person while giving me a feeling of fulfillment. Furthermore, the social events I have attended have allowed me to create friendships with individuals I would have never met otherwise. Academically I have grown as well, I have learned to adapt to new ways of teaching by changing my study habits in order to succeed in my classes. In the classroom, I have also reached out and established friendships, something I would have never done before, due to the confidence I gained by interacting with individuals in the Biosci scholars program. Overall, this semester has been filled with so many opportunities and new experiences, mostly due to my participation in this program.

Sophmore Year in Review

This past year I have had the opportunity to get involved in so many different things on campus, not just in my scholars. I joined two new clubs which have had a great impact on my college experience. The first is 4 paws where I had the opportunity of training a dog for this past semester in order to properly prepare him to become a service dog. I learned about all the hard work that goes into training these dogs, and the impact that they have on their new families lives. The second club I joined was HOSA, which stands for future health occupational professionals of America. With HOSA I got to compete in a state post-secondary veterinary medicine competition and placed 1st in Ohio. I studied very hard for the written and skills portion of the exam, and it paid off. This summer in June I will be competing with the club once again, but this time at an international competition in veterinary medicine among other topics such as organic chemistry. In addition to joining new clubs, I attended many biosci events that allowed me to become closer with my friends and make new ones as well. Some of the most memorable events I was a part of were the visit to the planetarium, going to cosi, the dog adoption event, speaking on the summer experience panel, and last but not least Barrett study sessions. This year came with some challenges as well. I took 18 credit hours while being an active member of several clubs and while looking for summer internships. Although all of my final grades have not been posted yet, I am very pleased with myself academically. Furthermore, I found an internship for this summer that will help me get closer to my career goals!

 

G.O.A.L.S.

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The G.O.A.L.S. acronym stands for Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. I strive to accomplish all of these goals by the end of my time at OSU.

My whole childhood and adolesce I have traveled the world with my family experiencing different cultures and traditions.  At the end of my freshmen year, I hope to continue to so by going on a birthright trip to Isreal with students from the university. Furthermore, I want to explore the option of studying abroad in a different country or even taking on an internship in a different country. In the future, I also wish to get more involved in the Organization Operation Smile which helps children with cleft lips and cleft pallets get corrective surgery. In the past, I have sent items to children awaiting surgery, but I wish to have a more direct impact on them, such as attending missions and interacting with them.

In class, I hope to have meaningful original thoughts, whether it be through class discussion or written assignments. Outside of class, I wish to develop my own original inquiry by assisting with research across campus or anywhere that aligns with my interests.

While in the scholar’s program I hope to maintain and excel in my academics while taking rigorous courses. I will fulfill the requirements of my general education courses, and attempt to attain a minor in Art. Also, I will continue to participate in academically enriching clubs that will help me on my way to vet school such as the Pre-vet club. I would like to focus most of my attention on my animal science and major-specific courses in the years to come to truly absorb and understand the information.

Once I fully acclimate to the environment at Ohio State and learn to balance my school life and other activities, I will seek leadership positions in clubs. In the future, I will run for officer positions in clubs that I am currently a member of, and even strive to form a new club that appeals to me. I will also try and do volunteer work in the nearby community and lead by example.

Even in my freshman year, I have already begun to do community service in the communities that neighbor the university. I hope to expand the reach of my service by taking on international opportunities to assist a wider and greater variety of individuals. In the near future, I hope to go on a service trip to a different country and help the animals in that country. I wish to aid with medical services, adoption efforts, animal rights, animal education, and many other services that would be needed in third world countries.

 

Artifacts

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The video above displays the daily progression of a piece I worked on in art class. This drawing of my dog was a turning point in the way I approached art. Previously, I would have never dared to attempt to draw something as difficult as a realistic animal, let alone one with so much detail. Furthermore, this piece was my first time working with a new drawing tool, pastel. My art teacher pushed me to get out of my comfort zone, and this video shows how my drawing changed from markings on a paper to a representation of a dog. Trying something new showed me that with hard work and dedication I could accomplish things that I thought were previously impossible. Learning how to use a different material for drawing compares to learning new aspects of chemistry, it takes time to adjust to everything new you must learn, but in the end, concentration and patience pay off. Skills such as learning new material and doing something I never thought I would do is important for my future career, whatever it may be.

 

These are just a few of the 4paws dogs that I have worked with since joining the club this past year as I mentioned in my sophomore year in review. The first picture is Brio, the second picture is Quidditch, and the last picture is Tootsie. I spend many hours a week with Tootsie and Quidditch getting to know them and training them to hopefully become service dogs. I helped reinforce commands like hit it to push handicap buttons, over which applies deep pressure therapy if a child is having a seizure, and even bang which allows children with disabilities to make friends by showing other kids a cool trick their dog can do. These commands and so many more were practiced whenever I would the dogs in order to ensure that they fully understood it. This opportunity allowed me to gain animal hours, which will help me greatly in my application for vet school, but it also allowed me to see the impact that animals that I could be treating can have on a person. It made me want to help people and animals, even more, making me realize that I choose the correct career path.

About Me

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Hi, my name is Ann Gottenger and I am a first-year student at The Ohio State University in the biological science scholars program majoring in Animals Sciences on the pre-vet track. I was born in Virginia Beach, Virgina and raised in Miami, Florida. My family history is a bit complex. My father’s parents are both Holocaust survivors, after the war, they got married and moved to a new country. Venezuela was the young new country and had many opportunities for them. My parents met each other and got married, but things changed right before my twin brother and I were born because a dictator was coming into power in Venezuela. Therefore, my parents came to this country and made many sacrifices in order to give my brother and me better opportunities to succeed.  Because of the choice they made, I got to grow up in an amazing city. My hometown is quite different from Ohio State, being situated in a bigger city with an immense amount of different types of people and cultures. My high school was also much smaller than OSU’s enormous campus, in fact, my Chemistry lecture is bigger than my high school’s entire student body!

In high school I took a variety of rigorous AP courses while balancing my studies with extra curricular activities. I played sports such as tennis and basketball, and held the position of co-captain for two years. Besides sports I was also a member of many honor societies, having leadership roles in several of them. Furthermore, I pertained to clubs such as Operation Smile and Key club, which are solely devoted to volunteer work and assisting the community. I also enjoy art, such as drawing and painting in my free time.

While here at The Ohio State University I aspire to complete my undergraduate degree in Animal Sciences and then use all of the knowledge learned here in order to apply and get into Vet School. While in high school I shadowed a local Veterinarian and learned a lot of information about how to assess and diagnose patients and the thought process required to do so. Furthermore, I also shadowed a plastic surgeon for a program at my school and got to observe surgical procedures inside of the operating room. I hope to go to vet school and become a surgeon and help all sorts of animals

I am very happy to be a student at OSU and am so excited for this new chapter in my life to begin!