My mentee is Abbie Williams and she is a special education major. We met up for lunch at the Union Marketplace to talk about how her first semester was as well as how her second semester is going. Here is the list of questions that I asked her:

Are you enjoying your major? Why or why not? 

Do you think you will keep your same involvement next year? Why or why not?

How was your first semester in ACES? What has surprised you about the program?

Have you had the chance to explore your desired career through internships, field experiences, etc.? 

What is your favorite memory from last semester?

Abbie said that she is really enjoying her major, special education. While she has always wanted to be a special education teacher, being in the First Education Experience Program (FEEP) this semester has really solidified for her that special education is the field that she wants to be in. One thing that she is struggling with though is that with the way her program is structured, she needs to choose a minor so that she will be a full time student for all four years. As of right now she is unsure about what she wants to minor in.

Abbie is for sure going to be sticking with ACES next year for her involvement. She is unsure if she will continue with the Wishmakers program. She also just joined the Delight Girls Ministry Group. She is also going to remain involved in Students Supporting Students with Disabilities. She likes this organization because it is related to her special education major.

Abbie enjoyed her first semester in ACES. She liked that there were a lot of different events to go to. Something that surprised her about ACES was that there were not many events surrounding education. I suggested to her that she could volunteer with an organization involving education for her service hours as a way to get more involved in education.

Abbie has had the chance to explore her desired career through the FEEP program. She is placed in a high school special education classroom in Grove City. She really likes the transitional aspect of high school special education. Since she is currently working with older students, she is hoping to find a job working with younger children this summer. This will give her experience working with a broader range of ages which she feels is important since she will be licensed to teach students in kindergarten through high school.

Abbie’s favorite memory from last semester was going to the football games. She really enjoyed going to the games with friends and cheering on the football team.

I am really excited for Abbie that she is enjoying the FEEP program. I loved being in the FEEP program as well because it was the first introduction into a real classroom. Classroom placements can be really time consuming and stressful. So I think the best way that I can continue to mentor her is to support her as she continues her classroom placements. Abbie and I also discussed some ideas for what she should minor in. She has looked at the list of minors that Ohio State offers but she has not found much that she is interested in. There are some minors that are related to her special education major but she is unsure if wants to do a minor that is closely related to her major.

Abbie and I also talked about some of the classes she is taking. She updated me that she did well in Math 1125 which was a class she was worried about last semester and that she is doing well Math 1126, the second class in that progression. She is also taking a class that I took last year HDFS 2410. I told her that if she had any questions about the class that I would be happy to help her.

For our Explore Columbus, Abbie and I went to Condado in the Short North. Abbie really wanted to go try this restaurant because she heard a lot of good things about it. I had been there once before with my family and agreed that it was a good restaurant. We took the COTA bus to get there. Abbie had already used the COTA buses before so she was familiar with how they worked. Getting to Condado was a little confusing because there was some construction in the Short North. I pulled the cord for our stop but the bus driver was not able to pull over to the sidewalk to let us out. Instead the driver stopped close to where the stop was and when we got out we were pretty much in the street because of concrete barriers. We were a little confused but were quickly able to find a way to the sidewalk.

When we got to Condado I explained to Abbie how the menu worked. We each filled out the checklists and ordered two tacos and chips and salsa. While we waited for our food and while we ate, we caught up on how the semester was going since the last time we talked. I asked Abbie how her math class was going. She said that she was doing well and that the class was getting easier and more manageable. We also talked about FEEP since Abbie will be doing it next semester. Abbie is really excited to be in a classroom and to start getting more hands-on experience with students. One thing she is nervous about is transportation. She is hoping that there will be someone else placed at the same school as her who has a car so that she can carpool with someone. I told her about my FEEP experience and how I had to ride the COTA bus by myself every day because I was the only one placed at my school. I assured her that while this may not be the ideal situation, riding the bus by yourself really is not that bad.

Abbie and I also talked about how being a Buckeyethon team captain was going. She said that she liked it but she did not know she would have to go to so many meetings. One of the requirements of being a team captain is having to go to meetings to learn and get ideas about fundraising and ways to encourage your team to fundraise. She said this is difficult for her because she does not like to ask people for money. I told her that I feel the same way. I also told her about my experience at the dance marathon last year and how it is such a fulfilling and worthwhile event.

I asked Abbie if she was planning on minoring in anything since there is room to add a minor to the special education schedule. She said that she looked into minors but did not feel very passionate about any of them and did not want to spend time in extra classes if she was not interested in them. There is a possibility that she may be able to get two certifications for special education because the program may be changing to allow for that. If she is given the opportunity to do this, she would rather do this than pursue a minor. If she can she would like to get licensed in mild to moderate and moderate to intensive special education.

I would definitely recommend Condado to a friend. I really like this restaurant because the food is completely customizable. As someone who is a bit of a picky eater it is nice to be able to customize my food instead of having to order something and then list the items I do not want to be included.

This experience showed me how many things there are to do in Columbus. We did not go super far from campus, but we passed so many restaurants and shops on our way to and from Condado. This trip showed me so many more places that I want to go while I am at Ohio State. I think it is so exciting to explore a new city. There is so much to do in Columbus and I hope to have the opportunity to explore it more. My advice for someone completing the same experience would be to leave time to explore. There are so many cool and interesting places in Columbus that just exploring without a destination can turn into a really fun experience.

My mentee is Abbie Williams. She is a special education major from the Toledo, Ohio area. I met up with her for lunch at Marketplace on Neil and we talked about how the school year was going so far. Here is the list of questions I asked her:

What has been your most challenging class so far and why?

How do you plan to get involved on campus and what kind of involvement are you interested in?

Why did you choose ACES?

What is your dream job and why?

What has surprised you about Ohio State since arriving on campus?

Abbie said that her most challenging class so far is Math 1125 because you have to explain every detail about the problems. This class is a lot different from other math classes because it requires you to have to think about why different algorithms and ways we solve problems works. I took this class last year so I was able to give her some advice on how to be successful in the class and encouraged her that the class does get easier as you get more comfortable with the way you have to think about and answer questions. I also told her that I am a tutor for that class now and she can ask me questions if she ever needs help.

Abbie is involved in a club called Wishmakers on campus. This club is associated with the Make-A-Wish foundation. Not only is she involved in the club, but she is also the Buckeyethon team captain for the club. She said she is a little nervous about being in charge of Buckeyethon for this club because it is a lot of work, but she is also excited to do it. She already has an idea to make a bingo board that club members can post on their social media to get donations for their Buckeyethon pages. Besides Wishmakers, Abbie has tried out a couple other clubs. She is thinking about joining the Ohio Student Education Association (OSEA), a club that I am also in. I told her I would forward her some information about the meeting so that she can try it out. I hope she joins OSEA because I think it is a great club for education majors to be involved in.

Abbie chose ACES because she is an education major and thought that there would be opportunities to work in schools and with kids. While this has not exactly been her experience so far with ACES she still really enjoys the program and we talked about how she could find opportunities to volunteer in an educational setting for her service hours. I asked her about how she was feeling about meeting the requirements for ACES. She said she felt confident about completing the service hours. I was surprised by this because the service hour requirement was the most difficult for me to complete during my first semester.

Abbie said that her dream job is to be a special education teacher. She does not want to be a paraprofessional because they only help one student. She wants to have her own classroom and teach her class. Abbie also said that she is interested in teaching high school special education. She likes the idea of teaching life skills to students. At her high school she said the special education students would run a coffee cart and other things that supported life skills. She helped out with this and thought it was really interesting. She hopes to be able to do something like this with her students.

Abbie was really surprised on how easily she adjusted to college life. She thought it would be harder to adjust since there are so many new things such as dorm life and figuring out her schedule and schoolwork since it very different from high school. She also thought that her classes would be super hard, but she said she has adjusted well to them. I told her I had the same thoughts as her last year. I told her that I think it is because education is a smaller major so the class sizes are a lot smaller which makes it feel similar to high school. Another thing Abbie was worried about was making friends, but she said it has been a lot easier than she thought it would be. She has made friends with a lot of girls on her floor and in her classes. I think this has made her transition to college easier because she does not feel alone in the new experiences that college brings.

Abbie and I also talked a lot about education classes and our majors. I am an early childhood education major, so I take some of the same classes as Abbie. We talked about our programs and told me that she does not have to apply for the special education major because it is now direct admit. We also talked about what we should do for our explore Columbus trip. We talked about possibly exploring the Short North and trying out a new restaurant.

Abbie’s experiences and academics have some similarities to my freshman year. I will be able to use this to mentor her by telling her about my experiences and give advice as someone who has also gone through the same things. I am excited to continue to get to know Abbie and help her with her first year at Ohio State.

During my senior year of high school I took a class called Honors Advanced Science Seminar as a part of my MedTrack program requirements. In this class I learned about scientific research. The first project we did for this class was the MedTrack Senior Conference. For this project, I had to choose a scientific research article and present the research at the conference as if I was the one who conducted the research. The article I chose was a research experiment that my brother, Jacob, worked on at Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute at The Ohio State University. I really liked learning about the research project that my brother worked on because I had heard a lot about his experience working on the project, but I had not known what his research involved. This project was my introduction to scientific research and made me interested in being involved in scientific research during my undergraduate experience.

Research Presentation

The ACES Pillars Film Project is a group project that I presented in my SCHOLAR 1100.01 class. My group chose to watch the documentary Sounding the Alarm: Battling the Autism Epidemic. This documentary explores the lives of families with children with autism and tells the story of how Autism Speaks was founded. I learned so many things by doing this project. I was unaware of how important therapies, such as applied behavior analysis, are for children with autism. I was also unaware of how difficult it can be for parents to get this therapy for children because of lengthy waiting lists and lack of insurance coverage . I was amazed at how many states do not require that autism services be covered under health insurance given the prevalence of autism today. This project opened my eyes to the injustices in health insurance policies that prevent many people from getting the care that they need.

Film Project Presentation