Month: October 2017

College Has Shown Me…

College years are incredibly important for reflection and development, so I plan on keeping a list of things I have learned outside the classroom that are applicable to life in general! In my four years, I’ll keep updating this list and be left with all the things I feel I have learned and contributed to the person I have been shaped to be. Here it goes:)

Freshman Year:

  • Don’t ever be afraid to reach out for help. People want to help you and want you to succeed! (09/14/17)
  • Be confident in your ideas. It may be scary to put yourself out there, but with more risk comes more reward. We all have unique perspectives and can contribute valuable ideas and thoughts! (10/27/17)

Peace and Blessings,

CG

Opportunities to Serve

O-H-I-O pic is a must at all service outings:)

How good it feels to be a part of a school that cares so much about the community…

Growing up, I was actively involved in serving the community, be it in my hometown or out on mission trips through my church, and this is something I believe to be essential to living the life we are called to live. Entering Ohio State, I knew I wanted to find ways to give back to others. Not knowing how easy or hard it would be to find these opportunities, I was beyond excited when I found so many great events to serve, even within the first two months of being on campus.

Before coming to campus, I applied to be a part of the Business Honors Learning Community, an honors cohort of 27 first year students. We all live together and partake in weekly meetings focused on building relationships, professional development, and giving back to the community. The focus on service was one of the things that greatly attracted me to the learning community, and I am so pleased to be a part of such a wonderful group of students! So far, we have had two service opportunities that have been a blast! About a month ago, we made no-sew blankets for the Ronald McDonald House here in Columbus. Not only was this a great way to give back to the community right in our backyard, but it was a wonderful way to have fun and deepen friendships within the BHLC! Our second service opportunity so far was just today, where we were able to write letters to active service members. I have done this in the past, and I really believe it to be a great way to encourage those over seas who are doing so much for our freedoms here. This is such a simple reminder to those serving us that we appreciate them and that we are thinking about them. I’ve had so much fun with the BHLC service project so far and I am looking forward to all that is planned to give back to the community in the coming year:)

In addition to the service opportunities I’ve had with BHLC, there have also been OSU organized events that I have been a part of! There were already events planned for early on in the school year, which I really think shows Ohio State’s commitment to service. During the second week of school, I had the chance to be a part of an event called “Community Commitment”, put on by Pay it Forward. During this event, students from all over campus spend 5 hours serving in locations all over Columbus! My roommates and I were bused to a local church where we worked on cleaning up a garden that provides fresh herbs and produce to the meal program housed in the church. This was an amazing chance to get off of campus, experience and engage with the city, and connect with the community. More recently, I attended a service event through the Honors & Scholars program at a local Furniture Bank. Here, we had the chance to get our hand a little dirty (literally!) and paint different parts of a refurbished desk. The Furniture Bank has partnerships with many Universities in Ohio and happened to recently get a shipment of old desks from Miami University. However, the site was not in need of desks, so they cut them in half and made nightstands that we got to paint! We had a blast, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to take a picture of my messy clothing after:)

Ohio State has already provided me so many areas to serve and give back to the surrounding community! I’m so grateful to be in a place where involvement and presence in the city is encouraged and where the belief that changing the world occurs not only through knowledge gained in the classroom, but through how we give back outside of the classroom. I’ve much enjoyed “getting my toes wet” in the chances I’ve already had to serve the area, and I’m looking forward to fully “diving in” as I continue to seek out and explore opportunities of community engagement and service.

Peace and Blessings,

CG

Planes, Spheres, and Donuts — Oh My!

Sphere with one great circle and one regular (non-great) circle

Mobius Strip with a circle 1/5 units away from the surface

Plot of flowers made from polar curves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling All Math Lovers!

I have exciting news to share today — my first college math project is officially complete:) Overall, this was a very interesting but ultimately a very beneficial experience to my educational journey. In high school I had been exposed to group projects, but all relating directly to topics we were covering in the class or that I worked with previously. Working in groups is often uncomfortable — be it the lack of division of work or simply the awkwardness of interacting with others — but my previous experiences with groups have all been relatively smooth. Transitioning to college, I was prepared for the worst when it came to group projects. I’d heard too much horror about things gone wrong, miscommunications, and ultimately a dissatisfactory overall experience. Needless to say, I was a bit spooked when we were assigned a group project. Not only was it in my hardest class, calculus III, but the groups were selected randomly! I was nervous, anxious, excited, stressed … basically any emotion you can think of, I was feeling. On top of all of these emotions was the fact that I was lost in how to complete the project — I was stuck, confused, and worried that I would not be able to pull my weight.

The project, while focused on what we were working on in class (parameterization), also included a component of programming and writing code that I was unfamiliar with. Each group was tasked with writing code in a programming system developed at OSU, Buckeye VR, to display 6 different curve/surface combinations:

  • Intersecting planes
  • A sphere with a great circle and non-great circle
  • An intersecting sphere and plane
  • A torus (donut) with two circles
  • A mobius strip and circular curve
  • Any creative combination of curves/surfaces

Left only with pictures of the goals and little instruction, we were expected to…

  1. Parametrize all of these curves and surfaces
  2. Figure out how Buckeye VR works
  3. Learn how to code the shapes
  4. Make adjustments to match the given picture

Our group divided up the work and worked individually before coming together to compare work. I ended up working on and completing the sphere with circles, mobius strip, and creative option — I chose flowers:) Though we did finish and successfully complete the project, this experience was definitely a stressful one from which I learned a lot. Initially, I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to hold my ground in a group of students who were so intelligent; I assumed I would be so far behind, not pull my weight, and ultimately disappoint the group. However, I worked very hard, researched, sought help, and was able to complete my part! This project taught me a lot about how I best learn something that is foreign to me (this being the programming), how to collaborate and share my ideas with a group, and most importantly how to be confident in my work!

There were parts to the project that came easily, for examples the mathematics behind the parameterizations, but I also struggled very much, specifically with the programming. Though this can be scary to not know how to do something important to an assignment, there are so many resources out there to contribute to your success! Not only did I get help from the internet and friends, but also the tutoring center and even my professor. I was scared of this project at the beginning — it was a group project, I didn’t know what I was doing, and I didn’t want to disappoint. From learning to code parameterized versions of curves and surfaces to seeing the value in getting help from others (and their willingness to help!), I can say that I truly learned so much from this experience. By the end, I was even having fun messing around with different parameterizations trying to make different, fun shapes appear. Maybe I would even enjoy another project for the class:)

Peace and Blessings,

CG

P.S. What a great feeling it is to work so hard to understand something and it finally works! Check out the pics of my final product above:)