Global Awareness
The aspects of culture I am most looking forward to exploring is language and music. I love learning languages (a seen on my bio), and I would love to learn at least two languages during these four years. Music has always been a way for me to learn new languages as well. Furthermore, each culture has its unique history of instrumentation and music style, which I would love to spend more time learning.
I have always been interested in Spanish, and I am currently considering taking more course work to strengthen my Spanish speaking and writing skills, as well as using a study abroad opportunity to understand healthcare and indigenous medical practices in Latin countries. I am part of a start up club called the Polyglot Club, which will be registered in the spring. This club aims to help students gather resources and have time to investigate linguistics and discuss their own experiences with multilinguilism.
On my own, I would like to practice singing and analysing songs from artists around the world. This strengthens my language skills, and also broadens my understanding of the different ways music is used to communicate the same messages. In addition, I hope to take the Andean Music Ensemble class sometime over the four years, since I have always wanted to learn about the development and practice of autochthonous languages. Many artists convey ideas about their culture and society through music, which is beneficial in understanding where people form attitudes about the world around them.
Original Inquiry
Currently, I am volunteering under Dr. Dasi in the Davis Heart and Lung Institute. His lab creates synthetic aortic heart valves, and I have learned a lot in the past year while suturing valves, segmenting models, and analysing data. In the future, I would like to start my research possibly on the spina bifida, a spinal defect in new born children, by investigating the uses of astrocytes in our neural system. I’m also interested by the Speech and Hearing Sciences, but I have yet to see if I can take it to researching speech development, or if I will continue learning more through advanced coursework instead.
Academic Enrichment
There are so many opportunities at OSU to study what we are passionate about; I have so many avenues I want to explore, but my major fortunately has a way of encompassing many of my interests. I enjoy maths, and I have always thought of myself as a more analytical thinker. However, my career interests in pediatric neurology don’t exactly require the more theoretical side of maths I enjoy. In addition, philosophy seems challenging yet thought provoking, since it focuses on the very human side of the formation of attitudes and life as we know it. Neuroscience has three distinct pathways, and I am most interested in the Cognitive & Computational path, because it combines all of these areas of knowledge. I am most excited about taking Introduction to Computational Science and Advance Symbolic Logic.
Leadership Development
I am part of the head committee for the Polyglot Club, and I am invested in ensuring that everyone feels comfortable in the environment, since language learning and multilinguilism had a big impact on me growing up. In addition, I would like to join the Unmasked group on campus, in order to learn more about priveleges and disadvantages, and help improve the conditions of people who struggle against any societal stigma placed on them.
I am also currently a part of the APIDA cohort programme, and it is helping me immensely with my transition to this university. There will always be parts of my culture and me that I try to understand, and this programme helps everyone feel safe in not being completely sure in their identity. In the next year’s, I would like to build myself as a role model and become a mentor for other incoming mentees in the programme.
Service Engagement
I aim to work towards a project that would help the environment on campus, and create a local beekeeping community. It seems strange, given the other array of interests I have, but I am really fond of bees, and since many of our food crops could not exist without pollination, I want to work on something that gives back to the community by selling honey from beehives and supporting local farmers, but also make is safer for bees by not using the usual smoking ways of honey extraction used in beekeeping.