Throughout the past year, I have acquired over 62 service hours through various organizations and activities. Most of my service hours have come from volunteering at Wexner Medical Center, where I served as an ambassador autumn semester and a pharmacy volunteer spring semester. During fall semester, my job was to guide patients and patients’ families through the medical center and serve as a friendly, comforting presence for the families going through a difficult time. This experience was extremely rewarding and it taught me a lot about being sensitive to other people’s issues and put my small problems into perspective. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of college-level calculus and chemistry and forget that I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to further my education here at Ohio State, and that so many people don’t have that same opportunity due to health-related stressors. Working as a volunteer in the pharmacy has been rewarding as well; although I mostly do filing work in the pharmacy, it has been really interesting to see the inner machinations of a hospital and view the administrative side of medicine. Perhaps the most rewarding experience of all was the volunteer hours I acquired through the organization I am involved in, Ohio Health Aid. I joined Ohio Health Aid last autumn and in that short timeframe I have become extremely involved and worked my way up to becoming a member of the executive board, where I now serve as Vice President of Internal Affairs and Development. Ohio Health Aid’s mission is to provide free preventative health screenings and health education for the underprivileged of Columbus. We held our first preventative health screening this January, and I volunteered as a “Physician Assistant” during it. I assisted an ER doctor and got to help him with treating patients, and in the process I learned a lot of insider information about what it’s really like to be a doctor in a high-stress environment. I even got to listen to a patient’s heart with a stethoscope and hear a heart murmur! Overall, I am very grateful that I had to complete service hours for Health Sciences Scholars and the process of acquiring those hours was very rewarding.

For my upperclassman interview I chose to talk to Alayna Nelson. Alayna is also a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority, and she is my “big,” meaning that she is my upperclassman mentor throughout the next few years. She’s a junior studying Health Sciences, and she is a member of Scholars as well. I asked Alayna about her future plans, and she told me about the rigorous process of applying to medical school. She is currently preparing to take the MCAT and narrow down her list of potential medical schools. When asked how she handles the heavy course load of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Alayna answered that it isn’t always easy, but knowing the end goal is worth it gets her through late nights of studying and brutal Organic Chemistry exams. She added that having a support system through our sorority has helped as well, and that she often studies at the library with our sorority sisters. She has an adorable dog named Bentley and she says that taking care of him and playing with him helps her relieve a lot of the stress brought on by classes and extracurriculars. Alayna is also the president of  the Pre Student Osteopathic Medical Association, and although balancing between clubs and schoolwork is tough, she handles it very well. In our interview, Alayna gave me advice on what classes to take based on which classes she enjoyed the most, which was extremely helpful. Overall, I am thankful to have a big who is pursuing a similar career path because she serves as a great role model.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]