For my Spring Project, I plan to spend at least 10 hours learning, creating and editing a song from start to finish with recording equipment and music editing software. I know a friend on campus that frequently creates and edits songs himself that I will ask for help and or guidance throughout this project.

Today, November 13th, I attended a presentation with other STEM students and peers regarding diversity and inclusion sponsored by the Multicultural Center at Ohio State. In all truthfulness, before attending the event I thought it was going to be just another meeting telling everyone to be nice to everyone else regardless of your differences. However, this presentation was much more than that. The presenter opened all of our eyes to the different privileges people do and don’t have based on their identities, and encouraged taking the first step to recognize what privileges we have compared to others, and take an additional step to help others that may not be in the position to advocate for themselves. The most important thing I learned from this presentation is that it is far more effective to recognize how individual’s identities effect their access to privileges rather than just noticing they have a different identity than yourself. Diversity and inclusion has a large impacts STEM in a very large way and it has forever. As a society, STEM used to be composed of most if not all male figures oppressing women that wanted to be in the STEM fields. It has been very difficult for women to gain the same privileges as men, however, the STEM society has been moving in the right direction becoming more diverse and inclusive of not only gender, but also race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Another very intriguing thing I learned today regarding diversity is that people often tend to be too worried as to whether the may offend someone or a group of people by asking or saying certain things regarding their identities. If healthy diversity and inclusion is to be reached, you cannot be afraid to ask questions about the differences in other people that you may not understand. It would be much better to say something wrong and learn why it’s wrong rather than not learn it and be afraid to mention anything.Diversity and inclusion at Ohio State is a massively important. Whether it is through, campus events, residence hall meetings or student organizations, diversity and inclusion is promoted campus-wide. Since I have been here, I have learned a vast amount about other people, cultures, religions, and sexualities that effect peoples daily life. One of the things I love most about here at Ohio State is that, at least as far as I have seen, people of all identities can congregate without harassment, ridicule, or exclusion. In high school, this was very different because they’re tended to be a greater number of cliques with people of the same identities that stayed away or made fun of others that were different from them. It is my belief that diversity and inclusion leads to a much greater atmosphere both socially and academically for everyone. I think the presenter did a fantastic job at beginning to open the doors to truly understand what it means to be diverse and inclusive, however, I do not think that a single one-hour presentation is enough to understand everything about the topic, and I hope that I can learn more over my time here at Ohio State.

For me, there has always seemed to be a negative stigma towards getting tutored or seeking additional help for your coursework especially in high school when “you’re just supposed to get everything.” College courses and curriculum is much faster in terms of pace and it becomes increasingly easy to fall behind or not attain mastery of the material covered in lecture. Although it was a hard decision, I decided to get over my own pride and remove myself from my negative stigma of getting help and go to the Math and Stats Learning Center on 18th Avenue to go over some recent material covered in my calculus class. When I arrived I found my graduate teaching assistant and went over some of the relevant coursework to better prepare for an upcoming quiz. In high school I was typically the student tutoring other students, so it was a very weird feeling to be on the opposite end of what I used to do. Although it felt unusual, I feel that I have a deeper understanding and mastery of the content which will allow greater success for me as the class proceeds. I think that continuous help-seeking would be very beneficial even if isn’t necessarily needed because, the better understanding you have over content the better you are likely to do over time, and there isn’t anyone better to help you then the incredibly knowledgeable and intelligent professors and graduate teaching assistants that provide free help almost whenever it is needed. During my time at the MSLC my graduate teaching assistant provided additional higher level questions relevant to the current content for me to complete so that the problems on the future tests would seem easier. After I completed my work, the GTA checked over my processes step by step to ensure that all of my work was not only correct, but logical, and if I had an error in my work he completely broke it down and explained my mistake so that I could fully understand the issue and actually learn from it rather than just tell me I was wrong and solve it the proper way. The process of explanation that the tutors go through in order to create a deeper understanding in the students is the most effective way for students to learn and succeed. It is very easy to tell someone they’re wrong and do it the proper way. However, it is definitely not as easy to analyze the mistake that occurred in the students work and attempt to explain it in the best way possible so the student understands not only what they did wrong, but why it is wrong, and how to correctly go about doing similar problems in the future. I think that tutoring is something I would love to do in college because I enjoy helping others understand challenging material because it provides a great feeling and atmosphere of positive learning and tutoring also helps the tutor better understand the material if they have to teach it.

During my second STEM Scholars meeting, the Program Director, Jen Beckley, gathered together a small group of club leaders together to host a mini-involvement fair for STEM related clubs. At the end of the meeting a few of the clubs had peaked my interest, however, due to my schedule I had many conflicts with meeting times. Although, many of the leaders did assure me I could still be an active member within their clubs. Fortunately, one club that I was interested in, Buckeye Space Launch Initiative (BSLI), had multiple meeting dates and times each week allowing me to attend in my seemingly hectic schedule. I went to the first meeting Sunday, September 8 at 3:30 in Scott Lab by myself to test it out and see if I liked the program. I sat towards the back of the class and listened to the leader of the Level One Certification subgroup discuss the plans for the program this year. Being a member of this club has many of the same amazing benefits that other clubs have to offer: a group of like-minded individuals, leadership opportunities, potential networking, and simply a place to have fun and get away from schoolwork. Unique benefits to this organization specific to me include: a place to expand on my STEM skills and knowledge, an easier and less expensive way to attain a Level One (or greater) Rocketry Certification, exposure to more people and opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t have, and of course the occasional free pizza. At this first meeting, I was only able to hear from one of the student leaders of the program, however, he was very nice, knowledgeable, and prepared for the program meeting. I haven’t ever really been involved or looked much into rocketry before, but, I think that if I find more a passion for it as I continue forward in this club, I would definitely consider running for a leadership position within this student organization. As I proceed to move forward with this program I will have to start looking ahead at the organization schedule in order to best plan around classes, meeting times, and homework so that I can get the most out of the program without falling behind academically. The entirety of this meeting consisted of a lot of the program details as well as an overview of basic rocketry for beginners, so that we could move along faster during the next meeting. Due to this though, I didn’t get much of a chance to talk with other members of the club or socialize. I’m still not entirely sure if this organization is one that I really want to invest a lot of my time into, however, I want to spend some more time attending the meetings to see if I like rocketry. In the meantime, there are still a few other clubs I am very interested in and want to go to such as STEM Outreach, Poultry Science Club, and Guitar Club. I think that the size of OSU as well as the vast amount of clubs is a very positive and beneficial aspect of student life at Ohio State because it provides every student a wide array of activities, opportunities, networking, and so much more for nearly any hobby you could think of.

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