On February 9, 2019 I had the chance to participate in Ohio State’s BuckeyeThon Dance Marathon. BuckeyeThon is a program that creates awareness and raises funds for pediatric cancer. As an official program of the Office of Student Life at The Ohio State University, BuckeyeThon focuses on children being treated in the Hematology/Oncology/BMT Unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The dance marathon began at 10 am and lasted until 10pm. Each member spends 12 hours on their feet, dancing and participating in different activities with our friends and peers to raise both money and awareness to finding the end of pediatric cancer.

Participating in this event showed me that even I, as a single individual, can make a difference. Each dollar I raised and each minute I spent on my feet that day raised awareness for the cause. I now know that I can persuade others to do the same by way of example and I already look forward to this event next year. Because of service learning I am an involved member of the Columbus community. 

On October 21st, 2018 I volunteered at the Nationwide Children’s Columbus Marathon with my fellow Dunn Scholars. The raced began at 7am and ended at 1pm. We started the day by stacking layers of cups, both of water and Gatorade for the runners as they passed our stop at their 17th mile. Once the race began, we lined either side of the street with cups held out for the runners to grab as they continued their run. The morning was absolutely freezing and wet from the night before, but that did not stop the runners.  To see not only the turn out of people who came to support the runners, but also the number of runners there were running the whole marathon. Cheering each person on by name and watching them smile and push through just made the experience all the better.

This experience showed me the overwhelming number of people who will come to support the cause. Nationwide Children’s cares for hundreds of thousands of children and these runners were there to support and care for the children as well as the hospital in charge of those children. For me, this experience showed me a true life experience of a community working together for a common purpose. Because of service learning, I am grateful to be a part of the Columbus community.

This fall I chose to volunteer at an event called “Feed the Funnel” at a gym on campus-Jesse Owen’s North, sponsored by an organization called The Pack Shack. This event took place on October 4th and lasted from 10pm until 1am the next morning. In this event we were preparing bagged meals, rich in vitamins and nutrients, for those in need. The meals we prepared that evening were Cheesy Rice and Vegetable meals, which contained 19 vitamins and minerals and were packed full of protein. My specific task was to weigh the bags after they had been filled to determine that each of the bag weighed relatively the same so each family would get a fully balanced meal. If the bag was overweight, rice was removed to be used in another bag, if the bag was underweight, I added rice to fill the gap. That night we packed 100,000 meals in 3 hours, and it was an amazing experience.

From this experience, I learned that I should never take anything I have for granted. I am fortunate enough to have three meals a day and a roof to sleep under at night, and not everyone has that. To be a part of an organization like The Pack Shack, even just for an evening, showed me I can make a difference in someone’s life and give them a luxury they may not usually have. Because of service learning I am better able to see the need in others and help them, rather than taking my own luxuries for granted.

Ohio State students participate in a service project for Kind Columbus in the Jesse Owens       South Recreational Facility, where they packed 100,000 meals by the end of the night.

This semester I had the opportunity to volunteer with the OSU Special Olympics at the Buddy Walk. The Buddy Walk took place on September 30th and lasted from 11am to about 3pm. The Columbus Buddy Walk is sponsored by the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio; this year there were more than 12,000 attendees and over $525,000 was raised. At the Walk, I specifically was in charge of the inflatable games, which included baseball and basketball. I had the most fantastic time interacting with the kids, their family, and friends, watching them have the greatest time playing all the times and achieving the greatest happiness when everyone around them, including myself, acted as their cheerleader.

This service experience further enhanced my love and desire to care for children. I have always known that I have a passion for children, but watching them smile when you simply cheer for them makes my day. In the role of a leader, this experience showed me that simply putting my passion into something I care so deeply about, like the children, reflects positivity onto others which will in turn create a positive community. Because of service learning I am going to become a great nurse in my future professional career.

The True Colors indicator is a personality trait test. In this test, there are 4 colors indicating four personality types: orange, gold, blue, and green. Each color is indicative of different central strengths and values, as well as different stressors and pet peeves.

For instance, the orange group was one of spontaneity and adventure. The gold, on the other hand, valued organization and dependability. The color blue was centralized on the traits of empathy and compassion and the color green placed high value on curiosity and acquiring new knowledge.

Personally, I was a member of the gold group. I place high value on organization and cleanliness, as well as my family ands the loyalty I hold to them. While, I scored highest in this color category, no one person belongs to one single color group. Each person has aspects of each color, their central values, however, will vary.

In participating in the True Colors activity alongside my Dunn Scholar peers, I learned that in order for a group or team to succeed, each personality or color players a key role. The color keep one another balanced in all aspects and it isn’t as difficult as it seems to come to a compromise that resonates with all individuals dude to the fact that each person has a touch of the traits of one another within them. Going forward into future jobs, teams, and groups I know that every individual is important for the common goal and to respect each person’s strengths because ultimately, they are responsible for the whollistic benefit.

As a high school athlete, it is demanded of you each and every day to be the best teammate possible. My most cherished sport throughout the majority of my life was fastpitch softball. Leadership is one of the most driving qualities of this sport because it is not an individual win or lose game, it is a team-win or a team-loss. My senior year of high school, my team made it to the district championship game against a team we had faced once previously in an exhuasting, high intensity game. It was my responsibility, alongside my three other senior teammates, to lead the rest of our team by example. This was not the time to give up, to cave in, to pick on each other’s flaws, but rather put all of our personal struggles aside in order to move forward as a team.

I consider this ability to push our team to their very best a quality of a good leader. I say this because a good leader must be able to not only put aside their own personal struggles or opinions, but also lead by example which was seen in this situatiuon. Leaders who can put aside their own struggles and opinions open their minds to the views and opinions of their peers. To lead by example means that an individual is able to set the path for success in which other can follow in their footsteps to mold their own path of success. Both of these qualities in turn help to build not only people as individuals but provide for the betterment of a group or team.

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation includes both a description of the artifact and a reflection on why it is important to you, what you learned, and what it means for your next steps.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]