G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness: Every Tuesday night during the school year, and a few days a week in the summer, I volunteer at Riverside Methodist hospital. Also at Riverside, I was fortunate enough to obtain a PCA job for the summer. As it has been up to this point, every day that I have walked through Riverside’s doors, I have not only been assigned a new set of tasks, but have encountered new people from every background. People come from all over to receive the best available care. Care is so much more than prescribing the correct treatment. The best way to show care is through your actions. By taking the time out of my schedule to get a glimpse into the stories of patients, coworkers, and volunteers,  I have truly gained invaluable and rewarding friendships, skills, and wisdom. My time at Riverside has taught me to treat others as you would like to be treated. Another way that I embody global awareness is through traveling to high schools across the midwest to teach neuroscience to high school students. Doing so has brought to light that while students may be attending the same high school, they come from many different walks of life, experience growth in different ways, and grow at their own rates. Other outreach opportunities such as throwing Christmas parties at Stowe Mission (located in a rough part of Columbus), handing out candy at Whetstone nursing home over the holidays, and simply being a student at one of the largest Universities has exposed me to people of more backgrounds than I could have ever imagined. With that, I have learned to love the different personalities, skills, and knowledge that each person brings to the table.

Original Inquiry: As an honors student majoring in neuroscience on the pre-med track, I am surrounded each day with very intelligent people, I am inundated with course work, and am in an environment of competition. However, within this environment, there is unlimited potential for growth, opportunity and success. As a result, the drive I started school with has kindled into a California wildfire to apply my newly gained knowledge. I hope that one day, I will be able to apply my knowledge/discoveries into curing patients. From freshman year honors biology where I performed research on endophytic effects on plants in response to environmental stressors to teaching neuroscience to high school students in a multi-state area, I can’t wait to continue to learn new knowledge, apply it, and see how the future plays out.

Academic Enrichment: The fun part about neuroscience is that it seems as if you take the “weed-out” class of every science major. Therefore, I like to say that the neuroscience curriculum is a compilation of “weedouts” for the first two years. It is not until those first two years are done in which you can then start getting into those more enjoyable 4000-5000+ level neuroscience classes. By the time I finish my second year, I will be able to say that I’ve take both honors biologies (general honors science weedout), both inorganic chemistries(science exploration weedout) and organic chemistries (every other science major weedout) and labs (those who crack under pressure weedout), physiology (health science, aka, aspiring nurse weedout), physics 1 and 2 (physics/everyone weedout), behavioral neuroscience and neuroscience 3000 (psychology+neuro weedout), and biochemistry (weeding out those who thought they saw the light at the end of the tunnel). Of course I enjoyed spanish (definitely my favorite non-science class) and honors GE courses (actually the most difficult classes at the university as the honors GE professors love taking little power trips) along the way. Need I say, I have been plenty “enriched” during my first two years of college.

Leadership Development: Since I’ve arrived at college, my leadership skills have grown substantially. Beginning freshman year, I’ll admit that I was a little timid, and to be blunt, incompetent in many areas of life. One of the greatest aspects about college is that it forces you to become fully autonomous in everything that you do. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t receive help or motivation along the way, but rather that you learn to get things done in a timely manner. People like to follow people who get things done, but who like to have fun along the way. Gaining leadership positions such as a neuroscience ambassador, OWL coordinator, community commitment site coordinator, and I-CAN Program director are a testament to the growth in my leadership abilities. As I’d somewhat agree with Michael Scott from the office, “Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me,” it’s definitely important to gain both respect and friendship from your peers to be a strong leader. Making confident decisions that are best for the group and being trustworthy to every member are two of the most important aspects of being a leader.

Service Engagement: My entire life, I have striven to give back to others just as Christ did for us. I believe there is no greater way to give back to the less fortunate than to give your own time. Money is nice and will certainly help supply basic needs; however, once those supplies run out, the people receiving aid are back to being in need again. This is why I believe people are truly cared for when you give them your time. This is what shows that you actually care. People can write a check and not think twice; however, time is limited, and it is how we spend our time that shows others what you value. When that time is spent on others, they can see that you truly care for them and that there actually is hope in humanity. My service engagement that portrays this idea includes: Neuroscience I-CAN educational outreach to high school students, Riverside Methodist Hospital volunteer, Habitat for Humanity re-store, Stowe Mission Christmas parties and food pantry, Special Olympics volunteer for Nisonger dentistry, YWCA meal preparer and server, Youth Baseball Camp coach, Food drive for mid-Ohio food bank, and Whetstone Nursing home volunteer.

 

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