As much as I love exploring off campus, this was really a treat. My STEP advisor had been able to get us a tour of the local Greek Orthodox Church. This was a splendid piece of architecture that had the entire main room designed and decorated in glass. It is absolutely gorgeous and you could feel how proud and in love with the cathedral the people were.

It was a great trip as it is not something that I would have thought about doing myself. I didn’t grow up going to church myself and it was interesting to get a history lesson of the cathedral as well as the biblical stories behind the glass. For example this dome is as wide as the cross over which it sits and centered where the arms meet. Depicted is Christ the Pantocrator and surrounding him is the 24 Old Testament Patriarchs that feature into the genealogy of Christ.

It was really neat to be able to take a anthropological perspective into something that was right down the street from me. This was such a fantastic trip and I realize how privileged I am to be able to see something like this.

As an Anthropology student I have to learn about the three different disciplines of Anthropology: Cultural, Physical, and Archaeological. With APOP I have a chance to teach others about anthropology and get them interested in what we do. One of my favorite volunteer outings is to work the cart at COSI. WE work a few saturdays for kids and their parents and also on Cosi in the Dark for adults.

For this we play a game with the skulls encouraging people to put them in order from earliest hominid to present. Then we place them in order and answer any questions posed to us. This is my favorite part because there’s always so many unique questions and the kids are really fun to work with. I love these skull casts because they are such a fun prop to work with and its really entertaining to talk about them. I also get the bonus of learning new facts about these casts and the hominids that they represent. The older students are also a great resource of information.

It’s a great way for me to volunteer as I quite enjoy working with Cosi and their staff. I get to work with fellow students and gain more connections within the Anthropology department.

Can I just say how proud I am of this piece of foam with the Department of Anthropology stamped across its forehead! ‘Cause I am immensely proud of it! To many  people it might not seem like much or even a piece of junk to throw away, but to me it means something more. I got this silly swag when I changed my major from Biology to Anthropological Sciences during my second semester. This was something that I was debating for a long time since I found out that studying Biology was’t making me happy but the anthropology course that I was taking did. So I decided to make the switch and I couldn’t be happier. This was a major that I chose for myself and not to make my grandparents or the rest of my family happy with “acceptable” majors but, it ended up being okay anyway.

Something really amazing that Ohio State does every year is BuckeyeThon. This 24 hr Dance Marathon is prepped all year to get ready for this one event in February. BuckeyeThon is working towards helping Children and families at Nationwide Children’s Hospital dealing primarily in Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplants. This event is split into two parts and the Kids and their Families get to join in on the fun! There are events throughout the year like CarnOval and the Fashion show as well. I’m glad that I got to be a part of a great community and be part of a great team! I joined through Health Points and was on Team Yellow with Avalon. After meeting with some of the Kids and Families, I’m glad that I was able to participate and cannot wait until next year!

Volunteering is a great way to get to help people and to get your community service hours. From volunteering with a club or organization, to just going on your own, there are many different ways to get involved. I’ve volunteered at my local elementary school for years and have loved it. Now that I’m in college I’ve had the opportunity to do multiple different types of service. My bioscience group had volunteered with the Wesley Glenn Nursing Home for their Halloween party. It was so cool to help out with their party because We got to work with so many age groups from the tricker treaters to the residents. We heard so many stories from the residents and were able to connect so much with them. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what other opportunities that I can find in volunteering. 

One of my most important artifacts at the moment is my scholarship to The Ohio State University. I was given the opportunity to be a Land Grant Scholar which helps pay for college and is awarded to two students from every county in Ohio.

The Land Grant Scholarship is awarded to those who show academic merit and financial need. It is awarded to two students in each county and is based off of which county the student lives in (my high school was in a different county then my permanent address). It lasts for eight sememsters and the student can choose to use it for summer courses or for an academic year. Since Ohio State is a public institution it was one of the first universities to become a Land Grant college. To be awarded the student must show financial need through their Fafsa and a high academic merit. It does however take the student off of work study. Each student is assigned to a First Year experience advisor who will help them and they have an open financial aide help about the scholarship.

I am incredible grateful to have received this scholarship. It helps me not worry so much about how I was going to afford  to pay for my education and focus more on being a student. Now I strive to work harder than before to do my best and to not waste my education.