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Scholars Spring Project

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During spring semester, I want to focus more on a personal goal of mine, which is re-teaching myself how to crochet by making hats and scarves for a women’s shelter. I used to crochet a lot when I was younger and knew how to make many clothing items, but I recently realized that I don’t even remember how to crochet. I believe that this project aligns with the principles of Honors & Scholars because it addresses at least one characteristic in all of the GOALS. Although this project is not necessarily global, it does address a large part of the Columbus community, which is very important. I think that before we move to a global level, it is important to reach people on a local level first. This project allows me to partner with with people on and off campus who are interested in the same type of service, which is useful in finding ways to expand the project. It allows for me to learn more about a specific demographic of people and learn what their basic needs of living are, which is where the winter wear will come into play. This experience will allow me to lead and follow in a project that will be done in a group. My group member and I will alternate in leadership positions and work with our most practical ideas. Finally, this project will allow me to serve my surrounding community. Providing warm hats and scarves will be of great service to young children and adults who do not otherwise have access to them, all while putting some old skills to use.

I will most likely begin planning the project over winter break. Most of the resources needed to crochet hats and scarves are in my hometown, therefore it would be best to gather the materials while I am home. Some of the first steps that I will begin taking will be to get my crocheting skills back up to speed, coming up with a set amount of items, and finding a shelter or organization that we can donate these items to. I hope to have achieved these first two steps by the end of January.

Columbus To-Do List: Part Two

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For the remainder of my “ice cream and desserts” themed experiences, I visited three additional places.

One of the place I visited was called Kilwins, which was a candy and homemade ice cream shop. My first impression of this shop was that it smelled amazing because of all of the homemade sweets and ice creams. The atmosphere was very sophisticated and playful at the same time, and all of the homemade treats were very visible when you first walk in the door. I decided to get the milk chocolate sea salt caramel, which was homemade and extremely good! Even though the sweets and creams are a bit expensive it was still a lot of fun just to experience the atmosphere and know that there is a close sweets shop thats about 20 minutes from campus. It reminded me a lot of my favorite candy shop from my hometown, which made it even better! I would definitely take my friends and family to this shop. Another place that I went to with some friends was Simply Rolled Ice Cream. This location actually recently opened and is right off of High Street near the Short North. There has been a recent trend in rolled ice cream and I never actually got to try, so I felt that this was the perfect time to try it! I went with a friend and decided to get the plain matcha green tea ice cream. I’ve never had matcha ice cream before and this was the perfect first experience. They have so many different combinations of ice cream, themes and toppings even though I went with something simple. It was definitely worth the amount of money I paid and I would definitely look forward to trying many more of the rolled ice cream combinations. The last place that I visited was Whit’s Frozen Custard off of North High Street. I though that there would be more flavors of the custard, but I kind of realized that the whole idea of the shop is to get a custard and then put toppings of your choosing on it, which makes more sense. They also had an option to create your own custard, which I think after trying the custard I would definitely come back and try. I sampled the flavor of the week and decided to go with plain vanilla custard. I think that it tastes good without the toppings, which says a lot about the custard! I overall enjoyed my experience and would definitely come back every one in a while for this treat!

My overall favorite experience would have to be split between Jenni’s Ice Cream and the vegan bakery. Jenni’s was very generous to let my friends and I sample so many of the flavors, which was definitely a plus! The other experience that I really enjoyed was trying the vegan baked goods. There are not many vegan bakeries in my hometown or within close distance to campus, so I really excited to try vegan treats at this shop. I have definitely learned a lot about Columbus from experiencing these places. I have never actually gotten a chance to explore Columbus, being from Akron, and I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to experience the city. I was not familiar with a lot of places in Columbus and now I have places that I can take my family and friends when they visit me! Some advice that I would give someone who chose this themed list would be to look at the menu and price lists of some of the places you plan to go to, so that you know it fits into your budget. Another reason why I would recommend doing this is to make sure you’ll actually enjoy the things that they have at the specific shop.

 

Ice Cream and Desserts Experiences

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The theme-based list that I chose was Ice Cream and Desserts. I am most looking forward to trying the vegan bakery items at Pattycake because it is often hard to find bakeries that only use vegan ingredients, so I am super excited to try them. I am also excited to try Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop. I hope to be able to be familiar with places around campus that I can hang out at in my free time. I am also looking forward to walking around the Arena District and even downtown Columbus to finally see what all it has to offer. Because I am not from Columbus, I am not familiar with a lot of places, so it’ll be fun to finally discover some places that might feel like home. Some of the places that I have visited so far are Jenni’s Splendid Ice Creams and Pattycake Bakery. At Jenni’s I sampled many of the flavors, but I ended up getting the frose sorbet, which was extremely good! It was one of the only vegan options and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I will definitely be returning! The other place that I went to was Pattycake Bakery, which is the vegan bakery. I chose to get “marry me blueberry” muffin, which was also extremely good and I will definitely be returning there for another! Overall I was very pleased with the options that I chose from both shops. Although they are a bit on the pricey side, I would definitely treat myself to one of the two every one in a while. I would also highly recommend both of these places to my friends, but especially the vegan options.

Mentor Interview

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I met with Joy G. for my mentor interview. I had a great meeting with her and she gave me a lot of insight on coursework. Even though I have switched majors, she still provided so much information on course loads throughout the semesters. Because she is a senior it was very helpful to hear someone who has maybe had to take classes multiple times and not always get an A the first time around, which is something that I worry about for my time at OSU. I met with Joy a couple of weeks ago in the Knowlton cafe where I expressed that I wanted to change my major, but didn’t know how to go about it. She gave me some information about it and took her advice on how to change. This time, I met with her in her studio space where I told her how she helped me out a lot in switching! I will definitely be reaching out to Joy during this year, not only for campus help but for just conversation. She’s such an easy person to talk to and shows that she genuinely cares about me getting through my first year. (: