About Me

My name is Sunnia Khan. I was born in North Carolina, but my parents are from Pakistan. I am an American muslim, and the experiences I’ve made in the muslim community are memories I will never forget. There are Eid festivals (a religious holiday for muslims) where I’ve made many good friends, parties and social events with endless laughter at our mosque, and many opportunities that I got to participate in, such as the Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament (MIST), this past year for math.

I have always loved math and science (math a little more). In middle and high school, I never really liked English or history, but have always found myself eager to go to my next math/science class, so I can learn more about either stoichiometry and circuits, or probability and integrals. My dad has definitely had a huge influence over my love for math. He would make me do math workbooks in the summer to further develop my skill for math, and instead of hating the subject, I fell in love with it. I even got a job at Mathnasium, a math tutoring center, during high school, and I still work there. He is also an electrical engineer, and introduced me to the engineering, the major I picked! I became a STEM scholar so I can further explore different careers that involve STEM, as well as other engineering disciplines.

My major is biomedical engineering right now, since I have always wanted a job that included the medical field (and can help people), but I still want to explore to see if there are any other careers that might fit my interests. Up to this point, I was in Future Medical Careers Club in my high school, where different kinds of doctors (surgeons, pharmacists, radiologists) came in and talked about what their average day would look like. I also participated in a Health Camp through Ohio University my sophomore year, where I got to practice CPR and stethoscope techniques on dummies, and where I got to see my first cadaver. Lastly, my best friend’s dad who is a pulmonologist, let me scrub in on a surgery he did, where he needed to clean up all the smoke and mucus built up in a poor old man’s lungs. Then, we got to experience rounds with him, where he talked to other types of doctors and made a game plan for each patient they visited.

To gain more hands-on/real-world skills, I will start to join more organizations to learn more about engineering and to participate in engineering projects around campus. For example, I joined Engineering of Community Service, so I can gain community service hours by building meaningful inventions for people who could really benefit from them. Also, I plan on going to more meetings that the Stem EE Scholars program provides, to learn more about biomedical engineering.

Personal Development

I believe my social and public speaking skills have definitely improved during my first semester of college. It was not like they were bad before, but I was more on the shy and quiet side back in high school. I have never liked public speaking and will always let someone else speak before me. However, because of the numerous opportunities Ohio State has given to earn summer internships and co-ops, such as the Engineering Expo back in the fall, I have had the privilege to talk and connect with new people as well as prepare for many interviews. These opportunities have increased my confidence so that I can present myself in a well-mannered and sophisticated way. Also, I have attended many various meetings and volunteering events where I interacted with all different kinds of people who shared a common goal.

Additionally, I have met so many new people in my classes here at Ohio State. With lectures that hold more than 400 people, it can be hard to find a friend that you can sit with and struggle through the class together. It is even harder for me since I am a commuter, so I cannot make friends easily and stick with them like people who live in dorms. Fortunately, I found amazing people to study and laugh in our difficult classes. I believe I got really lucky because I came with the mindset that because I am commuter, I will not be able to make many friends since I won’t get to spend time with them outside of classes. However, this was not the case. I have stayed over at my one of my friend’s dorm and ate dinner with other new people I’ve met. I also study a lot with the new friends I’ve made. Studying in groups has always helped me succeeded in academics, and meeting with students who share majors and interests can really inspire thinking and motivation among all of us.

I believe these experiences in college has shown growth and development with my social and public speaking skills, and I only hope that it continues to get better and develop throughout the next 3 or more years of my college experience.

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  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.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. 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.

  • Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc.
  • Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
  • Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
  • Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
  • Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  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.]

Artifact 1

 

 .                         

When I was a sophomore in high school, my parents went on a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia called Hajj. My religion, Islam, requires us to perform this pilgrimage at least once in our lifetime if we are physically and financially able to. It teaches tolerance and patience, and is a deeply personal experience that helps one get closer with God. The journey takes about 3 weeks, so my siblings and I were left home alone with our Grandpa for that amount of time. My Grandpa had Alzheimer’s, so it was hard to take care of him while going to school and maintaining good grades while playing tennis and participating in other extracurricular activities. However, I am glad I went through this hard time in my life, because it taught me to grow up a little and to always be thankful for my parents. After weeks of making my own meals, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, cleaning the dishes and taking care of my Grandpa, I had to mature in such a short amount of time.

This experience taught me to feel blessed that I have both parents in my life, and to always tell them that I love them. Hajj is a scary journey, and many people get injured because of the crowds and heat. It sometimes felt that my parents weren’t coming home because of the recent news online. This is a unique experience that one of my peers may have gone through, but is very unlikely due to the low number of people in this religion relative to other religions. Also, Hajj during my sophomore year was one of the scariest pilgrimages in history. There were stampedes, and many elderly people could not finish.

I would like to convey that this brief detachment showed the responsibilities I will have as an adult, as well as the qualities I portray, such as resiliency and perseverance. Even though my Grandpa believed he was taking care of us, in reality we were taking care of him. He made my sophomore year very tough, and although he is not with us anymore, I will still always cherish those three weeks with him, and every other moment. Also, I believe I am strong, because since my parents were miles and miles away in a dangerous part of the world, I did not let it show through my grades, and continued to stay positive throughout school.