Artifact #2

I wasn’t able to get photos of my two artifacts because they’re organizations that I joined. I’m part of Design for 90: Think Tank and I’m also one of the members for Dylan Beam’s Prosthesis Initiative.

Design for 90 is an organization within the college of engineering that focuses on the designing for the 90 percent. Their mission statement focuses on developing devices for people in underprivileged communities. The Think Tank portion of Design for 90 focuses on community outreach and research. We look for organizations that can help us with other Design for 90 projects, as well as communities and or individuals in need of assistance.

Dylan Beam’s Prosthesis initiative focuses on providing affordable 3-D printed prosthetic for anyone in need of a prosthetic. He gathered a group of students, mainly for HES or with engineering backgrounds, to help get his idea off the ground and turn it into something worthwhile and helpful for the community. We also do outreach for professors and organizations willing to help us produce prosthetic limbs for people in the Columbus Community. Currently, we’re focusing on the Columbus Community, but we have plans of expanding outside of the Columbus in the future.

These two organizations encapsulate who I am because I’m a person always looking to help others. Complementing my previous artifact post about tutoring as a homework helper, I’ve also worked on a team to develop an assistive device for the special education students at my high school during my senior year. The project was my engineering capstone project, and since then I’ve been greatly interested in using my engineering skills to develop devices to assist people. Design for 90 and the Prosthesis Initiative represent the outreach and commitment I have to helping others. I’m not shy in helping others, nor am I shy in asking for help. I’m someone who’s willing to help others whenever possible.

Columbus To Do List # 2

If you’ve had pizza before, let me tell you now, you haven’t had pizza until you’ve tried Mike’s Late Night Slice pizza off of High Street. It’s about 2-3  miles north of campus. It’s on a street running perpendicular to high street. I was with Aamir Khan walking through the snow to check out this pizza place. Not only was the pizza fantastic, it was also affordable. $4 pizza might seem much, but the slice was decently sized so it was fair. The pizza wasn’t too greasy and the crust was perfect. We went to Mike’s on 11/27 around 6pm. The pizza was some of the best pizza I’ve tasted. They also had their own dressing to add onto the pizza such as garlic butter, ranch, or more tomato sauce if you needed it. While you wait for them to warm your pizza, they have a movie playing that you can watch.

On the way back, we also stopped by Insomnia Cookies to try them out as well, but Insomina Cookies is for a different post. I would definitely recommend this to a friend. The atmosphere and the food are fantastic. One thing I’d do differently next time is come again in the summer cause it was a bitter cold night, but the warm pizza and cookie made us impervious to the chilling wind. I’d also come with friends because it would be nice to get a large pizza and sit outside and eat together.

Columbus To Do List #1

This journey was undertaken on 10/28. We weren’t able to get the entire group because some of us had gone home and weren’t available this weekend. Originally, we didn’t have a plan on where to go, so we walked north on high street. I enjoyed getting to know the group a bit more. Everyone had a physics midterm the next day, so we couldn’t spend a lot of time exploring. We decided to go to Kafe Kerouac. The cafe had many old vinyl records which looked interesting. The place had a good atmosphere for studying and meeting up with friends. I didn’t like that we couldn’t spend a lot of time exploring more places.

What I learned from this experience is that we should plan a bit more ahead of time so that everyone could make it and we could spend more time exploring Columbus. Also, most of the museums were closed by the time most of us were free to meet. I wouldn’t go back there because I don’t drink coffee and I prefer to study in the library. If my friends want to go back there, I’ll join them because I think it’s hanging out with them makes the experience rather than the place you visit. I’d recommend this to a friend as a studying spot or place to get coffee.

Overall, the experience was fun and I enjoyed the time I had with my friends. I commute and I don’t see them often, so it’s nice whenever I do get to see them.

 

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

Most people would see me with this sticker in my bag and assume that I’m a cardinals fan. Actually, I’m not a football fan, I actually prefer playing sports than watching them on tv; I don’t like being a spectator. This sticker was given to me by a kid that I helped learn the multiplication tables.

I tutor as a homework helper at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Hilliard, Ohio about 30 minutes west of Campus. I’ve been doing this for 1.5 years now. I enjoy it very much, sometimes even more than my paid job because I make more of a difference here than I do at work. The kid who gave me this sticker was in 3rd grade and his mom was worried he wouldn’t move on cause he had trouble learning his multiplication tables. I worked with him for nearly 4 hours providing him tips, tricks, and encouragement. He did eventually understand multiplication. After he got it, he went to use the bathroom, and his mom told me that most of the tutors have quit on him, and the school labeled him with a learning disability and that hurt his desire to get better at multiplication tables. I gave his mother some tips that would allow him to continue to learn better, such as catering to what he liked and applying math to that. Before the mom and the boy left, he gave me this sticker.

So this sticker is one thing that represents a part of me. The small gesture of kindness made the sticker mean something more than loving a team. To me, the sticker represents the small rewards you get from helping people. Even though most of the time there will be no reward, only a feeling. A feeling that you’ve made a positive difference in someone’s life. To me, that’s more than enough. 

About Me

My name is Mohammad Khan. I’m currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. I have a passion for learning new ideas especially in the field of science and mathematics. I also have a wide range of hobbies from independent film making to reading nonfiction books to running outside to dancing. The breadth of mechanical engineering is what attracted me to this field, and I hope to be able to use my engineering skills to learn more about how the world works and positively impact the lives of others around.

 

My top 5 strengths (listed from most prevalent to not as prevalent):

  • Restorative: adept at dealing with problems, good a figuring out what is wrong and resolving it
    • Whenever I encounter problems in a project, I focus on fixing the problem instead of figuring out who to blame. I attack problems in productive ways such that whatever I do has to get me closer to solving the problem. Blaming people typically won’t solve problems and is often unproductive and morally degrading, so I prefer not to assign blame on others. I think attacking problems with a mindset that’s focused on generating possible solutions is a productive one, and will help the team’s morale after a set-back because they’ll feel better after solving the problem rather than fixating on that a problem has occurred.
  • Achiever: great deal of stamina and work hard, take great satisfaction from being busy & productive
    • I’ve noticed that I could work on homework or do difficult tests without feeling that numbing sensation in your brain after working for long hours than most people. I can work harder and longer than some people, but I always thought that I was more accustomed to difficulty than others, never thought of it as an inherent ability. I also prefer working on something rather than taking a break, because whenever I’m stagnant and not doing anything, I feel lazy and unproductive; however, I do enjoy taking breaks to relax after working, so I’m not a complete workaholic.
  • Ideation: fascinated by ideas, able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena
    • I love ideas. I’m fascinated by the simplest things in life. Like how does turning a steering wheel, turn the wheels of a car? Or can regular light from a flashlight be used to generate energy on a solar panel? Or what’s the different between light from flashlights and sunlight? Questions like these sound simple, but they actually show how much we take for granted in life and how much we still don’t know. I enjoy talking and thinking about ideas.
  • Strategic: create alternative ways to proceed, able to quickly spot relevant patterns & issues
    • This goes with restorative. My mindset when solving problems is focusing on finding solutions rather than assigning blame. I tend to think more than talk, so a few people thought I was antisocial for that reason. I think Strategic fits quite well because I think things through when solving problems and finding the best solution instead of the first solution.
  • Includer: accepting of others, awareness of those who feel left out, and make an effort to include them
    • This is a spot on assumption of me. I know what it feels like to be left out because for the first years of schooling for me from pre-school to first grade, I didn’t know how to speak English with confidence. I could understand it to a degree, but speaking was difficult and that excluded me from many activities in preschool and elementary. I also had a bad stutter for the majority of my early childhood, so even if I wanted to speak, it was difficult and cumbersome. My first friends were actually a dog that my teacher had, another student who had autism, and another student who was deaf. I’ve always been with the “misfit” crowd, and knowing how it feels to be excluded, I don’t want anyone to feel left out or not heard at all.

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.]