STEM Seminar

Last night, I visited the Alpheus Smith Nobel Laureate Lecture about Climate Change and C-14 emissions held in 100 Independence Hall. When I initially heard about this event, I was reluctant to go and sit through a whole two hours of just climate change but I just decided to go anyways. It actually turned out to be one of the most interesting lectures I’ve been to. I walked into that lecture, alone, expecting some boring statistics and some scientific journals being referenced throughout the presentation but Steven Chu’s data was original and his passion was genuine, showing me that Chu actually cared a lot about his work and through his lecture, I began to care more about his work and see the mechanisms inside the mind of a Nobel Laureate. I felt a bit out of place in that huge lecture because I was just dressed in a sweatshirt and shorts with my cap on and earphones in and everyone was elderly, dressed in suits and dresses. I felt nervous about coming in such an informal attire and felt like one of the only undergraduate students there but as I got comfortable in my seat and slowly became engrossed in the lecture, I didn’t care for what I wore then because I was like any other audience member, listening to Chu’s genius as he explains complicated chemistry, physics, and atmospheric sciences in layman’s terms. I didn’t really talk to anyone else in the lecture except for a couple of people next to me when we were just discussing how formulated this presentation was and how eloquent Steven Chu was during his explanation of carbon emissions eating away the ozone layer. This lecture didn’t necessarily pertain to my major or area of research that I’m particularly interested in but I was greatly interested in what Dr. Chu presented to us and how effortlessly he was able to explain such complicated concepts to the audience.

I believe there is great merit in being actively involved in the academic community. It allows for people to be more involved and more aware of all the academic opportunities that present themselves at multiple outputs like career fairs, internship representatives, various spokespeople for companies that deal with science that’s related to the event, etc. Being able to network effectively based on academic interests that other people have is the key to becoming successful in college and one’s career. Before I left for college, my brother told me that working hard in college and getting good grades is good and all but someone who can network effectively will always do better in the future than someone who’s just book smarts. Networking in academic activities allows for literally anyone to have a solid opportunity in scoring an internship, volunteering position, research position, etc. that could potentially change their lives. That’s why I strive to be more involved in academic activities like Alpheus Smith Lectures, career fairs, etc. and become a more successful person in the future.

Campus Resource Post

Last week, I visited The Walter E. Dennis Student Learning Center for some help on my CHEM 1210 lab report for the LLT citric acid lab as well as additional help for the upcoming midterm. When I first entered the building, there multiple compartmentalized offices that directed me to whichever place I needed help in which was nice to see instead of just a clustered, run-down, average tutoring center. It indicated to me that this was a place that could actually give me the real assistance that I needed to excel in the upcoming chemistry midterm. As I sat in the room with the Chemistry tutors, I recognized one of my family friends working there who also was an OChem TA so I knew he could thoroughly tutor me on what I needed help on. I sat down with him, talked for a bit, and he first asked what we were learning in Chemistry. I told him that we were learning about heat, enthalpy, entropy, molarity, acids and bases, electron shells, bonding, etc. Immediately, he delved into the first topic and explained it in a way that no one had ever explained to me before; it was so concise yet simultaneously gave me every bit of information I needed to properly understand the topic. After he briefly explained the topic, he gave me around 10 practice problems and 5 bonus problems that were a bit tougher and forced me to think a little more. He would check my answers and when I got one wrong, he would go through the whole problem and provide tips and tricks for me to do better next time I see a problem similar to the one he gave me. He repeated this for all the topics, giving such a good explanation of the whole concept that I left that building feeling a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulder. I felt as if I could have taken that midterm right now and aced it. In addition to my friend, two other tutors joined and gave me extra tips that they thought were helpful in preparing for chemistry midterms and for doing labs. They didn’t show me their previous labs but told me important points to consider when doing a lab report and most importantly, account for everything. I finished my lab report and was confident that I would do well in it because this time, I knew that I was accounting for everything possible in the experiment.

Campus resources are very integral to the education and well-being of students on campus. From disability services to military services to academics to mental health, campus resources are there to assist students off and on campus for a wide range of problems. I initially skeptical about their effectiveness but later found that they are extremely helpful and are able to adapt to any problem that a student has. In the future, I’d like to help out at a campus resource center and assist other students with problems that I had in academics.

 

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Student Orgs

When the Involvement Fair occurred around the 2nd-3rd day of pre-classes “orientation” after move-in, I was amazed by how many student organizations were here at OSU. I heard about how we had 1,300+ student organizations but to see them all together, covering the entire Oval, was incredible to see. The whole Oval was packed with freshmen looking to join any student org and find something to do after classes during the week. I was walking randomly around the Involvement Fair, just window-shopping all the student orgs when I saw the Pre-Med Club student org. I shouldn’t have been surprised because having a club dedicated to the pre-professional field of medicine should have been a given but to see how welcoming the people were was awesome. The people at the stand were very nice and talked to me about all the different activities they do in regular meetings as well as some of the trips they take to either the Cadaver Lab or to Riverside Methodist Hospital or other places that could give us some insight into the daily lives of doctors and nurses. After scanning through the tri-fold board, I finally decided to sign my name and email to the list and try to become a member. The first meeting is coming soon and I hope to find some clarity in what I need to do in the future in terms of applying to medical school, doing well in my classes, meeting with professors, and overall being successful in college in order to get accepted to medical school.

Student organizations are one of the most important and best things to be offered at a university. They give breaks for many students to branch out and connect with people and find similarities in anyone of any grade in OSU. Student organizations are exactly what they sound: organizations started by students to help relieve stress from students, make a change in the university, and to have a good time. There are organizations for any topic ever thought of. There are intramurals along with just regular club sports, videogames club, movies club, yoga club, snowboarding club, various interfaith, religious, and cultural organizations, social and academic fraternities and sororities, clubs for running, and just so much more. OSU is such a big university that heavily stresses the diversity of thought and population so it’s very easy to find an organization that will suit your needs and helps you become a better person overall and bring a positive contribution to the student body of OSU and the University of OSU itself. Having organizations run only by students with just the occasional check given by an adviser who is faculty at the university allows for a comfortable environment to form between board and member. I hope that in the future, I’m able to find more student organizations that emphasize interests that I have and give me outlets to express myself in new, creative ways and find new hobbies and interests that I didn’t know I have. This is because, in college, it’s an opportunity for anyone to branch out and discover new passions and interests.

 

 

Academic Support

Two days ago, I went to Campbell Hall to attend a study session for PSYCH 3313:Behavioral Neuroscience because I had a midterm on the subject material. I was freaking out because every lecture had so many slides and I felt that the course material was going at too high of a pace and was too hard to comprehend. I went to the study session from 6-8 PM and it was extremely helpful. They reviewed all the slides at a pace that was comfortable to everyone and answered questions as we kept going with extreme clarity, giving the people who attended a feeling that the midterm wouldn’t be as bad as everyone thought. That night, I left Campbell Hall with a relieved feeling knowing that I was going to do well on the midterm and I eventually did because of that study session.

I feel like there is such a strong stigma on the idea of seeking help for various subjects. A lot of people think that it’s a weakness to go looking for help on a subject because it apparently shows that you’re dumb and not capable of learning a single unit. However, a question that a lot of people need to ask themselves is do you care about doing well in school and graduating successfully and facing a little ridicule or not risking the ridicule and doing badly on the exam. Even then, a lot of people at college are mature and won’t make fun of people for getting help because college is hard and a change for a lot of people because they’re living in a different environment and having to adapt to harder classes. It’s perfectly normal to ask for tutoring.

I’ve personally never had to seek out tutoring during elementary, middle, or high school but now, year-long courses are compact into one semester so the content is faster and obviously harder because it’s more complex information.

Seeking help can help a student gain confidence to ask more questions during class, meet up with professors during office hours, go to tutoring sessions, etc. It also obviously helps people learn the material at a comfortable pace and allow them to absorb the information better.

During high school, I used to be a math teacher for a company that was based in my hometown, Powell. I had to quit it because of college but later on, I’d like to help people at the college for classes that I’ve taken because who else to help a student in a class than a former student?

All in all, tutoring is a great thing for many freshmen because, for some people, OSU is completely foreign to them and for most people, OSU might not be foreign but living away from parents and being completely capable on yourself is something that everyone struggles with. This along with the increasing difficulty and complexity of classes here, especially being stuffed into around 4 months would put a lot of stress on a student. Tutoring sessions led by upper-classmen helps students deal with stress and pressure with living in a new environment and their classes. This would instantly make a student’s experience at OSU become 10x better and more relaxed.

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About Me

Hi, I’m Anirudha Koppaka and I’m a freshman in the STEM Explorations and Engagement Scholars studying Neuroscience on a Pre-Med track in the class of 2023. I grew up in Powell which is around 20 minutes away from Columbus which greatly affected my choice of going here because it was so close to home that it was convenient for me to go home and see my family. I chose Neuroscience as my major with Pre-Med because I think studying the brain is really interesting and I eventually want to teach medicine in a neuroscience-specific path to other college students in the future. In my free time, I like to watch a lot of movies, play the piano, ride my bike, listen to music, and hang out with my friends. Back home, I went to Olentangy Liberty High School and participated in many clubs like Integration Bee, Science Olympiad, Track and Field, Philosophy Club and others. Me being in so many clubs in high school is one of the reasons I’m so eager to join many student organizations. Being part of so many clubs allowed me to develop my interest in medicine and also teaching because I used to tutor people back in high school. Hopefully in the future, I want to become an M.D.P.h.D and teach at the Ohio State University or another prestigious college of medicine and make a lasting impact on many other people wishing to pursue neuroscience and/or medicine.

Diversity Event

A couple weeks ago, I attended an event run by a certain Hindu student organization called Hindu YUVA. The event was celebrating the birth of the god of satisfaction and happiness, Ganesha. Initially, I thought this event was gonna be boring and I would just be on my phone the whole 2 hours. However, this wasn’t the case at all. Throughout the event, I started meeting new people that knew people that I was friends with and started getting more involved in the event. This event was influenced through my own will to reconnect with my culture, heritage, and religion that I grew up with before coming to college. Since college is such a new environment and it changes a lot of people, it’s easy to forget the traditions that you’re born and raised with so student organizations like Hindu YUVA help rekindle that fire of maintaining my culture in me. When the event ended, I learned a lot more about my religion, how specific traditions and rituals ACTUALLY work, and I met a lot of people that I still talk to and go out with today. I also learned how to maintain the same traditions andcustoms taught to me by my family in college and future life.

Diversity and Inclusion affects STEM in a great way because STEM is all about bringing people in from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds to becoming more involved with STEM-related fields like medicine, engineering, physics, math, computer science, and other revolutionary fields of study. By having diversity, it doesn’t necessarily mean diversity of only race; it also means diversity of thought. Diversity of thought is what fuels innovation and solutions in the STEM field because multiple opinions on a certain topic reflect multiple sides of a problem, allowing people to find the best possible solution to a problem. I feel, though, that there is too much stress on diversity and inclusion in OSU. People already include different races and socioeconomic backgrounds for the most part at OSU from what I’ve seen so far. People only care about the actions that you do that define yourselves, not your color or intelligence or affluence. If you allow for students to work themselves to promoting diversity and inclusion (which a lot of them stress anyways), OSU will run just as fine.

Overall, the event was definitely an eye – opener for me about my own religion that I grew up with  and realized that there is so much more to learn about the world and other cultures, including my own. This event helped me realize how much there is to my religion and how I can maintain the traditions and customs that I have learned for 17 years before moving to college

 

 

 

 

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