Year in Review

FIRST SEMESTER

My first semester at The Ohio State University was one of the biggest changes in my life. I had never been away from home for more than a week, and college learning is much different from in high school. This was the semester I learned the most about myself, the campus, and my learning style. Being in a new environment in a new “house,” I learned how to be independent and hold myself accountable for my education and life. I made many friends, including my roommates, others on my floor in Barrett House, and people from my classes. I also got to explore campus and around campus, from simply understanding the campus to experiencing short north with my friends. These experiences in and around campus have made me feel more at home and have made me more comfortable in Columbus. Finally, I learned much about my learning and study habits here. I learned how to take notes and study at a collegiate level. I learned how to utilize the resources on campus, such as the library and the LRC for chemistry. I plan to make many more memories in my first year and advance my education and life the next 3 years as an undergraduate here at The Ohio State University.

 

SECOND SEMESTER/ 1st YEAR

My second semester started with me becoming extremely motivated to be successful academically and increase my campus socialization. I decided to take a class for 1 credit hour that included going on a skiing trip to New York with 10 other people for a weekend. It was an amazing experience, and I got to do something I love, skiing while meeting new people and bonding with them. Soon after, the ski trip was spring break, and then corona hit, and the campus shut down, and the school moved completely online. Similar to my first semester, I was thrown into a new situation I was not prepared for. I had to be even more on top of my school work and more accountable for what I was doing. It was challenging at first. However, I quickly adapted to my new lifestyle. I learned how to prioritize work, organize my days, and have increased my time management skills. While it is not how I planned the end of my first year to go, I believe it forced me to continue to grow as a person and gain more skills than I would have if I stayed on campus and nothing changed. This first year has forced me to mature faster than I anticipated and has changed me more than I expected. I am a completely different person than I was before I came to Ohio State. However, this is an amazing thing for me. I am a much better person now, and I have increased time management skills, better study habits, organization skills, and much more to make me a better candidate for future job opportunities and career choices. I also believe these skills will help me succeed in my next years of college and veterinary school.

 

THIRD SEMESTER/ 2nd YEAR

My third semester at Ohio was challenging, with all of my classes moving online. I continued to work on myself and worked really hard in my classes. I dedicated most of my time to classes and studying, which paid off with making the dean’s list for the Fall 2020 semester. This was the first time I had made the dean’s list, and it was while I was taking some of the hardest classes of my college career, such as organic chemistry. While I struggled with everything being closed and not seeing many friends, I began volunteering for the organization 4 paws. I began fostering a service dog in training, which allowed me to interact with animals hands-on and work on what I wanted to in life. Fostering is extremely time-consuming. However, it taught me better patience, time management, and much more.

 

FOURTH SEMESTER/ 2nd YEAR

My fourth semester at Ohio State wrapped up my second year, and it was very personality-changing for me. All of my classes were online, and I made the tough choice to move back home to save money for the semester. It was difficult leaving my large support system at Ohio State, including my friends, teaching assistant, counselor, etc. I had to learn to work more independently and to rely less on my classmates and friends to remind and help me with assignments. However, I did not have to do it all alone; the professors and my advisor were still able to communicate and help me in any way possible. I was able to work through all of my issues, all while raising my service dog in training. I finished my semester with grades better than my first year, and that was all I wanted for my second year was to improve myself academically each year I am in college.

 

VISION STATEMENT/ STATEMENT OF ACTION

For the rest of my college career, I plan to improve my GPA every year and get my GPA up to 3.7. I want to continue to be a part of the biological sciences scholars program to continue gaining volunteer experience and contacts with researchers and other people to help me in my career. I plan on continuing volunteering with 4 paws and continuing my job as a pet trainer at Petsmart to help me in my career. I also have an online internship over Summer 2021 for companion animal care and am taking 16 credit hours to help boost my animal sciences background. I also plan on using my STEP funding to go on a study abroad to South Africa to study exotic animals such as elephants.

G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness

In the summer of 2017, I went on a school based trip to Ecuador and to the Galapagos Islands. There my classmates and I were engulfed in the cultures of South America and the indigenous people that still resided in certain areas of the countries. This was a very eye opening experience for me as I learned first hand how another culture worked and how it related and differed from where I live in Ohio. This lead me to have a desire to study abroad at least once in my college career. I want to study abroad in countries that vary significantly from how I live so I can gain a newer perspective on the world. I want to use this experience to change how I approach certain situations in life and have a positive change on my outlook in life as well. I plan to study abroad during either winter or spring break during my undergraduate years and travel to Africa or South America.

Original Inquiry

My senior year in high school, I took an advanced placement class, AP Research, which involves students creating an original research question and using a mentor to conduct experiments and write a research paper. I decided that I wanted to research vaccinations and the anxiety that comes with them in children. I researched how temperature has an impact on pain tolerance levels and related that to anxiety levels.

I plan to continue with research at the Ohio State University. With my career goal being veterinary surgery, I aim to do research with animals and science, such as researching canine cancer and how to increase the survival rates of these dogs. This research will allow me to begin my own inquiries in the future and to further my education on animals and diseases/ injuries they acquire.

Academic Enrichment

I take my education and learning very seriously, and I pride myself on challenging myself with harder materials and having a strong work ethic. There are many ways I plan to continue challenging myself and to continue growing as a student and improve my learning. One of the ways I am currently doing this is by being a part of the Biological Sciences Scholars program here at the Ohio State University. This scholars program not only allowed me to meet many people with the same interests, but I get to learn more about how to be a better student and I get many opportunities to make connections with people at the university to help me with my aspirations for the future. Another way I plan to enrich myself in my academics is pursuing a minor in zoology. Since I plan to attend veterinary school in the future, I want to be more prepared by taking on a minor involved with animals and anatomy. This will push me to take harder classes, but it will also better prepare me for my future. I also plan on applying for the honors program here at the university. In high school, I took many challenging classes, and I hope to be able to do the same in college by taking honors classes and pushing my education even further.

Leadership Development

In high school, I was extremely involved and took on many leadership roles such as being the President of my schools National Honor Society, being the captain of the varsity cross country team, and simply being a leader to my peers and underclassman by demonstrating good skills as a leader. However, I don’t want to just be someone who lead in high school, I want to be someone who can help others in college and to be apart of organizations that do a lot for the community, students, and the school. I plan to join pre-vet club, running club, and become an office assistant within the next 2 semesters. While I started my first semester of college without any true leadership roles, I plan to take the time I took to get used to school, college life, and the people, to guide me in my next steps as a leader. I plan to join the clubs and eventually become someone future students will see and will feel comfortable here at this university and find a place they feel they truly belong.

Service Engagement

Serving your community and the people in it is one of the biggest roles I think students and everyone else should have in their life. It is about using your privilege and helping other people who do not have the same opportunities and lifestyle that you have and making their lives even just the slightest bit better. Helping others has been a passion of mine for a long time, from being a part of my middle schools National Honor Society to making my way up to my high schools president of the National Honor Society, I can say I plan to continue serving for the rest of my life, including college. Before the majority of students moved in, I had the opportunity to be involved in the R-LEAD program at Ohio State. I had a week of learning more about the university, the clubs and activities they offer, and most importantly how to be a better leader for your peers and for the future. I met many leaders who are different from me, and I got to learn more about different leadership skills and how to use them in college. Since then I have signed up to be a volunteer at the Franklin County Animal Shelter, and I plan on volunteering every weekend for different organizations such as food banks or clinics and many more. I have a passion to help animals, but I also have a passion to help those who need it, which is why I plan on serving as much as I can in college. I want to set up service opportunities so others can see what serving really does for other people and why it is so important in peoples lives.

Career

OVERVIEW

My future career goal is to become a veterinarian surgeon with domesticated animals. I plan on attending the Ohio State University’s veterinary school and then continuing my internship and residency in the greater Cincinnati area. I plan on obtaining multiple certifications to further my career and become a better veterinary surgeon.

WHY

There are many reasons people want to become a veterinarian, and many of them are similar, they have a desire to help others. Animals such as dogs and cats are not humans, but they deserve to be served and treated like they are. Many people consider their pets as their children, and they have bonds with their pets as strong as they would with a family member or child, which is why they need to be served just as much as humans do. When an animal gets sick or injured, it is extremely hard for the parents to handle it, it’s like having a child that has cancer, it is hard to cope. This is why I want to be a veterinarian, I not only care about the animals I will be treating, but I also care about their owners and how they feel. I want to do everything possible to make sure that they get to take their family member home with them well and healthy.

RESUME

ohio state resume

Artifacts

ARTIFACT 1- OHIO STATE ACCEPTANCE

Why it may not seem like a lot, getting accepted into Ohio State was one of the biggest accomplishments in my life. The Ohio State University has always been my dream school, and I never thought I would actually be able to do it, but looking after my goal, I pushed myself and worked harder than I ever had in my life, and it paid off. The day I got my acceptance letter was one of the best days of my life. This university challenges students in a way other universities don’t, and it allows students to make connections and gain great real-life experiences. This milestone will help me keep the confidence to get through the rest of my education and obtain my future career goals.

 

ARTIFACT 2- 4 PAWS FOR ABILITY

Shine Tricks

This year, I began volunteering for an organization, 4 Paws of Ability, as a primary volunteer trainer. 4 Paws for Ability raises, trains, and socializes dogs to become service animals such as seizure alert dogs and autism assistance dogs, etc. My role in this organization as a primary volunteer trainer is to take a puppy, raise, train, and socialize them for around a year to get them ready for advanced training. I received my first foster, Shine, at 10 weeks old and began teaching her the ways of the world. I’ve learned so much about myself in the process of raising this puppy, and I learned how determined I am to complete a goal. My work ethic has increased tremendously, along with my patience. This experience has also confirmed my goals for helping animals in my future. I care so much for my foster and want her to be healthy and successful. I am so glad to be a part of a journey that leads to a child receiving a life-changing animal. I am so glad to be a part of this organization, and I plan on continuing my volunteer work with 4 Paws for a very long time.

https://4pawsforability.org/

 

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

One class that has impacted me the most during my time at Ohio State is Organic Chemistry. I have never been good at chemistry and have struggled through every general chemistry quiz and exam. However, organic chemistry allowed me to regain my confidence and feel like I deserve to go to Ohio State. This class stresses working on chemical equations, reagents, products formed, and connections to real life. While this class is challenging, it was related much more to the type of work that I plan to do in veterinary medicine. I have gained much confidence from this class, and it has given me hope that all of this hard work will be worth it. I am excited to continue learning about chemistry and its relation to my career goals. The next step for learning more of this topic is by taking Bio-Chemistry, which I will be taking my fifth semester at Ohio State,

About Me

Hi! My name is Kayla Korn and I am a freshman at The Ohio State University. I am in the Biological Sciences Scholars program, and I plan to join the honors program my second year. I am majoring in biology and am minoring in zoology following a pre-vet track. After graduating from Ohio State with a bachelors degree in biology I plan to attend veterinary school at the Ohio State University. I love animals and learning about science so I decided to choose to career path of veterinary surgery.

GROWING UP

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2000. I was born two my mom Paula and my father Derek and an older brother Ryan. I went through the Oak Hills School District for my 12 years of school. I played many sports growing up including soccer, lacrosse, cross country, basketball and more. I went to Oak Hills High School and graduated 9th in my class of 611. I was the National Honor Society President at my school and ran for my varsity cross country team for 4 years.