This past year as I sadly wrapped up my ACES experience, I had the chance to mentor not one, but two amazing young women. Hannah and Cammie have been an absolute joy to get to know, and to watch them flourish here at Ohio State. Hannah is a smart, kind, ray of sunshine from Ashland, Ohio. She is studying biochemistry in hopes of following in her father’s footsteps of being a doctor. Hannah has always wanted to be a doctor, which helped secure her path here at OSU. After only one year, she has solidified her class schedule, tackling the tough biology and chemistry classes. She is totally ready to continue these challenging classes, and I was so happy to watch Hannah preserve and stay dedicated to her career path this year. Cammie is funny, friendly, ray of sunshine from Cincinnati, Ohio. Also being from Cincinnati and funnily enough having mutual friends, I loved having Cammie as a mentee. My favorite thing about Cammie’s first year journey at Ohio State and that she had no clue was she wanted to study. I liked this because it gave me the chance to mentor and guide her, along with be a resource. We discussed course, and I recommended classes to her that I thought she would enjoy. I helped her discover majors that I thought would suit her strong assets. I reminded Cammie not to worry, and that she had plenty of time to figure out what exactly she wanted to do with her life. After hearing Cammie stress and worry all year, I was so proud of Cammie when she told me at our last explore Columbus that she had discovered a new major and chosen her career path! (Proud ACES mom moment!) Cammie has chosen to study hospitality in hopes of running a hotel business one day. Cammie is so personable and has great communication skills so I know she will thrive. Both Hannah and Cammie have chosen careers that suit their personalities and where I know they will so much success!
It was a joy to have two mentees because Hannah and Cammie are so different, yet I saw pieces of myself in each of them. Like Hannah, I love to have a plan and stick to it. We both love school and find our classes so interesting. And like Cammie, we both love to explore Ohio State and see all of the fun things Columbus has to offer. We all agreed that OSU is the perfect balance of fun friends, and awesome professors and courses. And of course, we loved the option of the scholar’s program and being in ACES! This year I really got to see Hannah come out of her shell. She has found a great group of friends, and is already making big moves to involved in the pre-med community on campus. Cammie has settled down to find her place, and I can’t wait to see how she grows within the hospitality major. I also can’t wait to watch her grow as a leader within her sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. I loved having the opportunity to get two wonderful young women associated on campus. It was my honor that they trusted me with advice on housing, classes, clubs, meal swipes and everything in between. I am so happy to see that I was able to help them find their own individual place with new friends, clubs on classes on such a large campus.
Besides having the opportunity to help my mentees with socialization, academics and everything in between like I mentioned previously, I myself learned so much from having the opportunity to be a mentor. It was challenging at times but I really wanted to be a leader and someone that these two students could look up to, and trust with advice. I had the task of making sure that they felt supported, encouraged and welcomed their first year on campus and at ACES and I wanted nothing more than to make sure that I was successful at that. I made sure to check in on them both frequently, and make it clear that I was willing to help with whatever they needed! This helped me further develop my leadership and communication skills and I needed to be trusted and easy to reach. I learned how important it is to make yourself approachable and welcoming when you truly want to help someone, and how important it is to be trusted when trying to lead. In conclusion, the mentorship program was hands down one of my favorite things about ACES. From being a mentee who needed all the help she could get, to having the chance to lead two amazing young women, the mentorship allowed me to find my place at Ohio State and help others find their place.
Hannah, Cammie and I went to Condado’s Tacos for our first explore Columbus!