The Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S. are extremely helpful resources, especially as a first year student at Ohio State. Having strong, tangible goals to strive for during my time here guides me to understand how I can stand out in this community—one that makes up such an important part of the student body. My background learning of a foreign language has opened my mind to the concept of global awareness and life in different cultures around the world. Without the opportunities of these courses, I may not have had the exposure to these differences. Moving forward, I am prepared to explore outside the boundaries of Ohio State and even outside the United States. I plan to attend summer missions with the student organization Cru so that I can better understand and appreciate cultures different from my own and to spread a message of love to all kinds of people! I can build relationships with people because of our obvious similarity: we are all human. The real joy, though, is being able to delight in our differences and use them to learn about one another. This will also help to further my engagement in service opportunities. Reaching out to low income communities or foreign nations that don’t have the privilege to learn about the Gospel and the unending love of Jesus Christ will teach me about the lifelong commitment to serve others to which I am called. As a freshman, it is difficult to see myself as a leader in this setting, but I quickly learned that my thinking was flawed. Student organization, Scientific Thinkers, has immediately turned me into a leader in my field of interest. Visiting local and underfunded elementary schools during the academic year, this organization brings the excitement of science and STEM research to young kids who hopefully love learning about it as much as we do. This organization will give me a great deal of interpersonal skills, even though most of the interaction is with children. Learning how to convey a clear message to various audiences and presenting information in a way to most successfully grab people’s attention are at the base of data analytics, which is my major. Not having done any research or personal inquiry yet in my career, I especially look forward to this aspect of being an Honors student. To me, research opportunities involve either making connections with the professionals around me and using inspiration from their areas of expertise or using my own interests and inquiries to create a research project individually. Academic enrichment is by far the most natural of the five G.O.A.L.S. for me to achieve. Rigorous coursework and a jam-packed schedule is not out of the ordinary for me and helps me maintain the motivation to learn and be the best I can be. My current curriculum is geared towards advanced math and computer science courses to prepare me for the difficulty of upper-level data analytics concepts. My hope is that I can keep a balanced schedule to pursue interests from not just a single area of study, instead branching out and diving into courses while I have the opportunity to learn about them. The achievement of these five G.O.A.L.S. will ensure that I have a fulfilling experience in college academically, socially, and culturally, and I couldn’t be more ready!