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End of Year Reflection

Like any experience of transformation in the life of a young person, my freshman year was a time of development and learning in more ways that just academic. Even though coronavirus’s presence definitely made my freshman year look and feel quite different than a conventional first year experience at Ohio State, the past two semesters were unique and still extremely valuable. Unlike a popular opinion among my peers, this year was not just a “throw away year.” In the (online) classroom, I learned many new concepts that had an impact on me, from curriculum in my Sociology 1101 course about the mental health effects of Covid-19 on the young adult population to how to overcome my pride and reach out when struggling in my Chemistry 1210 and 1220 classes. I also discovered many new ideas outside the classroom in my first year. In particular, after spending much of my life in a Cleveland suburb attending a private Catholic school, I felt that coming to Ohio State was a major culture shock in the best possible way. I met individuals from a variety of different cultural, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I learned appreciation for new groups of people I had rarely been exposed to at home. I was also given the opportunity to take pride in my own cultural and religious beliefs because, for the first time, I was unique in them. As any freshman in college, I do feel like have absolutely changed as a person as a result of the past year, even more so as a result of the effects of Coronavirus on my experience. Being a very social and hands on learning based individual, this year was initially extremely challenging for me. I could not have predicted how hard it would be for me to handle the social and physical isolation of being a nearly fully online student living in an environment away from anyone I had know before. I also had a huge crisis of identity in my first semester as I seemed to “lose” some of my major identifiers as a person. For the first time in my life, I had major struggles academically, especially in science courses which had always been my strong suite, seemed to have lost my identity as a lifelong athlete, and even had to restrain my normally bubbly personality at fear that I would overstep Corona guidelines. I had to learn and adapt to these changes while working toward rediscovering my former passions and finding how they fit in into my new life. A favorite memory from the past year was during the snowstorm on campus during the first month of second semester. My friends and I went out to play in the snow surprisingly alongside many of our classmates. We built snowmen, threw snowballs, and made snow angels, activities many of us had not done since we were children. After a tough first semester, having some of my first true fun at college gave me hope for a better second half of the year. Next year, I am looking forward to getting to experiencing many of the hallmarks of the Ohio State experience I had looked forward to so much. Knowing that I might get the opportunity to go to regular season football game, attend in person classes, or finally get to enter in a competitive meet for the first time in almost 2 years is enough to help me get through finals and bring me excitement of the possibilities of my next year.

March Reflection

March has definitely been one of the best yet most challenged months I have had at college so far. One interesting topic I learned about in class has been in my Intro Sociology class. I am working on writing an op-ed for the class on genders and careers. This was inspired by watching a video for the course suggesting that childhood gendered toys may influence our potential career path and academic strengths, which was a completely new concept to me. This month, one thing I learned about myself was that I can find a positive side to being in a high pressure environment by turning my healthy stress into a motivator to encourage me to stay on top of my work academically, which was especially helpful when I struggled with having Chemistry and Biology midterms in the same week. Additionally, just as I have discovered throughout much of my first year at Ohio State, I can release that unhealthy stress through physical activities like running and lifting so it does not cause me to get too overwhelmed with school work. On the contrary, one struggle I have had this semester was distinguishing between that healthy and unhealthy stress and knowing when to take a break from school when my stress begins to interfere with my performance and hurts my mental health. This month I achieved a passing grade and scored above the curve on one of the hardest chemistry midterms of this semester. After hearing from former 1210 students that the 2nd midterm in class was one of the most challenging tests they had faced in their time at Ohio State, I was extremely nervous for it and put extra time in studying in hopes of just passing exam. I was relieved and very grateful for my performance on the test and it definitely served as a motivator for the rest of the semester to watch my work pay off in a class that has been a major struggle for me this year.

This is a job opportunity found through Ohio State Wexner Medical Center focusing on providing treatment for individuals affected by spinal cord and neuromuscular injuries and diseases. Daily work includes evaluating and creating a treatment plan for those suffering from these afflictions. Applicants also need to be comfortable working through other parts of the Ohio State Physical Therapy department, such as athletics or orthopedics. Qualifications for this job listing include a bachelors degree, a licensed physical therapy degree from an accredited university which is cleared through the National Database of Practitioners, as well as one to two years experience working in a professional medical setting.

In order to be a valid applicant for this job, there are many steps I would need to take. In college, the main focus is completing the required class and experiences needed to apply to enter a doctor of physical therapy program. The American Physical Therapy Association recommends that applicants major in STEM field and complete courses including Anatomy 1 with lab, Physiology 2 with lab, Biology 1, Biology 2, General Chemistry 1 with lab, General Chemistry 2 with lab, General Physics 1 with lab, General Physics 2 with lab, Psychology, and Statistics. As physical therapy school is a form of graduate school, it requires you to that the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) as well as complete up to 300 hours of observation in some form of a medical physical therapy related environment. Finally, applicants need to obtain letters of recommendation, apply to multiple DPT programs, and complete interviews with the faculty of the program.

After getting accepted into a DPT program, individuals must complete the required course work and should plan to graduate in 3 years for a conventional DPT degree and 5-7 years for a dual PhD DPT degree. Then, a fellowship or residency program can be pursued but is not absolutely necessary. Physical therapists are not required to be board certified but can be through the American Board of Physical Therapist Specialties to give them advantaged against competitors in the professional field.

In the immediate future, the steps I can take toward reaching a future job similar to this can start with making sure I complete all necessary classes for the program application. I also need to get in contact with potential individuals to shadow and work to build goof relationships with professors or other individuals who can provide me with quality letters of recommendation. Finally, I need to prepare to take the GRE exam and go through the application process for DPT programs. Completing these initial step would be a great way to keep me on track to entering a DPT program and obtaining a job similar to the one at Wexner Medical Center.

January Reflection

January, both the month of a new semester and a new year, has been a time of fresh starts, growth, and new approaches to challenges. One interesting concept I learned in class so far this month was during my Biology 1113 course. Over break, I had briefly learned about a scientific concept which was elaborated on in the course. I learned about a major topic in neuroscience research called prions, a protein misfolding disorder known to cause some rare neurological issues that may also be responsible for many degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinson’s. I loved having a topic I learned about through my own individual investigation elaborated through my classwork. During January, in relation to self growth, I learned that the true benefits of taking breaks. Having an almost two months break from class work, exams, and residential life was much needed and allowed me to return to this new spring semester refreshed and with a more positive, focused mindset. One major struggle I had this month was the transition from starting classes at home to returning on campus. Unlike last semester, where I began classes on campus, spent to majority of my time at Ohio State through the fall, and only returned home for the final two weeks of classes and exams, this semester was set up in a new way. Starting classes and building a routine at home made returning to campus frustrated because I was forced to adjust to different environment for longer than just exam week. This past month, I was proud that I have been more invested in my school work and have been much more organized in how I am managing my work this semester. I know this may seem like a minor achievement, but I know it will have huge importance when the semester begins to get busier and more intense.

Semester Reflection

This past semester has been filled with many challenges and new experiences which have only been made more prominent as a result of the pandemic. These past couple of months away at school, I have learned how to exist on my own as an individual, how to balance adult responsibilities with school, and how to recognize that, just because my first taste of the “college experience” may look different right now,  does not mean that it cannot hold as much value to me as it may have to others. During my time at Ohio State, I have realized that I love the atmosphere around campus. The people here are so kind and passionate about what they study. I also greatly enjoy how much effort professors, club leaders, and Ohio State as a whole put in to still allow us to have experiences that hold importance in our first semester of college. This semester definitely had its struggles as well. I had an extremely hard time adjusting to online school as a whole. I am a very tactile and group learner, which made working through only zoom challenging for me. Also, since the majority of my classes were large lecture hall or lab courses, I was only able to have one in person course, my chem lab, every three weeks. This was frustrating because I was unable to ever be in contact with and reach out to get help from my peers in my exact section of a course or even meet my professor in person.  Additionally, I really struggled with adjusting to using Carmen for the first time and finding when and where teachers put assignments. After never having experience with these resources before, I had to learn quickly how to access all my work and complete this online work based on each individual professor or TA’s requirement, which meant a lot of mistakes. One achievement I had this past semester was that. I finally felt like I had some guidance about my career path and the direction I want my time at Ohio State to lead me in. After my interview with my ENR alumni who now works as a psychology researcher as well as an interview with a friend’s mother who went to medical school to specialize in internal medicine, I realized that I have much more of a interest in psychology based research than I do in a medicinal education as whole. I liked the concept of having a science based job that centered around medicine because that career allowed me to help people and do science based work with others as part of my everyday tasks, as those two pieces are wildly important to me in a future career. I began to realize that, after my alumni interview, many other careers exist that would allow me to fulfill those requirements while also studying topics I have a stronger passion for. This has lead me to do more investigating about other Ohio State majors and new career paths I had never been exposed to prior to attending college. My goal for next semester is to work towards this new career path by gaining experience is psychology research labs and discuss with advisors in other major to see if I would be a good fit to study any of their subjects.

ENR Scholars Alumni Interview

For my ENR alumni interview I reached out to Emma Dalan. She graduated with a degree in microbiology and working towards applying to a Mental Health counseling program. She is currently a research assistant at Texas Biomedical Research institute, studying neurological disorders. During our interview, we discussed a lot about her time at Ohio State and her current career experiences out of college. She talked about her time as an ENR scholar and how the program helped her make so many great friends right at the start of college. At OSU, besides ENR, she was mainly involved in running club, Peer Reaching Out, student research positions, Buckeye Philharmonic Orchestra, and volunteering programs at Wexner Medical Center. She mentioned some of her favorite classes in undergrad, besides her regular science based major classes, included soil science, intro to drawing, and caffeine science. Emma said she underwent professional development by trying to get as much work experience as she could during college, wether that be on or off campus jobs, labs positions, or leadership in student organizations. Her current professional career has led her to a lab position at University of Texas San Antonio. Prior the that she had a payed position as a lab tech at Ohio State and a job at Fleet Feet running store. Her best advice and lessons she has learned from the professional world is to surround yourself with a goof support system once you enter the work force and to incorporate the things that make you happy into your daily life and professional career. To prepare for entering the work force, Emma reached out to mentors and advisors about possible careers and tried to get as much experience as possible with possible career interests. Her best advice for an interview was to be yourself and be confident in your answers to the questions asked of you. From my interview with Emma, I learned that it’s important to put yourself out there and try new experiences as often as you can. Being involved in a lot of different organizations and getting experience in many different fields of interest will have much more benefits than downfalls. I also learned the importance of taking time to find a job field that you truly have passion for. Additionally, the interview made me realize that it is okay to struggle with college because it is really hard, but what matters most is how you respond to and adapt with those challenges. My time talking with Emma made me realize I should take some time to start making professional connections and, even with corona, try to reach out to new organizations and programs of interest via the internet. Also, her message that college is challenging made me recognize that failure is inevitable, but it’s of much more importance that I pick my self back up from those mistakes, using them as learning experiences.

Monthly Reflection October

October, my second month at Ohio State, was another month filled with plenty new experiences. One interesting topic I learned in class was earlier in the month during my General Chemistry course. We started a section on thermochemistry. This was a topic I only briefly covered when I took an honors chemistry class in high school but had a whole chapter covering it in General Chemistry. This was the first section in my Chemistry class that I had not mostly learned from high school, so I was very interested by the new information and curious to see how I handled learning a completely new topic in the class. One thing I struggled with over this past month was balancing working on school assignments with spending time doing other activities I enjoy. I noticed that the majority of my time is focused on school, which is reasonable as I am college student taking many high credit hour classes, but I did find out the value in taking time away from school to care for myself and do other activites I enjoy. On a similar note, I learned that, by neglecting my interests like running and taking time to be with my friends, I can become a bit burnt out on school and cannot focus as well. Therefore, in the future, I need to make sure to save time for the activities I enjoy in order to improve my success in my work as well as my personal well being. One thing I achieved during the month of October was that I completed my first actual in person lab at Ohio State. Even though it was definitely a bit of a struggle, I was proud to have finished my first college lab and noticed that I actually do enjoy completing lab work even when doing so does not necessarily come easily.

Monthly Reflection September

My first full month of college, September, was definitely a month of growth, learning, and many new experiences at Ohio State. One of the many interesting things I learned in my classes was in my Intro to Psychology class. I had always been fascinated by the scientific explanations behind why people struggle with mental illness. In this class, I learned how many mental illness can occur due to a issue where the receptors of neurons are unable to uptake the chemicals relating to specific emotional responses. I was finally able to piece together a connect between the actual brain science and the physical responses, which I greatly enjoyed learning. This month, in relation to myself, I learned that I am a lot better planning how to respond after a mistake or miscalculation. I have definitely made plenty of mistakes this first month at college, but I have learned how to move on from them as well as craft an appropriate response. One thing I have definitely struggled with in the past month is adjusting to the new heavy workload that my college classes provide me with. Many classes, especially the rigorous math and science courses I have been taking this semester, left me with a large amount of work outside of my scheduled recitation and lectures. I realized I cannot always get all the work finished, no matter how much time I spend with the assignments. Therefore, I need to prioritize assignments worth and higher percent of my grade and better manage my time to get those done. One thing I achieved this month that I am proud of is my first A on a college midterm. Despite a couple of setbacks with my first few midterms, I was able to study and achieve a good score on my psychology midterm later in the month, which made me feel as though my hard work has payed off.

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.]