A tree doesn’t start out big or beautiful. It takes time for it to grow, and sometimes it takes longer then what we expect. But if we nurture it and give it love and determination, it will grow to be amazing. Each of our goals work like a tree. They are made up of different but equally important aspects. Just like this, the scholars G.O.A.L.S. are also made up of different aspects that are all equally important to each other. Goals around the world are composed of smaller goals, that lead to the main one, following the same pattern, the scholars G.O.A.L.S. are made up of smaller goals that guide towards the bigger one. G.O.A.L.S. is made up of: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. Out of these aspects, there are two that I believe are the most important. I believe this because from them, the rest of the G.O.A.L.S factors can come out of or they are greatly affected by them. These two factors are, Global Awareness and Service Engagement.
I’ve always seen service engagement as something very important. Ever since I was young, I always enjoyed helping everyone around me, in which ever way I could. I also remember that every time I helped, I learned something, and I’ve always kept what I learned each time. We would go and help a convent with their plants. To that same convent, my family and I would donate clothes or toys for them to give to poor children. During first to sixth grade, my school used to give food to a poor old lady that lived in a neighborhood close by to our school. We would sometimes make food for her, or we would buy her sandwiches from a Subway that was close by. She would always show us a smile when we did that. Little by little, through these acts of kindness, we learned her story. One time I also got to go and clean the beach with my mom, for a program we joined. Throughout high school, I kept doing community work for my school. Some weekends we would go to the school, and helped clean, or we would plant small tress (etc.). At one moment, I began tutoring a little deaf girl. I helped a main teacher (in charge of the tutoring) with what the little girl had for homework. I would play with her, make her laugh, until eventually I got her trust, and understanding her was easier. Now at OSU, I get to show a STEM experiment, to children from k12, that may not have every opportunity that we’ve had. Like that, we nurtured their future. Each time I helped to do any of those things, I would learn a new story that the person I helped told me, or that I simply gained by observing. All of this encompasses Service engagement, these are what make Service engagement a means to understanding people in the world better, empathy. This is an extremely important tool for solving the world’s problems.
Global awareness is everywhere we look. It can be seen in TV, events for different societies in groups, etc. My global awareness grew when I helped the convent, because I got to talk to people that don’t live like everyone else; I gained a new perspective. When I cleaned the beach one time, I learned that trash is beginning to be dumped more around the world, and it is urgent that we try our best to not let it happen; I gained new knowledge of the worlds situation and what society is doing to try and help it. When I tutored the little deaf girl, I had to think differently for me to understand someone who goes through several different obstacles every day. Once, I got the opportunity to travel to Europe too. It was amazing to see everyone speaking in another language than the ones I was used too (they spoke Portuguese). After a while, I observed more and more that our differences, were what made us alike. That trip made me reflect a lot on our world, and how it was doing. I gained a new way of thinking because of all those experiences. Like this I will join both factors and say, that they both compliment each other, and inside them you can also find the other factors of G.O.A.L.S. Original inquiry can be seen when, because of wanting to help the worlds community regarding a problem, we join an outreach program or an investigation to try and resolve it. We might even meet people that offer us opportunities to do research with them. I’ve seen this in Current, a marine biology club, that I am a member of at OSU. We recently got the opportunity to participate in a fresh water jellyfish research that will take place next semester. Leadership can be seen developing by the more global awareness that we gain, and the more service engagement were part of. Because it will allow us more opinions and understanding to better talk with people or help resolve a bad problem with and open and just mind. The last one would be academic enrichment. With no doubt this will be gained, by facing the many challenges that mechanical engineering courses, internships and co-ops bring. But with them, my knowledge towards resolving a renewable energy research that I started in high school, may be finished and resolved.
In this way, Service engagement and Global awareness will help me throughout the years. They will allow me to understand the people around me better, and they will allow me to see the world differently, for me to be able to help it together with others. When I help a community, they will help me grow in empathy. They will help me grow in perspectives when I help a community that is unusual to me,when I do research or participate in an internship for NASA. If for example I travel abroad and study the culture of the place I travel to. As I gain these experiences, those two factors will give me the tools to, as an engineer, reach my goals of being able to help everyone in the best way possible. Not alone, but as my best self with others around me. That’s how a tree grows tall, not alone but with its surroundings and its experience.