Toronto 2016 Itinerary

This year I have had the pleasure of serving as a member of the Leadership Council for the International Affair Scholars program (IA). A key component of the program is a travel abroad experience within the first two years of college. While I did not go abroad during my freshman year, I had the wonderful experience of going to Toronto, Canada with IA for four days this spring.

Toronto was my first ever experience going abroad and I was ecstatic to say the least. Even though I didn’t get a stamp in my passport (apparently they don’t stamp American passports at the Canadian border), it’s a trip that I will never forget.

I have attached the trip itinerary to demonstrate some of the amazing places that we visited. While we visited many locations and museums, my favorite was Casa Loma, one of the oldest castles in North America. My love of castles and early 20th-century life came together as I explored all 100 rooms inside and the extensive garden surrounding the castle. It was truly breathtaking to be able to see a castle first-hand for the first time in my life and I will never forget it.

In addition to Casa Loma, I really loved seeing the prayer space in the Aga Khan museum. Growing up in a christian household, I had never seen the inside of a Muslim prayer space or really known much about how they practice their faith. It was wonderful to see the peace and serenity of that space and learn more about Islam from the museum curators.

The friendships that I gained and strengthened through my brief trip abroad will hopefully continue to grow now that we are back in the United States. Overall, the trip to Toronto with IA was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that helped shape my multicultural competence and personal growth.

Legato STEP Proposal 2016

This year I participated in the Second-Year Transformational Experience Program (STEP). In my cohort, we worked with our faculty mentor to learn more about ourselves and ultimately create a proposal to receive a $2,000 grant from the university for a purpose of our choosing. My final proposal is attached above.

I worked throughout the year to explore what I want to do in the future and decide how I would most like to spend $2,000 to better myself and my education. It became clear to me that I would get the most out of that money by putting it toward a study abroad program. I decided that I wanted to take on an internship in Dublin, Ireland during the summer of 2017. However, it was so much more complicated than just picking a program. I had to pitch my idea to the STEP board and prove that I was worthy of receiving the grant.

I worked hard on my proposal so that I would be able to get as much funding as possible for my study abroad experience. In the end, I learned a lot about the grant proposal writing process and about what I most value spending my time and money on.

While I have yet to hear back about whether or not I have received the grant, I am glad that I went through this experience and can say that I learned more about myself and how to receive a grant in the future.

MMORE Marketing Proposal

Proposal Presentation

This semester in my Business Writing class, I worked with a team of three other students to create a marketing proposal for a local non-profit organization, MMORE (Multiple Myeloma Opportunities for Research and Education). The first link above leads to our final proposal and the second leads to the Prezi we created to pitch our idea.

I’ve chosen to include this as one of my artifacts because this was my first experience working on a semester-long project and learning about the ins and outs of business proposal writing. It’s amazing to me to look at our final 22-page proposal and know that we did all of that work over the semester.

During the course, I learned so much about not only the marketing process but also how to work with a team over the long-term. Going into the course, I had no idea how to make a marketing proposal or what went into its conception. I had also never worked on a group project for a class for more than a week or two. This was an excellent experience in the sense that I learned so much about the professional writing and marketing worlds and got the chance to develop great working relationships with my team members.

I initially thought that working with such a small group for an extended period of time would be a challenge, but I was surprised by the ease of our relationship formation. The first week was a bit awkward, but I can now say that I know quite a bit about each of my team members and have a great relationship with them. I found that the best way to work together was by using open communication and always respecting everyone’s ideas. These are concepts that can be applicable to any working relationship and that I intend to carry with me moving forward.

After leaving this class, I will take with me the lessons I’ve learned about team building and long-term group cooperation as well as the professional writing skills I’ve gained. I believe that these things will make me a stronger job candidate and better coworker in the future.

“Puppies with Purpose”

Collection of Published Work

The first link above leads to my first published article in The Lantern, Ohio State’s newspaper. The second link leads to the collection of my work that has been published by The Lantern.

As a journalism major, I was lucky enough to take my first major-related course under the guidance of Nicole Kraft this Autumn. All semester we learned how to write news and feature articles with one goal: to be published in The Lantern.

I worked hard for the past three months, slowly improving on each article I wrote. I wanted nothing more than to see my name in print and know that I had made it.

My penultimate article was going to be the one; I could feel it. I was determined. When The Lantern editor told me that it was a great piece and that he would run it in the paper, I was ecstatic. My goal had been achieved, or so I thought.

During the subsequent weeks, I picked up the paper every day to see if my article was there. For three weeks, it didn’t appear despite the editor’s vague promises to publish it “soon.” With the unending support of my professor, Nicole, I didn’t give up hope and we continued to pursue the publication.

This past week my article was finally published. I got my by-line.

That experience taught me many valuable lessons: first, that I could do anything if I set my mind to it. Journalism is a tough path and it takes a lot of willingness to put yourself out there and get out of your comfort zone. I found that I could push myself far beyond my boundaries and excel at something brand new to me. Second, I learned that it’s important to not give up on yourself. Whether you’re pursuing a source that won’t give you the time of day or trying to get your article pushed to the top of an editor’s to-do list, it’s important to keep pushing through to get what you want. Perseverance is everything in this world. You have to believe in yourself before you expect anyone else to believe in you.

Nicole Kraft’s class was completely eye-opening for me and I transformed into a reporter in a mere 15 weeks. As I move forward in my professional career, I will take those lessons of perseverance and self-appreciation with me. Look out world, I’m coming for you.

Smith-Steeb OWL-Coordinators

My “flock” of OWLs

This past August I had the pleasure of being an Ohio State Welcome Leader-Coordinator (OWL-C) for Move-In Day, which if you don’t know, is a huge ordeal at a university as large as Ohio State. I live in one of the largest residence halls on campus and OSU prides itself on the ability to make move-in go quickly and smoothly, all because of the work the OWL-C’s and OWL’s do.

As a coordinator this year, I went through several days of leadership training before the big day. Two days before official move-in day, all of the OWL’s (mostly freshman) moved in and I trained my “flock” of 14 for two days on everything they would need to know. Since all but 2 of my OWLs were freshman, I was really the first person they would interact with in college. I was their first impression. I took this role very seriously and welcomed them into OSU with open arms and answers to all the questions they could think of.

Through this week-long experience, I got very close with the other OWL-C’s in my building (top photo) as well as my flock (bottom photo). It taught me a lot about being a leader and how to earn the respect of people who were on the same level as me and people who I supervised. I found that it was all about mutual respect, compassion, and open communication. These are qualities and lessons that I will take with me into the rest of my college career and later into the professional world.

It was also because of the confidence I gained as a leader during the OWL-C experience that I applied to be a Resident Advisor for next year. I know now that I am well-suited to lead first-year students through their journey at OSU and connect with them on a personal level.

Now, a semester after these photos were taken, I’m happy to say that I’m still friends with many of the people who are in these pictures with me. As I move forward, I know I’ll continue to grow as a leader and friend because of this wonderful experience.