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.]

G.O.A.L.S.

I plan to study abroad multiple times throughout my college career, and I am and intend to remain part of cultural student organizations such as BRASA. I am currently working on organizing an independent study abroad at UNICAMP, a world-class research university in Brazil. Foreign language has been a lifelong passion of mine, and I intend to remain a part of multiple organizations in the pursuit of this. Last year, I was a part of the SPPO club, and I am joining the polyglot club this year. Academically, my Portuguese major includes cultural education such as Brazilian literature and culture classes. I also intend to add Andean and Amazonian studies as a minor, which will include in-depth analysis of the cultures of the indigenous tribes in the Amazon.

My goal is to be part of a research project within my first two years in an area of my study such as Portuguese, environmental science, or linguistics. I am involved in the Spanish and Portuguese department, and would like to work with faculty in their research. I am also interested in lab work regardless of the field, as I think broadening experiences to other disciplines would be valuable. I intend to do an internship during my study abroad, as UNICAMP has many research opportunities for international students, but regardless of where or when I go, an internship will remain a goal.

Because my high school allowed me to start taking classes at OSU starting my sophomore year, this has allowed me to finish all prerequisites for both of my majors before even entering college. It also means that as a freshman, I am taking a literature class taught in Portuguese in which I am the only underclassman. It also means that going forward, I will be able to take classes at a much higher level than I ordinarily would, with more academic rigor than Portuguese 1, 2, or 3 for example. Outside of this, I also plan to diversify the topics I study in my GE and open option courses, delving into areas of study I don’t necessarily feel comfortable in.

I have been an active member of multiple student organizations since my junior year of high school, and intend to pursue a leadership position within them in the coming years. I also intend to arrange a semester abroad independently, which has required independence and self-initiation from the beginning and will until I return. There is no built-in guarantee of housing, credit transfer, or acceptance into a program. I have taken it upon myself to contact the university, and intend to work out a schedule with them that will be acceptable to the registrar here to count towards my 121 hours. I also intend to propose a major plan that will include the credit hours taken abroad for my Portuguese major.

Service has always been a core value in my family, so I have been volunteering longer than I can remember. I started volunteering at the Columbus library when I was 11, and was a docent at the Thurber House in middle school. When I was 12, I became the first volunteer in the Tech Studio at COSI, and maintain my position as the first and longest volunteer of the department. I also completed an internship in which I was in charge of multiple video editing and graphic design projects for the COSI advertising department. I also went on a conservation trip with the Columbus Zoo to Costa Rica when I was 13 to plant trees and help animals in need. I went with my father to Mexico to build houses for families in desperate need, and have volunteered with Rotary for their foreign exchange training programs, as I was in the program twice. Going forward, I intend to continue this pattern of service, and join environmental student organizations as well as volunteering to teach English as a second language to refugees.

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  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.]

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation includes both a description of the artifact and a reflection on why it is important to you, what you learned, and what it means for your next steps.  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.]

About Me

My name is Sophia Lenhart, and yes, I am excruciatingly aware of how short and young I am. My major is romance studies, and I plan to add environmental science. I’m obsessed with Portuguese and language learning, and I was a foreign exchange student in Italy and Brazil. I want to go to law school to study environmental law, and hopefully use that to protect the Amazon Rainforest! I’m also very interested in linguistics and how language works, so you may accidentally set me off on a tangent on why we say things the way we do (like did you know the word “goodbye” comes from someone abbreviating “god be with ye” as “god b’w’y”?) I am basically an encyclopedia of The Office, I played varsity golf, and figure skated for 10 years. I’m from the 614 and I went to high school on OSU campus, so if you’re confused by the bus system, I guarantee I can help you get to where you need to go!

From left to right, this is my exchange sister from France, my little sister, me, my host sister from Brazil, and my little host sister from Brazil at Carnaval in Serra Negra, São Paulo.