Global Awareness is very important to me and what I am doing here at Ohio State. I feel I had a diverse high school, but not nearly like the experiences that I have heard from some of my peers. Talking about global awareness and learning the cultural, political, and personal situations that people have in other countries and cities is an eye-opening experience that I believe has benefited me so far. For our ACES Pillars Film Project, my group watched a documentary about children that live in a train station underground, and it was shocking. Hearing about situations such as the one that those children are in is one thing, but seeing it second-hand is completely different. If I have the opportunity to study abroad or travel on my own, I would like to visit Grasse, France, where a family that I know through high school connections runs a program similar to the Boys and Girls Club of America. Last summer, I was invited to spend a few weeks there talking to children who do not have very good support systems at home, however I was not able to travel there due to global circumstances at the time. I would love to still travel over and spend time with the family and participate in the work they do, and I hope to do so once I obtain my degree or finish graduate school.

Original Inquiry is an area in my G.O.A.L.S. in which I am eager to improve. I look forward to taking labs and upper-level classes during which I can work with professors doing research. During graduate school, I hope to do a great deal of research in psychology that can be applied to real life and will not only matter in a controlled laboratory setting. I hope to discover new things about developmental and adolescent psychology.

Academic enrichment is a large part of Ohio State’s reputation. At this university, we are surrounded by renowned researchers, rigorous classes, and rare academic and extracurricular opportunities, but what would be the point if we did not take advantage of them? A large part of what makes our university great are the opportunities that students have to academically enrich their four-year (or more) experience, both in and out of the classroom. I plan to pursue a difficult degree path that will end up benefiting me and hopefully will help me when I apply for graduate school and for jobs after that. In the future here at Ohio State, I may try to apply for a position in Undergraduate Student Government, because I feel that it would make my experience here better, and it would provide me with a way to engage with my peers and my community.

Leadership Development is the facet of G.O.A.L.S. that I identify with the strongest. I was considered a ‘leader’ in high school, on sports teams and in my extracurricular activities. However in high school, where you see the same people every day at the same times, it is easy to be a leader. In college, being a leader takes much more effort and determination. With Ohio State having around 60,000 undergraduate students, one does not see their entire graduating class while walking around the halls of a single building, or on a ten-minute walk to class. Leaders at the collegiate level have to be able to reach out, grab on, and connect with their classmates and colleagues through the community and by finding common ground. Engagement in a community is very important to harvesting effective leadership skills and establishing life-long connections that can be used for support now or later on in life.

Service engagement is one of the best ways to connect with a community and just say, “I care about our community and I want to do what I can to show that.” Service makes all parties involved feel better, and it can be a stunning experience. Those who really need whatever service is provided, whether it is providing meals to community members or cleaning up a street, are truly thankful for whatever service can be done; feeling and hearing the gratitude that is evoked from a service opportunity is one of the best feelings ever, because you know that you have acted to make someone’s day better or improve their living conditions. During several of the service events we have had so far for ACES, I have just taken the time to stop and think, “How is this effecting the Columbus community, physically and in principle” and I find my answer when I think about how the people receiving the service are affected, like the blankets and cards we made for hospitalized children or when we cleaned up the streets at the community event. Those actions helped someone along the line be optimistic, or made a bad day not so bad, and thinking about that makes it all worth it.