G.O.A.L.S.

Georgina Lockwood-Taylor

Global Awareness:

Originally of English descent, my family and I travel back to England twice a year. Here, I am still immersed within the culture and through my travels stay a global citizen. I am able to further develop my appreciation for the diversity and unique differences between the two cultures by frequently learning more about each culture’s history and identifying traits. This summer I visited Barcelona, Paris, and Italy, while staying in hostile I was fully exposed to the culture, language, and able to further explore each city. My global awareness grew tremendously and granted me with new knowledge of their history, greatest attractions, and unforgettable experiences. Although I originally had planned to study abroad my junior year, this no longer seems like a feasible plan due to immense course work and prerequisite classes for medical school. However, after graduation I plan to take a GAP year and during this time travel and volunteer within the countries to gain greater cultural experience. I also plan to take course work with great focus on global diversity, such as history courses, and just finished a class focusing on GenerationRx comparing the drug taking behaviors within different cultures.

Original Inquiry:

My experiences thus far with the research and creative process are very limited. I have taken, and plan to, take some more advance neuroscience classes to help further solidify and narrow down which research route I would like to go when applying to psychology and neuroscience research labs. I plan to gain my original inquiry through research, more specifically working under a PI in a research lab. I would like my research to be revolving around something within the medical field with a focus on mental diseases and disorders. I plan to work further towards achieving this goal by in the summer applying and finding research labs that intrigue me, then in the fall start the research process. My main goal from this process is to gain greater research techniques, interpersonal skills and relations with coworkers and bosses, and the hope of being published.

Academic Enrichment:

My honors contract demonstrates my commitment to the goal of academic enrichment and it depicts not only my determination and want to finish my degree, but also within it the challenging course work I want to take to further push and benefit my own self. My planned curriculum relates to my future aspirations as it encompasses all prerequisite classes required for medical school, the route, at this very moment, I would like to further pursue. My selection of classes demonstrates my commitment to excellence as I am determined to gain my honors neuroscience degree, my classes show how I am willing and my want to further push myself, make myself study and think harder, and put myself out of my comfort zone with challenging coursework with honors classes. I choose the major I did as the brain has always been absolutely fascinating to me, my life long career goal is to do research within the medical field specifically relating to addiction and Alzheimer’s disease as these two diseases have tremendously impacted my families lives and the lives of many others.

Leadership Development:

I am currently involved in volunteering at the Mount Carmel West hospital and OSU small animal ICU. These involvements relate to my career goals as I want a career within the medical field, however, although I am still not 100% sure and set which type of patient I would like to be working with, I am leaning towards medical school. Over the past summer, I had a 400-hour work experience at a rehabilitation barn. It was a hands-on experience at a well-known rehab center, working alongside veterinarians and specialized staff. My experience focused on injury rehabilitation, post- surgical care, hydrotherapy, and conditioning. From this experience I gained leadership skills, during this internship on the weekends I managed the barn (was the lead staff member on call), when a horse was sick would have to take charge and make fast acting decisions and learnt how to work within a group to optimize our work completed.

Service Engagement :

My non-clinical volunteering is still a work in process. This summer I plan to continue to volunteer at a riding for disabled facility. Here I instruct and guide mentally and physically disabled children and adults with equine-related activities and have also completed extensive ‘horse leader’ training. There is also a leadership role within this work as well serving as a trainer within the ring. This is something I am very passionate about and could talk about for hours. I have worked with Marco for 13 months, Marco is a nonverbal boy with serve Autism, I taught Marco how to ride and interact with a horse and through this we developed a relationship built on trust and no words. I believe greater emphasis needs to be placed on alternative medicine with America and our community. I have taken course work to further educate myself on GenerationRx and our societal drug behaviors and drug epidemics to play a greater role informing others and helping as well. I would life to find meaningful volunteering work revolving around this and engage with the community.

 

 

 

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 information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

Attached is a Secondary Source Integration paper for English 1110.01. The primary source for the article is a front newspaper cover from the The Daily Progress covering the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville. The paper covers secondary sources relating the newspaper cover to historical context, the Robert E. Lee monument and its impact, and lager broader claims about increasing racial tensions within the United States.

 

 

Secondary Source Integration (SSI)

Although segregation ‘ended’ during the civil rights period and laws can ‘constitutionally’ terminate racism, these laws cannot rapidly change beliefs, which ultimately allows for racism to persists throughout the United States. The Daily Progress is a local newspaper located in Central Virginia, the newspaper’s biggest audience is the locals within the town of Charlottesville. The front cover of the article Fire and Fury, released August 12, 2017, covers the Unite the Right protest which commenced over the debate of removing the Robert E. Lee statue. The front cover also includes two small excerpts regarding the judge’s acceptance of the protest and the other covering the riot itself, and finally two haunting images of protesters holding tiki torches. The front page of the article appears to be about the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue, however, the underlying issue the article posits is about the increasing racial tensions within the United States. The imagery in the newspaper is the strongest representation of this specifically through compare and contrast, the composition of the images, and by drawing attention to both the foreground and background.

The ultimate driving force behind the Unite the Right protest was initiated with the debate over the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue located in Charlottesville. Robert E. Lee, born in 1807, was a well-known confederate general during the American Civil War. The front cover of the article “Fire and Fury” encompasses the issues the monument has presented, with the statue only serving as a catalyst for the growing racial issues. Russell Contreras, the author of “How Robert E. Lee went From Hero to Racist Icon” postulated in the article that Lee actually objectified against building a Confederate monument in his name and urged the county to leave the Civil War behind them, however, once the general past away the exact opposite was done, which only led to future troubles.

The Robert E. Lee statue represents much more than just a commemorative. Although many remember the leading Confederate general as a war hero defending state rights, others will not forget that other side of the Civil War was ultimately about defending slavery and white power, and this was the side Robert E. Lee backed. As stated by Contreras, “documents show Lee was a cruel figure with his slaves and encouraged his overseers to severely beat slaves captured after trying to escape,” this serves as direct evidence proving Robert E. Lee was pro slavery and cruel towards African Americans (Contreras). Because of this, viewers can interpret the monuments as more than just honoring a war hero, but a monument glorifying a slave holder. As illustrated on the front cover of the newspaper “Fire and Fury”, as protestors marched through the University of Virginia during the Unite the Right protest they chanted “you will not replace us,” demonstrating how protestors linked the removal of the Robert E. Lee monument with destroying white identity, heritage, and privilege. Contreras claiming that “Lee monuments went up in the 1920s just as the Ku Klux Klan was experiencing a resurgence and new Jim Crow segregation laws were adopted” exhibits where the connection between the monuments and white supremacy first arose and initiated (Contreras). The claims made by Contreras help to ultimately show and prove that the Confederate monuments represent and can be interpreted as much more than just a memorial for the generals, and also have a deeper underlying issue directly relating to the increasing racial tensions within in the United States.

In addition to the excerpts on the front cover of the newspaper, the article also includes two images of predominately white male protestors holding lit tiki torches. The main central focal image portrays activists with open mouths screaming at the camera, illustrating how they are trying to intimidate viewers, spectators, and opposing protestors. Within the image, a low camera angle was used to capture the protestors, depicting how the males are dominant and actively in control. The main focal image also individualizes the subjects, especially exemplifying the activist’s similar demographics of race, age, class, and even the khaki and collar tee-shirt dress code. This clearly draws attention to their privilege and their act in participating in a violent activity whilst defending a controversial piece of history.

Another key aspect frequently mentioned and illustrated throughout the front cover of the newspaper is the Rotunda. The Rotunda is a notable historical building located in the center of the University of Virginia’s campus and as stated on the front cover, also the final destination white activist marched to during the Unite the Right protest. Brendan Wolfe the author of the article, “Slavery at the University of Virginia” from the Encyclopedia of Virginia states that the prominent building was first designed by the founder Thomas Jefferson in 1819 however, although Jefferson fashioned the main design, the backbone of the construction was carried out by enslaved African Americans. According to Wolfe “in 1825, fifteen slaves manufactured between 800,000 and 900,000 bricks to be used in the construction of the Rotunda, a domed building that was the focal point of the Academical Village” (Wolfe). The Rotunda can be prominently seen in the images on the front cover of the article, with the protestors standing directly in front of the building, screaming and holding lit tiki torches. The significance of the location is highlighted within the image, it is significant due to the historical context of the University itself and the Rotunda. Because of the University of Virginia and the Rotunda’s associated history and involvement with slavery, it allows the reader to make the connection that the protestors deliberately decided to protest at this campus. Especially since most academic academies are thought about as liberal, the protestors directly juxtapose this with their conservative views as they march at the Unite the Right protest. The author of the article talks about the historical context of UVA, linking it directly with its heavy past involving slavery, “the University of Virginia utilized the labor of enslaved African Americans from the earliest days of its construction, in 1817, until the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865)” (Wolfe). Wolfe’s claims about the University of Virginia’s historical involvement with slavery enhance the argument, and help prove that protestor chose UVA in order to prove a specific point about racism within their protest. Therefore, Wolfe’s historical context of the campus broadens and furthermore allows one to make the connection that the protestors were rallying in support of their past white history and defending their white identity.

The composition of the images identifies the specific demographics of the protestors within them, serving as the most compelling evidence and directly linking to politics within the United States. Although Donald Trump himself cannot be held directly accountable for the recent up rise in hate crimes, however, has a turn in political parties and his presidency encouraged those who already held racist views? Between the two images on the front cover of the newspaper a contrast can be drawn, the first image personalizes the protestors. Capturing every like aspect and detail of the activists, where as the second image zooms out, capturing the group mentality of the protestors. The first image appears to be more static, this allows the protestors to dominant the photo and focal point, whereas the second photo embodies the protestors as a whole, marching in a single file line through the University of Virginia, adding a sense of movement to the image. However, notably similar demographics are illustrated within both images. Nancy Gibbs, the author of the article “Hate in America. (Cover Story)” states that Trump is “emboldening racists who want to claim him as their champion and activating a resistance that sees him giving cover to a rising threat from those who aspire to “take our country back.”(Gibbs) Nancy’s claim extends and supports the main overruling argument that racial tensions are increasing within the United States. The composition of the photos depicts the activist’s domination and privilege, allowing the viewer to associate these demographics of the protestors with explicitly representing white power. Through Trump’s slogan to make the country great again, he is allowing different people to interpret this slogan in a variety of ways, however, some, such as the white activists shown in the images, are resulting back to old pastimes, old hate crimes, and want to keep white people in power, allowing them to ultimately want to “take their country back”. Trump backing and protecting white nationalists has created an even larger rift within the country, typifying the growing racial tensions within America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

Gibbs, Nancy. “Hate in America. (Cover Story).” Time, vol. 190, no. 8, 28 Aug. 2017, pp. 24-29. EBSCOhost, proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=124711507&site=ehost-live.

Contreras, Russell. “How Robert E. Lee Went from Hero to Racist Icon” Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2017. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-robert-lee-hero-racist-icon-20170813-story.html

Wolfe, Brendan. “Slavery at the University of Virginia.” Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2 Feb. 2016. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Slavery_at_the_University_of_Virginia

 

About Me

 

Hi my name is Georgina Lockwood-Taylor and I am beyond excited to start my education at The Ohio State University. My family and I, originally from England and of English nationality, first moved to America 6 years ago, however, before this we also lived in Singapore and Malaysia. Living in multiple different countries and experiencing different cultures has truly shaped the person I am today and is a major aspect within my life. I believe traveling broadens the mind and is an experience everyone should be able to undergo. The Ohio State University’s study abroad program was one of the many programs and factors that helped lead me to pick OSU as the school to pursue my undergraduate degree in Biology. Coming from a small private school in Cincinnati, I feel ready to take on all opportunities OSU has to offer, both academically and non academically. Engaging in a variety of challenging course work and joining multiple clubs relating to my pre-health interests and passion of horseback riding will help me to branch out and grow as a person. Being a goal orientated and motivated student, I am excited to tackle OSU’s  difficult classes as an honors student and be pushed out of my academic comfort zone by some of the best professors in the country. During my four years as an undergraduate student at OSU I would like to major in Biology and potentially minor in Economics, all on the pre-health track. After OSU I would like to go on to pursue graduate school for either Medicine or Veterinarian school.