The Idea

For my spring project, I wanted to devote my time to something challenging yet fun. I want to take on the challenge of being able to not only transition between chords on a guitar but also to be able to play a simple song. This may take a lot more than ten hours but it is something I have always wanted to learn.

Diversity

Social diversity is a weird thing for me.

I attended a diversity event though my STEM EE program and out of the many questions she asked of us, one question stood out above all others. She asked “what identity groups do you most think about?” The answer should have been simple enough. My Indian heritage has been, and continues to be, a huge influence in my life. I was raised through Hindu beliefs, spoke two languages before I knew English, went to the Indian temple every week, visited a lot of Indian families and attended a lot of Indian events. Being Indian was a big part of me but I never really thought about what it meant to be Indian. What came to mind the instance she asked the question was being a male. Not about the struggles of being a male but the struggles others probably face not being male. I have been asked by multiple female friends to walk them home at night or walk them to their cars because of a safety concern. I always happily oblige but it becomes ever increasingly evident that I do not have to face this challenge. There is just a certain level of safety that I feel walking around that people who are not males do not have the privilege of knowing. Talking to strangers, joining random conversations, joining random games, and many more situations are so easy for me to join in on because I do not worry about safety threats. Every time I walk someone home or see one of my friends walking someone home, I realize how scary the world is for others and it is very worrying. I really enjoyed this event. The woman who gave the lecture was very aware of her privileges and her challenges in life. She talked about how it is perfectly natural to feel bad and to feel like a lot of the things in your life were just handed to you if you did not have to go through the same obstacles others did.

One of the things that I believe she explained amazingly was the way people of privilege should look at people who do not have the same privileges. She explained that privilege is not something to feel bad about, rather, it should be taken advantage of. Privilege does not mean one person is better than another person, it means that a person with privilege might not have to experience or even consider an obstacle that others might have to. She then proceeded to tell us that people of privilege are in a unique situation where they can defend people who do not have the same privilege that they do by actively making the world a better place. They can make sure that they are positively influencing their community and making sure that whatever obstacles they face do not define the person. One of my friends talked about how he felt bad that he did not experience any of those obstacles in life and that even though he worked hard to get where he is, he still feels like things were handed to him on a silver platter. I really enjoyed the event and my major takeaway from it is that not everyone has privileges but it is always important to be aware of what privileges that one has and to be appreciative of those while also supporting those who do not have those privileges.

Campus Resource

There are a lot of resources on campus and even though the most used resources at the college are the academic resources, it’s important to acknowledge the non-academic campus resources. One key resources that I have relied on recently is OSU’s Student Health Center.

I have visited the Student Health Center, pictured above, two times so far this year. Once was for my vaccination document – I needed to turn in a physical document describing all the vaccines I had taken and that I was up to date on Ohio State’s vaccination requirements. The second time I went was for a more severe incident. While working on an assignment for a different class and casually talking with my friends at a table tennis table, I was hit with a heavy sided paddle straight to my forehead. I did not make much of the incident in that moment but by the shocked and horrified expressions on everyone else’s faces, I could tell something was wrong. I put my hand on the part of my head which, although was hurting everywhere, was hurting a little more than the rest of my head only to find a pool of blood completely covering my hand. I do not know if I was in shock at the moment, was being affected by the minor concussion I just received or if I generally thought it was funny that an incident like that led to such a big problem. All I know was that the horrified faces all around transitioned to sadness and worry as multiple people started yelling at me to go to the bathroom because at this point, blood was trailing down my face like water in a shower, and I was dripping it everywhere. It was at this moment that I should have called an ambulance or gone to urgent care. I was previously working on an assignment which was worth a lot of points and I knew that I could not afford to lose time on so when this unfortunate situation arose, I tried to get back to my studies. I put Neosporin on the wound followed by a bandaid in hopes that I could resume the work that I was so desperate to get done. I finished it a couple hours later, still somewhat in shock, and went to bed right after the assignment at 4 AM. I put an extra blanket under my pillow so as to alleviate the headaches that were caused. The following evening, I went to Ohio State’s Student Health Center and got help almost immediately. After talking with the doctor, he believed that I was in a terrible condition in multiple ways. Physically, I had just lost a lot of blood the day before and I knew that I was not feeling great at the moment because of it. He also let me know a myriad of things: I was in an unhealthy situation before the incident, it was too late for me to get stitches so I should have gone to urgent care, and that I may be suffering from headaches on the back of my head due to the stress that I put on myself due to my course load. I really loved being able to be more personal with the doctor here than I usually am at the hospital in my home town. He let me know that I was not eating enough, sleeping enough, drinking enough and was putting too much stress on myself with my work load. He proceeded to give me info on how to help with each of my problems and let me know that I could come back to see him again if I had any more problems. I even got my flu shot while I was there. The Student Health Center is undervalued resource among the students and I am very glad that I was able to talk to a professional who actually cared about my condition and followed through by checking up on me.

Stem Seminar Post

I attended this seminar at the Chemistry and Bimolecular building shown above titled “Non-radiative Processes in Semiconductor Nano-crystals.” The majority of the people were older students, probably chemistry graduate students. Although I currently have very little motivation to become a chemistry student, one of my biggest considerations for choosing a major at The Ohio State University, and all the other colleges for which I applied, was to be a chemical engineer. I took introduction to chemistry in high school and loved it. Taking AP Chemistry, to further my fascination with chemistry, ruined my love for chemistry. It was a great subject with a lot of fascinating content but the rigorous workload and lack of effort from my teacher made me dislike it. In spite of my dislike of the class, I decided to invest some more time in the subject that blossomed my curiosity of the sciences. The seminar itself was a bit strange. For one, the man giving the seminar spoke a bit faster than I would have preferred. This quick-speaking was a real problem as it was coupled with the fact that most of his vernacular was that of a Chemistry graduate student and a lot of it went over my head. This seemed like a seminar for graduate students and students who have a moderate understanding of complex chemistry. The seminar presenter explained that they took silicon solid structures and they cut them to nano meter scale. From there, they measured conical intersections. At this point, the rest of the seminar went above my head. My friend explained to me that they determined electron level excitation in order to determine what emission of light would be possible dependent upon the input of voltage. The seminar speaker then talked about some impurities that could have skewed the data. He then talked about some materials that would not be good for use in modern phones as they only allowed emissions of the two lowest electron level excitation. He provided a lot of information and used graphics to back it up and a lot of it actually made sense to me, even if it was to a very minimal degree. Overall, I really enjoyed the seminar. It was a lot of fun to sit and just listen to someone talk about something they are really passionate about and it made me enjoy it a lot. It was more enjoyable to my friend who is a chemistry major and understood a lot more of it than I did but the experience was one that was definitely worth going through. I’m proud that The Ohio State University provides a lot of options and events for what to do and how to experience things that one may not normally experience when focused on one major or one career path. It enables one to think about things differently than one would normally while also allowing each person’s strengths to shine. The seminar was more enjoyable to my friend than it was to me because it made more sense to him than it did for me but I got to go through the mindset of a professional chemist.

Academic Support

I’m pretty fortunate that I came to The Ohio State University because whenever I need help on something, I have so many people I can rely on. Take, for example, that I badly required help in physics earlier this week. The first thing I did was ask my physics Teacher’s Assistant what his office hours are and when they provide free physics tutoring. He told me his specific office hours as well as where to get additional physics help. One of the places I could get it was inside the residential halls, specifically Scott Hall and Houck Hall. Scott Hall Room 249 and Houck Hall study room provided extra outside help from peers who were determined to help if it was needed. Personally, I wanted try this first because it is a little less formal and I can ask a peer with less pressure than I can a professor or a teacher’s assistant.

So I went to Alpheus Smith Laboratory of Physics where faculty who worked in the physics department tutored from 4-6 every week day. I have a bad habit of  asking way too many questions, some of which have no prevalence to getting the answer, but I like to know why things are the way they are instead of just how things are. I walked into the building with no clue as to where to go. I walked around for about 15 minute until I came upon a sign in the corner of one of the bulletins that said “Tutoring Room 116”. It was odd to see such an important sign on such a crowded bulletin board with no significance shown to it. When I walked in, there were no signs anywhere near the door except a small sign on it, which was also somewhat shocking. As I walked in, there were students sitting everywhere but no one was talking to anyone else and no one gave any attention to me so I was not really sure who was in charge or who was the tutor. When I tapped on someone’s shoulder to ask where the tutor was, I was met with quick disappointment when I was told that the only time they tutored was between 4-6pm every week day. One of the problems was that my Fundamentals of Engineering 1181 class took place from 5-6 so half the time was not available to me. I arrived pretty early before it started so I was able to get help pretty successfully. When the tutor explained how to do problems that involved inclined planes, and the changing from static friction to kinetic friction and vise versa, it made more sense than anything my lecturer had ever explained. Unfortunately, I probably will not be returning to Smith Lab for physics tutoring because it is a big time commitment and I use spaces in my class schedule to work on other classes and to replenish my energy after an especially exhausting class. This experience was not bad in any sense of the word and made me realize that I should probably go get some help in it more often than not. I plan on attending more physics tutoring sessions at the Houck House study room from 7-9pm where I can ask countless questions and they can clearly explain to me what each idea means and how it relates to the situation. All in all, I really enjoyed being tutored and I plan to return many times for the rest of my academic career in all my subjects.

Student Orgs.

Orientation day was my first time being at the University overnight. I talked to a lot of new people and tried a lot new activities. The most prominent one being sand volleyball. Me and seven of my new friends started it jokingly but got really into it. We did a lot of new activities but sand volleyball became an unofficial tradition.

I participated in the OWL program, and arrived 2 days before most of my peers. After all the activities and programs we participated in for the first couple days, we all went to the volleyball courts which, fortunately, are located in front of Houston House. When everyone was moved in, they joined our love for retiring to volleyball after a long tiresome day. While I browsed Ohio State’s directory of clubs and student organizations, a lot of things seemed appealing but there were too many that I couldn’t make time for. I talked to a lot of organizations during the STEM Exploration and Engagement OSU involvement fair and even more during the public OSU involvement fair but was not really super interested in any one club specifically. I joined some simple clubs like the Actuarial club and the Accounting club, even some silly ones like the Painting With Bob Ross Club. The one that stood out above everything though was the intramural Sand Volleyball club.

One of my friends, Takuma, who joined me in playing volleyball religiously had signed up and started practicing with them while also playing with us. Takuma invited me to his team and explained all the rules of the intramural sport. He explained that it was a very low stress club and lots of fun with a lot of people who did not take the sport super seriously. I started playing and it was so much fun. The leader of the club is really chill, carefree and nice and he encourages us to play better and to have lots of fun while doing it. He gives us tips and advice on how to improve as well as teach us anything new. This organization can be very beneficial to me and I believe that I’ll continue doing this for the next four years. It’s a good way to make new friends, play in a competitive environment that supports having fun and just relax from the myriad of assignments that constantly berate me throughout the course of most days.

To accommodate for this new club, I’ve been doing my Monday homework on the weekend beforehand which is helping treat my procrastination. For the first couple weeks of college, my friends and I have all been looking for a club that would be very fun to be in or looking to start a new club but with this, our search has shrunk as we are all having so so much fun with this club. We have not had a lot of practices yet and have not faced any other teams so far but the large size of the university and the large number of teams to face are making the club much more exciting.  This is looking to be a very fun semester and a lot of it has to do with the intramural sand volleyball club.

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.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. 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.

  • Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc.
  • Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
  • Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
  • Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
  • Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

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.]