Summary of Mentorship Experience

Having the chance to be a mentor this year was one of the bright highlights of a rather trying school year. My first-year mentee was Kai Bull. Kai is from Springfield, Ohio and is currently an undecided major. She began the year as a Psychology major but has recently started considering Women and Gender Studies! As for her desire to come to Ohio State, she was looking for a big school in a city with opportunities and students who are impassioned. Overall, she was hoping to find community, despite its large student class.

When it comes to what Kai and I have in common, I think we were a bit surprised at how many similarities kept coming to the surface. We both have a bit of social awkwardness and anxiety, yet I found it comforting and fascinating that we never seemed to come across this way to each other. I think we’re both goofy people who may seem shy at first, but where we align the most is in our interests. At our very core, we love to spend our time sleeping and watching TikTok, YouTube, and movies. We both love to do art and have a passion for social justice and caring for others, as well. We love One Direction, Starbucks, and pop culture, too, so there was never a time when we didn’t have something to catch up on. I think when it comes to differences, we differ a bit in our work ethics. I enjoy scheduling and planning along with trips to the library, whereas Kai is so chill and takes things as they come. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if we could both be found wrapping up a procrastinated paper at 4am!

I definitely saw a lot of growth with my mentee. The first semester, Kai seemed a bit more aimless and unsure of where her passions may lead her. However, this second semester, I think she branched out a bit more and had some successes actualized that validated things about herself. For example, she was really proud of herself for winning the Bob Ross painting night. Also, when we went to Clay Café, her pottery ended up making it to the Facebook page! In terms of academics, she seems to be figuring out what she enjoys and what she does not, especially in making that decision to be an undecided major and homing in on the prospect of Women and Gender studies. I can see her focusing much more on who she wants to be and where she sees her passions coming together. I can also see that she is much more social. I think it’s hard to adjust to college life, so that first semester can be a trying time, especially when there aren’t as many opportunities to be meeting new individuals. That being said, I could see that she had many more memories she wanted to relay to me this semester, and I think a lot of that had to do with being more comfortable on the campus and with her roommate.

I think I grew as a mentor in a variety of ways. Leadership has always been something I strived to enact, which my mom would gladly attribute to me being the oldest child. I was able to see myself branch out and have this desire to try new things, even in the simple stuff like the busing system. I also saw myself feel confident in leading events elsewhere, like summits or meetings through my internship at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Overall, I’ve learned how fun it is to meet new people and share new experiences. I’ve had mainly the same friends since seventh grade so branching out and trying new friendships has never been something I felt like I needed to do. However, this experience showed me how rewarding new friendships can feel. I hope I was able to guide Kai in the areas of mentoring, socialization, and orientation even in simply just being there or speaking about my own personal experiences. College can be tough because it feels like you are doing almost everything on your own. It can be hard to navigate and know things as simple as what to buy for a class. I hope I was able to be that person for Kai that she could ask questions to when she was confused or even rely on for reminders of events, even if I struggled to remember them myself! Overall, I had the best experience being Kai’s mentor, and it never felt like an extra task on my list. I had a great time getting to know Kai, and I look forward to hanging out with her the next schoolyear!

Second-Semester Interview

It was great getting to sit down with Kai and interview her about schooling, ACES, her involvement on campus, and her hopes for her future career. Thinking back on our previous interview, Kai had just switched from being a psychology major with some indecision to an undecided major, not quite sure where she hoped her future would be heading. In terms of how things have changed between this semester and the last, I would say she has a bit more direction in where she’d like to be going. To be fair, I can’t blame her! Even as a sophomore, I still find myself having a bit of confusion as to where to head in life. Still, as Kai has done, herself, I find it important to really test a variety of things out – you never know what could draw your attention.

The first question I asked Kai was: “Are you enjoying your major? Why or why not?” This was something we had discussed a bit during our long bus journey to the Clay Café, so I felt like I had a decent grip on what her answer might be. Kai is still undecided, and she’s not quite sure if she’s enjoying it or not. At the forefront of her mind is women and gender studies. She’s had the chance to take a few classes in the subject, and they seem to be her favorite. I recall us deliberating the benefits of such a major, and she seemed to be super passionate about the variety of opportunities it offers in career paths. She has always had this care-centered and social justice-focused mindset, so I can totally see why this would be something up her alley! I mentioned how I feel similarly regarding being an English major, where it feels like the possibilities of where you can take your degree are nearly endless!

Regarding involvement, I asked her, “How do you manage your time between your involvement and your academics?” Her habits have not seemed to change from last semester, though she seems to be having a more enjoyable time. I entirely understand how she’s feeling in terms of stress and feeling unmotivated. It’s a bit hard to have goals and stay focused when our routines have become so monotonous during these times. When she’s not working on school, she is normally sleeping, watching tiktok, or watching movies. We have a lot of the same taste in movies, like Harry Potter and Hunger Games, so I’m looking forward to having her over for a movie night at some point.

I then asked her about her involvement with ACES. The first questions I asked were: “How was your first semester in ACES? What has surprised you about the program?” Like myself, she couldn’t seem to remember her first semester for the life of her! We’re both pretty Covid-conscious people, so we can relate that it was a bit hard to make memories – especially when part of our time here was spent stuck in isolation!! What has surprised her most is how excited people are about the program and how she feels cared about. She proclaims, too, that she’s had a much better second semester in ACES, recounting her winning the Bob Ross painting night and the excitement from that! The second question I asked her about ACES was regarding the living-learning community. She said that it’s nice getting to see people to say hi, but she struggles with feeling like not everyone is in ACES. Perhaps it’s because people are much more wary about interacting with others at this time, and it’s harder to recognize the ACES people who you might have classes with when there’s the opportunity to turn your camera off in most classes.

In terms of her career, I asked her if her plans had changed since first semester. She recounts that they kind of have; as mentioned, she has switched from a psychology major to undecided and is showing interest in woman and gender studies. Too, she still retains this desire to have a career that helps people, and that has been her focal point throughout her time at OSU.

Finally, I asked her what her favorite memory was from last semester. As I mentioned, she cannot think of a single thing for the life of her. However, in thinking about this previous semester, she’s been having a much better time. Though she is still stressed and unmotivated, she and roommate have been enjoying going out to the soccer fields by Lincoln and seeing the band practice. She and her roommate have spent a lot more time together and are looking forward to seeing each other next year.

Overall, I feel like it has been hard to grow in a time that feels so stagnant, but Kai has remained such a funny and entertaining person during these times, so it’s been exciting to see her develop her passions and start to work on a true vision. I hope to see her next year and can’t wait to watch how her life unfolds here at OSU.

Explore Columbus – Pt. 2

Going into our second “Explore Columbus” activity, my mentee, Kai, and I were looking to have an experience rather than exploring this go-around. I remembered that after the social painting with Bob Ross event, I kept up with the Instagram stories regarding who would be the winner of the event. Kai ended up winning, and I finally got to see her artistic side that she had mentioned during our first-semester interview. She had a true talent, so I decided to think of ideas that could utilize this, especially because it can be difficult to pursue these side hobbies when school keeps us so busy! Something I had been wanting to try myself was a pottery café. I called up Clay Café, and we planned a trip there. Clay Café is in Grandview, so we knew the only way there was to take a bus. I planned out our route, which involved some bus-hopping, and we seemed ready to go! When we arrived at the bus stop, we waited for almost thirty minutes for a bus that seemed to not be coming. A bit confused, we quickly figured out a different route and hopped on the next available bus. I hadn’t been on the COTA in a little while, so I was a bit antsy, but we befriended the bus driver and enjoyed yanking on the yellow line to indicate our stop. After waiting at a gas station for a little while, we hopped on the next bus and were on our way.

Clay Café was a short walk, and when we arrived, we got right into picking out our pottery! The lady who owns the shop instructed us on techniques we can use for our painting, and then we picked out colors. I have a “too-much” gene, so I had to restrain myself from picking too many options! Once we sat down and began painting, time really just flew by. We discussed so many topics from our periods in quarantine to YouTubers we enjoy watching. I’m genuinely so lucky to have Kai as my mentee; she’s so funny and easy to get along with, and we have so much in common! For our paintings, she did a dotting technique, and I just went for random colors everywhere. We both chose ring holders (perhaps because they were one of the cheaper options!), so it was cool seeing how different ours turned out. We left the shop after about two hours of painting and were told we would be called when our pottery was finished drying and baking.

If we thought our bus ride was confusing the first time around, we had no idea what was coming. We walked through a neighborhood to get to our next stop. I had been worried about our safety prior to going on this trip, but the area wasn’t bad at all: once, a family passed us on bikes – cuteness overload! On our way to the stop, we saw what we had presumed to be our bus back! We hilariously chased the bus, though that technique did not seem to work. When we got to our stop, we waited for a solid twenty or thirty minutes before we started attempting to walk back (a 50-minute walk). However, we weren’t walking too long when Kai spotted the bus, and we sprinted back again to our original spot. We were back to the dorms in twenty-five minutes, and this whole trip, conversation flowed so effortlessly! I ended up going back to pick up our pottery via my friend’s car two weekends later, and upon arriving at the shop, the owner told me that Kai’s work had made it to their Facebook page! I was not surprised one bit, as hers turned out incredible! I would definitely recommend this experience to a friend. It’s fun to express your creative side in a space that feels so distant from campus and school-stresses. Though I’m from Columbus, I think I learned that there are so many experiences to have here and so many places to explore – on my drive back, I noticed the Ohio Craft Museum, which I have never even heard of! I think if I were recommending this experience to someone, I’d say to go into it having an idea of what you’d like to paint in mind, and if you venture on the busing system, be aware that timing is never exact and things might not turn out the way you planned, but that’s what makes the journey fun. Overall, I had a great time with Kai, and I hope to hang out with her in my following time at Ohio State.

Explore Columbus

While I wish we would have been able to do this in person, our Explore Columbus experience was very fun, nonetheless. Kai and I went to see “Halloween” in October at Gateway and had a great time. Knowing we both love things that are old and sometimes creepy, I thought we could check out German Village. I am from Columbus, so I’m pretty familiar with the area and picked out a few of my favorite things to explore there. Even though it might have been a bit easier to do some of the activities I chose in person, virtual was the safest choice at the time.

Last year, a few of my friends and I went to German Village’s Village Lights event. While it starts in December, I was able to show her a few previous events and talk about the experience of walking around, taking pictures, creepy things hanging from trees, and some of the shopping you can do. Speaking of shopping, I was quick to show her The Book Loft, one of my favorite Columbus spots. The great thing about that was they have a whole tour up on the website. While some could argue that it just looks like the same pictures taken of crowded books on shelves, I think it really gets at the experience of walking through those tight hallways trying to find the various genres and sections on display. Plus, the pictures really captured the beautiful outdoor area and even showed how it looks decorated during the holiday season.

I mentioned that some individuals use their homes as stores in German Village, so I thought a unique idea could be to check out a house there. We ended up doing an entire 3D walkthrough of a house which was very enjoyable. I think we both wished it had the antique charm of the village itself, but the renovations were stunning, to say the least, and we would definitely be interested in living there – so long as the price was docked down half a million dollars!

The final thing we checked out were the food trucks around downtown and German Village. I mentioned that during the Village Lights ceremony there are a bunch of food trucks to choose from. We both love Asian food, so we were definitely interested in a few of those options. Overall, it was actually a pretty fun experience. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this in reality someday!

When discussing challenges Kai has faced exploring a new city/campus, she said she hasn’t had too much trouble with getting places she needed to be. She has gone to Walmart via the busing system and claimed it to be a scary experience. Despite her few outings on the bus, she wishes there were more opportunities to explore and that she was made aware of them if there even were any. Doubled on top of her lack of knowledge, she felt a bit stressed by the pandemic as a whole.

I think there have been a lot of obstacles and challenges that my mentee and I have experienced due to COVID. I’m super happy and grateful that we were able to see each other a few times, getting Starbucks or seeing a movie, before things seemed to get even more severe. I wouldn’t say we felt disconnected, but I do think it was difficult to come up with things we could do together. There were too many obstacles this semester, however, and whenever we tried to plan something, things would manage to fall through. I think, additionally, it has been a super tough year academically for us both. Kai mentioned her large course load and I, myself, have been struggling to balance 18 credit hours and an internship. The coronavirus has effectively managed to squash each of our motivation to get work done, and yet we are still trying to get out of our houses every day to finish up this crazy semester. In fact, when we had our zoom call, Kai was at Panera working on homework! It has just been a difficult semester all around and the lack of social interaction has been getting to us both. Despite our being socially awkward, we relate on craving more experiences and feel a bit sad that we are not getting the “college experience.” Though I was fortunate enough to get it for most of my freshman year, I can see how badly Kai wants it. I am hoping and praying for a light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m greatly anticipating reuniting and getting to do all of the fun activities we discussed and planned that just couldn’t work out this semester.

 

Resources:

Virtual Village Lights 2020

https://www.redfin.com/OH/Columbus/199-E-Deshler-Ave-43206/home/100728012

https://www.bookloft.com/tour-store

https://www.zomato.com/columbus-oh/german-village-restaurants/food-truck

First-Semester Interview

It’s not often you get the chance to interview someone your age, especially someone you consider a friend. I loved getting to learn more about my mentee, Kai Bull, even though the circumstances surrounding most of our discussion were bizarre, to say the least. The first few questions I asked her were a bit of a combination of all three questions within the “Academic” category. Kai has just recently switched to an undecided major after trying out psychology, and most of her study habits have been a bit out of whack. She normally heads to the library to catch up on things, and her sleeping patterns could not be bound by the term “schedule.” Her most challenging class thus far has been her social physiology class, just based on the amount of work involved.

I next asked her about involvement. The first question, “how do you plan to get involved on campus,” did not arouse much of an answer, and I totally understand why. She has found it a bit difficult to even find what is going on, and I attested that, even without COVID, the involvement fair is quite the maze. I recommended she check out the website with all of the clubs and activities. In high school, however, she was heavily involved with global scholars, the Renaissance club, and volleyball. She even had an internship for United Way!

Revolving around the “ACES” segment, I asked her why she chose ACES. Her response was extremely admirable. She believes it to be important for communities to come together and to help and make a difference within your community in order to make a bigger change within the world as a whole. I really admire Kai’s desire for equality for all, and I think our passion for social justice is something I’m interested in hearing more about in the upcoming semester.

Within the career section, Kai was cracking me up. When I asked her what her dream job would be, she responded literally doing nothing. After this crazy semester, I am starting to feel the same!! I pushed her a little bit further, though. She mentioned she wouldn’t like a routine, so I was curious if she leans towards more creative work. She really enjoys art and creating, so perhaps she will do something down the line with that! I do know she is taking a few art classes next semester which will hopefully be a great determinant for her regarding her indecision major-wise.

Finally, we discussed what has surprised her most about Ohio State. Her first answer was about the type of people and the observation that it is such a diverse population of individuals which is something we both love. However, her final answer would be how different college life would be without a global pandemic. She understandably feels like there is a lack of direction and that we were just shoved in dorms. It really makes me upset for her that her first year experience couldn’t be normal, and I recall her asking me how life was on campus when it was normal. On a less distressing note, however, she’s also never had this many classes before and has been working to juggle this heavy course load.

I have already loved being Kai’s mentor so much, and I am really hoping we can return to campus next semester and check off some of the things we discussed doing together. It has been super fun, already, just bonding over being socially awkward and loving One Direction, and I think our senses of humor align really well which makes for even better conversations. I hope to do more fun activities with her in the future, and maybe we can try to get involved with organizations on campus together!

National Honors Societies

Items I consider to be representative of my academic interests and achievements would be my certificates of enrollment in the National Honors Society and Spanish National Honors Society in high school. These physical embodiments of my hard work and effort are a reminder of and testament to persistence and consistency. These have both taught me those qualities and their importance in school, work, and life, in general. My enrollment pushed me to perform at a higher level in my classes as well as influenced me to get even more involved in service work. The Spanish National Honors Society, in specific, impelled me to become more involved with the Spanish language and culture. In fact, it allowed me to earn my seal of biliteracy. In my next steps, I can see how these will influence me, primarily in terms of motivation. These sheets of paper are living proof of the outcome of effort and reliability, both of which are qualities I hope to continue to pursue.

Department Medal for English

One of my greatest accomplishments, as mentioned in my About Me, would be my Department Medal for English. It is so important to me because it is like a physical representation of all of the work I’ve put into my writing and a reward for that hard work. Writing is one of my strongest assets and a gift I am so grateful for. This achievement taught me that all hard work is rewarded in some way or another. It also taught me to acknowledge my gifts and utilize them, as well as to treat everyone with kindness and respect. I hadn’t even known I’d received the medal until others informed me and, when I had asked a teacher about it, it turns out that I was head to head with another student but because of how I held myself in my classes, I was chosen to receive the medal. In my next steps, I feel that this was such a monumental thing for me. It put into perspective that writing is something that I would like to pursue. Thus, I am considering a degree in English with minors to supplement such as business and professional writing.

About Me

My name is Lucia Elizabeth Marchese, but, amongst my plethora of nicknames, I prefer to go by Lucy. I am the oldest of three children and have a large extended family. I’ve been a Buckeye all my life, having grown up in Westerville, Ohio and have attended Catholic schooling for majority of my life. If asked to describe myself in three words, I would say determined, humorous, and intelligent. I love a challenge and pushing myself to my limits. In addition, I’m always cracking jokes and trying to make people smile, so much so that I was awarded the senior superlative of Class Clown. One of my greatest achievements, correlating with a skill of mine that I am most proud of, would be winning the Department Medal for English. I love to write and spend a good amount of time working on my bullet journal. I enjoy playing tennis, as well, and was involved with the musicals in high school. I have a large place in my heart for my faith, too, which has given me the opportunity to find a love for service work. I am very interested by languages and am certified biliterate in Spanish in the state of Ohio. I love spontaneous adventures and can’t wait to see what my time at the Ohio State University will bring to me.

Leadership Development

Being a freshman, I am finding it a bit tricky to be a leader in larger things yet have been able to pursue leadership in smaller ways. One of the primary ways I demonstrate leadership is in my group projects. I am normally the one to begin the work or help assign roles to individuals. In terms of leadership in my past, I was Vice President of my Spanish Club in high school as well as the backbone of my school’s Wellness Club. In both of those, I was called to create ideas for club activities, choose dates for those activities, and share them with my school. I also worked at a daycare center, in which, eventually, I was looked upon to train individuals. I hope to carry these leadership traits into college once I am offered more opportunities. As for the future, my dream job would be a prominent editor at Penguin Random House, a job that would require leadership skills such as organization, determination, and passion.

Service Engagement

As mentioned in my About Me, I am very passionate about service work. I was first introduced to it in my Church through sandwich making or going to soup kitchens with my family. My parents have truly shown me what it means to care for one’s community, and I’m very grateful to them for leading the way. As I got older, I began to become more involved with service. A primary way of involvement was assisting my mom with Children’s Liturgy at my church. There, I would help kids to pay attention while teaching them about the readings for the week. In addition, I have been able to volunteer at Vacation Bible School over the past few summers, in which I would lead a group of children and, again, instruct them about the Bible. In my time at Ohio State, I have already been able to attend various service events, whether it be cleaning up a nearby community or helping a nearby garden. One thing in particular that I am very passionate about is my work at the hospital. I was trained to be a Eucharistic minister for the sick through the Newman Center. In doing so, I have been able to offer communion to people throughout each of the hospital buildings who otherwise would not have been able to receive it. I feel very privileged to do something so meaningful to others and have seen that simply sharing some of your time with those who don’t have many visitors or just need someone to talk to is extremely powerful. I am very excited to see what other opportunities come my way while still continuing to pursue service opportunities I am already involved with.