I attended the Diversity seminar for STEM scholars in the journalism building. The  main learning outcomes of the seminar was to aid in the participants training in order to understand social issues that minoritized groups deal with on a day to day basis. At the end of the seminar we were expected to be able to define key terms related to social justice such as social identity, dominant/minoritized group, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and privilege. The speaker had as look at multiple slides with different examples of identifiers and identities that people could have. These identities included gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. The speaker wanted us to think about where we fit in to these groups and this negatively effects us on a day to day basis. I thought that as a women I find myself in a minoritized group. This means that even though females are lit technically aminority we still are minoritized because we are denied privileges that our male counterparts get. We were also supposed to think about how if we are privileged in some aspect of our lives how it would feel to not have that privilege. I realized that I take my sexual orientation for granted. As a heterosexual I do not receive judgement or hate for who I choose to love. We also had to discuss and contextualize our experiences using social identities as a point of reference. My experiences as a white American women that stand out are usually limited to harassment from men and discrimination in a STEM major for being a women. At the end of this seminar we were expected to be able to utilize our increased awareness of our identities to build healthy relationships with people from different social groups. I learned that the world as a whole is filled with minoritized groups. Unless you are a white heterosexual attractive American man you are probably part of a minoritized group of some kind. I do think that most of my peers are effected by discrimination and prejudice and oppression on a daily basis. In terms of whether or not there is enough focus on diversity at this university it is hard to tell. It is clear that the institution is putting forth an effort to address diversity through the cultural center and seminars. However, in a University where a majority of the students are from Ohio and surrounding states there is quite a bit of ignorance and prejudice just from the lack of knowledge of other cultures, races, and religions. It is not true that as a student at the Ohio State University that I am not exposed to other cultures though. There seem to be many international students. In fact, my calculus and chemistry class are filled with Asian international students which I did not expect when coming to college. The presenter did not hold back and was not afraid to call students out and challenge their beliefs. One white male student said he realizes he had privilege and that he feels bad for people who do not and our presenter said having sympathy and feeling bad for people does no it helps them at all

When thinking about a non-academic campus resource my first thought would be that only the health center would be an option. However, there are many different non-academic campus resources available at The Ohio State University. For example, there is there student wellness center that provides medical services and has a pharmacy inside its building. I have been there once when I thought I had strep. They got me an appointment that day and tested me and ordered me antibiotics. There is the campus safety and escort center which I have not been to but I assume they help you get home if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. There is the Career Center which I have not been to but my survey class Professor told me it is a very useful resource. There is the Office of International Affairs and I have been there for a first year success series and it is a very pretty office. Finally, there is the Multicultural Center located in the Ohio Union. The Multicultural centers main goal is to prepare students to be global citizens. They want ohio state students to be able to understand other cultures and minorities cultural and heritage background in order to be better more well rounded and educated citizens. According to their website and calendar they offer hundreds of events a year from cultural and intercultural celebrations, heritage and awareness events, dialogues, workshops, student leadership and cohort meetings, prejudice-reduction trainings, wellness initiatives and Social Justice Engagement courses – all focused on teaching students personal and interpersonal skills necessary to be most effective in a diverse world. I was able to go to the event without an RSVP.

I attended a multicultural center event on October 2nd for an event called Women’s Leadership Development Program. This event was geared towards women and dealt with ways to succeed in classes and in college and then how to succeed after college. A key motif of the event was how learning to be resilient is vital for success. Resiliency in the face of failure is what separates success and failure if you can bounce back from failure and learn from your mistakes but not dwell on them you can do anything you put your mind to. I did make a mistake and to this event without realizing it was a 6 month program that required an application. They still let me sit through the lecture though.

I got everything that I hoped I would get from the event. I learned about the power of resiliency and was inspired by the talk. I think the multicultural center would be better if all the events were available to everyone. I felt almost unwelcome. I do understand it was an exclusive group but the multicultural center is about inclusion so they should have known better.

I think this university has enough non academic centers. I still have not been to 3 of the non academic centers and they should keep me busy for a while. I do attend them in the future. I am especially looking forward to going to the Career Center because I am unsure of my future career.

I always looked forward to attending seminars and academic talks once I got to college. I was excited to expand my knowledge and hear about topics that interested me from highly qualified speakers. It is even more exciting to attend a seminar with friends and be able to discuss the seminar afterwards. When I attended the seminar I went with two friends Megan and Jordan. It was nice to be able to bounce ideas off of them and clarify what we had just heard. The room was filled with graduate students and quite a few people from STEM scholars. The fact that quite a few undergraduate students from STEM were there kept me from feeling out of place. I talked to a few of the other STEM students while I was there but, the lecture hall was so crowded it was hard to talk to any of the speakers. In the future I will be sure to arrive earlier to get a good seat at the front. I will also make sure to talk to the speaker.

The seminar was in the subject of physical chemistry and the title was “Molecular dynamic simulations of biomolecular crystals”. Therefore, quite a bit of the things talked about were out of my range of chemistry knowledge. However, I was still able to understand the energy of electrons and their relative location and how this effects the wave of particles. I had not thought about the fact that waves of particles are only relavent when the mass of the object is incredibly small. The research and talk met my expectations of what my field is working on and learning about. After the seminar, it made me want t0 be a part of research and to get involved with the scientific community of research. As an undergraduate, it is just as relevant and important to get involved with research and discovery as a graduate. I think it is incredibly beneficial to get involved in research and is worth the experience and connections you would get.

This seminar was incredibly interesting because it really influenced how I view research and investigation in my field. The academic atmosphere really enlightened me and caused me to want to get involved in research in the discovery. I hope to attend many more seminars just like this one because I really enjoyed talking to my friends after the seminar. It also helped to attend subsets of my major in order to help me understand what specific field of study I am interested in. I would like to investigate the different parts of the field I am interested in in order to understand what I am passionate about. My favorite part of the seminar was being able to go with friends. After the seminar we went to Starbucks and discussed our favorite parts of the talk and tried to understand what was confusing to us. We even looked up part of the talk subject on the internet to understand what we were confused about.

The Ohio State University has many different resources for supporting students and encouraging success. They have office hours for teachers and TA’s. There are many different learning centers for each subject. The Math Building has drop in tutoring almost every day of the week. The chemistry department has drop in tutoring in Celeste lab almost every day of the week as well. The Dennis Learning Center has sessions that you can schedule that teach you new and improved methods of studying and retaining information. They can also teach you about organization and time management skills. The most useful resource available in my opinion are the various learning centers that have drop in tutoring. For me, the office hours for my professors and TA’s conflict with my classes and so it makes it hard for me to attend. However, the LRC for chemistry and math has drop at tutoring for long spans of time which makes it possible for me to fit it in my schedule.

I have gone to the chemistry learning resource center many times. I often go there during the times my chemistry lab TA is scheduled to be there so I can ask her questions about the post lab, lab report, pre lab, and lab write up. I have also been able top work with other students who are there to help answer my questions. I went there recently to ask about Excel and how to use excel to format different graphs and plots. I have never used Excel before so it was incredibly helpful to have the Learning Resource Center available to me. I also go to the Learning Resource Center to ask about homework problems and questions I had while reading the text in the book.

The Math Learning Resource Center was another useful resource for me these past few weeks. The approaching midterm was stressing me out and I had quite a few questions. I had attempted to do some of the sample midterms on Carmen but, the solutions to some of the sample midterms had not been posted so I did not have a way to check my answers. I needed to know if I understood the concepts so therefore, I walked over to the Math Building to go to the Learning Resource Center. I was able to ask the tutors about my different questions and clarify what I did not understand. I even had them do part of the sample midterm to make sure I had the right answers. I know I would not have performed as well as I did on the midterm if the Learning Resource Center was not available. I was even able to do a practice midterm with a girl who was in my class. We worked through the problems and bounced ideas off each other. The act of being able to teach her concepts I already understood helped to cement my understanding of the topics.

The Learning Resource Centers at The Ohio State University are incredibly useful for studying and doing homework. I am really glad they are available to me. I am able to drop by on my time and ask questions and gain understanding and clarity.

I love getting involved in different things because it can help make a huge university seem smaller. I have always enjoyed acting and theatre and because my dad is a lawyer I thought I could really enjoy Mock Trial. Therefore, I attended an information session for mock trial and got the details of the audition. I would have to give a memorized speech, pretend to be a witness, and perform an impromptu speech. One week later I auditioned. I was incredibly nervous but I knew that nerves would cause me to not perform as well. I thought it went okay but, I was not as confident as I thought I would be. I received an email that thanked me for auditioning but I would not be offered a spot on the team. That’s okay. It never hurts to try something out. It could ultimately be for the best. Maybe I’ll find a club much more suited to me. Also, I can always audition again next year. Failure teaches you just as much a success. 

An example of a club I really enjoyed going to was the AMWA or the American Medical Women’s Association. It is a nationally recognized organization and their slogan is “the vision and voice of women in medicine since 1915”. When I got there about 20 girls were sitting in desks and talking about all their classes. I heard a couple girls talking about the level of difficulty of Organic Chemistry and if it helps to take it in the spring versus the fall. We sat and talked for awhile before the meeting officially started. The president, a confident senior, introduced herself and started talking about the history of the club and the requirements to be involved in the club. In order to maintain membership you must attend at least three events and that does not include the volunteering events. You cannot miss more that 3 meetings per semester. You must also pay the $5 due. If you do not do these things you will be considered an inactive member. They also encouraged us to become a national member because AMWA is a national organization. They also talked about the upcoming events such as the YMCA women’s shelter activity host. They host engaging activities and arts and crafts that are for the kids. They also have mock interviews at the medical campus to simulate an interview for medical school. Then they have a fundraiser going on at chipotle. 

This club meeting lifted my spirits about my career path. It made me want to go to medical school and it made me excited for the journey. All of the girls there seemed so motivated and so assured in their choices but, they also talked about how it’s okay to be stressed it’s okay to be confused. They said everyone has those feelings of inadequacy but it’s about overcoming the journey. You work hard and even though it can be difficult to feel like you spend all your time studying or doing homework, it is about having the courage to strive to be the best version of yourself.

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