G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness: Through a combination of coursework, language exploration, and academic study abroad, I plan to expand my knowledge of the Spanish language and cultures, and my awareness of various cultures, governments, and societies around the world. The course “History 1681”, which focused on World History, has taught me about the interconnectedness of the cultures, ideas, religions, societies, and governments of the world, and the globalized nature of growth, expansion, and advancement. The course “Geography 2400”, which focused on economic and social geography, has taught me about the increasingly important effects of globalization on the economies, cultures, politics, and societies of the world,  as it has created vast economic inequalities that place millions at a disadvantage and in positions of vulnerability and exploitation. Previously, I completed three years of Spanish coursework at my high school, which taught me the fundamentals of the Spanish language and enlightened me on various Spanish cultures around the world. Additionally, I plan to complete further Spanish language coursework and a study abroad in Spain in order to strengthen and expand my involvement in and knowledge of the Spanish language and the unique and interesting culture of Spain.

 

Original Inquiry: I plan for my research at OSU to focus on the long-term mental, psychological, behavioral, social effects caused by the experiences of poverty and homelessness in children and adolescents and how these effects pose challenges to them in their adulthood and change their beliefs and behaviors. Mostly, I would like to focus on the loss of childhood that poor and homeless youth tend to experience, as they are forced by their circumstances to adapt into early maturity and take on the roles of adulthood, as society has failed to protect them.

 

Academic Enrichment:  The honors curriculum for arts and sciences requires rigorous coursework and numerous upper division courses, which has formulated a well-rounded, challenging, and informative experience for myself. Before entering OSU, I completed 50 hours of coursework at The Ohio State University, and I have maintained my position on the Dean’s list at OSU each semester. In addition to my Arts and Sciences Bachelor’s Degree in Air Transportation, I will be completing a Professional Pilot Certification, RATP, and hopefully a double honors major. I will be completing aviation flight labs as part of my Professional Pilot Certification, which will earn me my Private, Commercial, and Flight Instructor Certificates with single engine land privileges. I will be completing additional aviation courses as part of earning my Restricted ATP Certifying Document, which will reduce my flight hour requirements for the Airline Transport Pilot’s License by 500 hours. My courses have focused on aviation, social sciences, and physical, social, and economic geography.

 

Leadership Development: Due to the numerous difficulties I have faced, I am passionate about the issues of youth homelessness and have been heavily involved in spreading awareness of the issues, proposing solutions, and working with the legislature on the issues. I wrote and delivered a TEDx Talk titled “Love and the American Dream” about my personal experiences with homelessness and poverty in order to inform the American public regarding the difficult and encompassing challenges faced by homeless and poor youth in America. In order to to inform policymakers and to inspire legislative change, I spoke on a panel for the Children’s Defense Fund webinar about the youth housing crisis as part of the Ohio’s Legislative Children’s Caucus, working with legislators to solve the current challenges facing homeless youth. Additionally, I spoke at the 2019 Beat the Odds Celebration, and on live Spectrum TV on the disadvantages that the disabled, poor, and homeless face in public and higher education, as well as a separate interview on Spectrum News about the challenges of intergenerational poverty. Over the summer, as part of Beat the Odds, I gave a speech for the Ohio Children’s Defense Fund: Lift Every Voice for Children event about the challenges faced by homeless and poor youth in America, advocating for improved education for homeless youth.

 

Service Engagement: Over the summer, when we were still planning on building community gardens, I got in touch with an old mentor of mine named Mary Nally, who was the director of the Community Food Initiative Non-Profit that built school and community gardens and promoted food security, in order to share information on how they began. Over the fall, I have been more active in the service project, attending the majority of the meetings and participating in the discussions and decisions, and completing the action items. When we were questioning our choice to build community gardens and were planning a transition to a consulting model, I conducted the “Consulting Research” so that we would understand what that new model would look like and how it would operate. I compiled information about various consulting student organizations and nonprofits in the U.S., which provided ideas on how to make a consulting model successful with the resources we are granted by being part of a university, and some of these ideas were/are planned to be implemented in our model. I was one of the two people who conducted research on how to become a non-profit, as we preferred this approach, rather than a student organization; while we have put this plan on the backburner for now, this information will be useful when we decide to actively apply to become a non-profit. Over the Spring, I participated in the Franklin Manor Project and attended and contributed to the meetings. As part of the Franklin Manor Project, I wrote and revised the Franklin Manor Survey, which was designed as the main planning document to collect information about the preferences of the residents regarding garden design, structure, and involvement. The garden is currently still in its planning stages, and will be structured while implementing the information gained through the survey.

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