S — Service

Throughout the year, I volunteered at a variety of places both on campus and off of campus. During first semester, I attended the HSS event at the center for around 3 hours, volunteered at St. Al’s food drive in Cleveland for 6 hours during the Christmas season, and helped coach my high school basketball team over Christmas break for 4 hours. In the second semester, I wrote letters to children at the Nationwide Children’s hospital for 2 hours as a part of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Again with SigEp, I made birdhouses for parks in the surrounding area for 2 hours again. Lastly, I participated in A Day in the Life of a Buckeye for 7 hours through Ohio State.

A Day in the Life of a Buckeye was definitely the most memorable experience from my freshman year. On one day a year, OSU busses students from all around the state to the campus for students to show them that college is a realistic goal and opportunity, and for them to see what a typical day was like. Because I was paired up with only one student, it was really rewarding for me to get to know him throughout the day. I felt that I really made an impact on his life and showed him all that Ohio State has to offer.

 

A — Academic Enrichment

For my upperclassman interview, I spoke with both Aaron and Ren, my two RA’s about their college experience thus far. I particularly identified with Aaron because he was exploration during his first semester, and then switched from pre-optometry to pre-med. Also, I love Spanish, and I am thinking about a potential major or minor in it. They advised me that the best way to get in touch with professors about potential research or career opportunities is to email them. Ren is about to take the MCAT in June in Chicago, which is helpful in seeing the timeline of her undergraduate studies. Calc 3 was the hardest class for Ren, which I really struggled with first semester. Overall, talking with Aaron and Ren was a good exercise, which helped me learn more about the academics and future of someone with a career in the health sciences.

 

In the past year, a lot has changed. I am no longer considering a pre-health career, and I’m instead pursuing data analytics. One reason that I switched to this major was because of talking to some upperclassmen in the major. A couple older kids in SigEp are in the major, and they had nothing but good things to say about the teachers, coursework, and future options that the major offered them. I’m looking for a career that is challenging, yet rewarding and that I can do anywhere in the world — the data analytics major offers me all of this. Thanks to the upperclassmen I talked to, I’m confident that I’m in the right major for me.

Year in Review

Throughout my time at Ohio State, a lot of things have changed in my life. I have lost some relationships but gained many more. I was initially Pre-Med, then exploration, then Spanish, and now I’m planning on majoring in computer science, so I am basically all over the place. It has been difficult for me to choose one career path that I am truly passionate about, when so many things interest me. I thought that OSU was going to be a daunting and busy place, where it would be hard to find my niche. Although that was initially true, being a member of HSS and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity really made the college seem smaller and more intimate. I thought that academically, it would be harder than it was freshman year, but my course load was heavy in GE’s and wasn’t entirely challenging. My main goal for the 2nd year of HSS is to find a service project that I’m really passionate about and enjoy going to. For OSU, I would like my GPA to remain above a 3.8, and to be elected to the executive board of my fraternity.

Career

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This is an image of some of my best friends, and the people most important to me.

This is Patagonia, Argentina, where I would like to live one day.

This is a picture of a teacher, because I would like to be a teacher one day.

The most relevant accomplishment thus far in my first semester has been developing my life plan for the future. Coming into college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do as my career, or even which majors I had in mind—I was thinking about virtually every. The combination of being in the exploration survey, along with thinking about my life plan throughout the semester really helped me with this process. By prioritizing what I would look for in a potential career, I realized that I really value happiness and making a difference, as opposed to being in a certain location of financial motivation, which was a large realization for me. I now have a much clearer picture of my future, as my current major is Spanish, but I am also thinking about some sort of healthcare or environmental-related major as my back up.

As a result of this class, I definitely know how to utilize campus and internet resources to determine different career options. The Ohio State exploration website has a lot of good information, as do several other websites that we viewed throughout the course. It’s very important to me to be able to balance academics, extracurricular activities and social events, while staying healthy and in good shape. I think this course, along with the experience of the first semester have helped me to understand how to manage my time better and keep an overall good balance. I discovered that office hours are a great way to access faculty members, and get help on work or advice on life. In my future, I would like to grow in involvement in different extracurricular activities, and continue to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

About Me

I am a freshman in the Health Sciences Scholars program, but I am currently in the exploratory program. Although I would like to help others by working in a major health field, I am also very interested in Spanish, computer science, and math. Some of my hobbies include playing sports like basketball and tennis, playing board games, and eating. Throughout my time here at OSU, I hope to become involved in several organizations that do volunteer work and help other communities, such as GlobeMed, the Newman Center, and potentially an environmental club.

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