About Me
Hi I’m Bhakti Merchant, and I’m a first-year student at the Ohio State University. To begin, I am a biochemistry major on the pre-medicine route. Moreover, my professional goals derive from my passion for service and seeing a bright smile on a person’s face after a kind action, despite how trivial it may appear. As I attend Ohio State, I plan to participate in research programs that sought to support anyone afflicted with disease, so I can better facilitate those in need. Furthermore, I’ve always possessed an awe for the phenomenon that is the human and its capabilities such as being able to distinguish the bright yet dark blues of the ocean to the ability to hear a baby’s laughter and first words. It saddens me to know that all people aren’t given the luxury to enjoy life and forced to simply survive as well as struggle through life. Professionally speaking, my lifelong goal consists of utilizing my passion and affinity for science– specifically those of the biological and chemical sort– to solve problems and help people by being a doctor. From the first sight of struggle, I decided that my goal is to allow more people to believe that life is a gift not a burden.
Service became one of my greatest focuses in my life starting in high school when I became involved in philanthropy and community service through a leadership program in my hometown known as Youth Leadership Toledo and its sister branch YiPEE, Youth in Philanthropy Encouraging Excellence. Although I had been involved with various organizations throughout my high school career, Leadership Toledo exposed me to the problems happening in my hometown, Toledo, and nearly the rest of the United States. Moreover, as I learned about my surrounding environment I also gained experience with large-scale fundraising and organizing major events in service. Consequently, these skills were beneficial to my other organizations in and out of high school and hopefully any, if not all, of the organizations I will join at the Ohio State University.
Strengths
Using the My CliftonStrength test, I was able to determine my stop five strengths. My greatest strengths are as follows from greatest of the five to least:
1. Restorative
2. Developer
3. Learner
4. Includer
5. Arranger
I connect to each strength in the following ways:
1. Being restorative means to strengthen “weaknesses”. Throughout my childhood, I’ve noticed I’ve worked hard to overcome obstacles and obtain new skills. For example, despite initially having “two left feet” I have bettered my dancing ability by continuously participating in theater productions, becoming involved in sports to obtain better balance, and practicing with others. I remember one quote from Tim Notke that I keep in mind to this very day, ” Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” This is extremely applicable to the restorative strength.
2. Being a developer, means to see the potential in others and encourage them to do it in any way possible. My connection this particular strength derives from listening to others, especially as they discussion subjects they are passionate about. Moreover, I believe strength stems from passion and passion is strength. Having a dream and ambition is something that can’t be untouched nor ignored.
3. Learners see every experience as an opportunity to grow and learn. One silver lining I always see for any and every situation is I can learn and grow from my experiences. My experiences are what make me who I am today and shape my personality as I develop as a person. One of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein nearly embodies my belief about experiences as an opportunity to learn,” Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Curiosity is never a negative feature and will only promote personal growth.
4. As an includer, I intuitively try to have everyone become involved rather than have anyone be alone. This feature stems from my understanding of what it’s like to be alone and not wishing the same feeling on anyone. It can be difficult to go up a group of people that you don’t know and some people need some support to overcome shyness, timidity, and the like.
5. Being an arranger, means to simplify any complexity, ranging from a life problem to a challenging mathematical equation, to its most fundamental elements. Moreover, I can also separate my own beliefs to listen to others express their own beliefs. I enjoy being able to understand a concept rather than simply memorizing topics. Understanding a concept generally means the topic can be applied to anything regardless of content.