Though the biggest challenge of sophomore year was online courses and navigating a global pandemic, there were definitely quite a few smaller challenges that tested my resolve as well. I had finally made it to organic chemistry, something I had dreaded taking since I decided to pursue a career in medicine in high school. While the classes were hard, I think that organic chemistry has taught me lessons both inside and outside of the classroom. I learned this year that I did not have solid study skills or a good way to ask for help in making a study plan, forcing me to use OSU resources to rework my habits. This has been incredibly rewarding and important, as I feel that I have finally found a healthy way to study efficiently and avoid burnout, something that was a recurring problem in high school and freshman year of college. I am confident that I can use these newfound study skills to enhance my future learning and excel in my future courses. Outside of the classes I took this year, I also officially changed my major from biology to medical anthropology. While I still love learning about the natural sciences and their application, I felt drawn toward the humanistic views of the anthropology classes and was excited to learn more about how our biology has historically influenced our culture and what our place in the world looks like. Now that I have completed the introductory courses, I am excited to dive further into anthropology and learn about the theory behind the science and how I can further apply it as a physician.

Outside of the classroom I tried to stay as involved as possible, continuing my participation in Alpha Phi Omega and becoming a pledge guide to welcome new members to the fraternity. This was a rewarding experience as it allowed me to meet new people with similar values and feel like I was giving back to my fraternity after they helped me in many ways my freshman year. I also became a member of the newly formed Magazines for Literacy club at OSU, which allowed me to further my passion for literacy in a tangible way and help my community. Hopefully I can continue this passion next semester in an in person format and continue to make a difference through my involvements in the campus community. Overall I would say that this year was definitely challenging, but also showed me that I am resilient and can continue to succeed in adverse circumstances, giving me the confidence to continue to take on challenges in the future.

If I could pick one word to summarize this past semester, it would be routine. While the second semester online was not nearly as hectic as my first, I still had a long way to go before I could truly say I had mastered the art of zooming. This semester most of my classes were asynchronous, which meant that I was completely in charge of watching (or not watching) my lectures on time. As someone who has struggled with time management skills in the past, this was certainly a challenge for me, but one that I decided to meet head on. At the conclusion of this semester I can say that while I was not perfect, I am proud of the effort and self-discipline that I have shown in watching lectures and participating in class. This semester has also lead to a switch in my focus as a student and to greater understanding of the more complex topics of science. Midway through this semester I decided to switch my major from Biology to Medical Anthropology, which was nerve-wracking at first but will hopefully fit my goals better than my previous major. While I still enjoy biology immensely, I felt that Medical Anthropology also contained the more holistic and humanistic aspect that biology did not for me, so I hope to continue to focus more on understanding how humans work and how that influences health in the future.

This semester I also tried to focus more on maintaining my relationships with others and club status during the year, even if it was solely on zoom. I met with friends for socially distanced outdoor picnics, and attended virtual service events with the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity and worked on running blood drives with the Buckeye Blood Club. Hopefully as we continue into 2021 I am able to further those connections and get more involved with student organizations next semester.

After such a crazy semester, the biggest takeaway I can think of is to always be prepared for things to go wrong. It seems crazy to think that so much has changed over the course of just four months, but then again I don’t think anyone expected this semester to happen as it did. I have never learned online before, so logging into my first zoom class and taking an exam using lockdown browser was certainly an interesting experience. As much as I want to say I seamlessly transitioned from in person to online, there were plenty of bumps along the way. One thing I learned quickly is that sometimes failing, and failing on a grand scale at that, is a part of life and will often lead us to bigger and better successes. Switching from in person to online learning forced me to re-examine how I learned and studied, and has allowed me to form better study habits and appreciate office hours and lecture halls much more than before. On top of that, it has shown me that I am capable of rising to and meeting the challenges in front of me, whether they be academic, social, or mental. I hope to bring that mentality with me to future semesters, even when we are able to return to in person instruction.

Now that I am about three quarters of the way through the semester, I can honestly say that college has been very different from what I expected. As a highly motivated student, I was used to having a rigorous course load and moving quickly through material, but even with that experience I was still surprised by college classes. Taking a class that would have been a year long course in high school as a semester course in college meant that I was expected to learn and internalize a large amount of material at a much faster rate than I was used to, and the fact that there are only three midterms rather than a series of tests made exams a bigger event than they used to be. While I have slowly adjusted to the system and figured out how to manage my time and direct my energy towards effectively studying, there was a learning curve over the course of the semester. Despite the quick pace and the increased emphasis on tests, I have found that I have enjoyed what I am learning more than I did in high school as all of my classes are in a field of interest rather than a wide variety of subjects I may not have vested interest in.

Socially, my time at college has gone smoother than expected. The Biological Science Scholars has fostered a great sense of community and I have met many nice people in the program and in my residence hall, which is almost all other scholars. Going to a large school like Ohio State means that there is never a shortage of things to do and people to meet, so I have tried my best to take advantages of the programs offered by the clubs I am in and the Ohio Union Activities Board. Though I would not say my time at OSU has been smooth sailing so far, I have begun to forge my own path and identity at this university, and I hope to continue on that path as I continue in my time here.