Q: Are you enjoying your major? Why or why not?

A: Aryn is really enjoying her major! She’s still studying Special Education, and it has proved to be everything that she expected and more. First year education majors at Ohio State have the opportunity to participate in FEEP (First Education Experience Program). In FEEP, students are placed in a Columbus school district classroom that correlates with their particular teaching interest. Aryn got placed in a second-grade special ed classroom at Tipp Columbus Elementary school this past semester. She goes four days a week from 9am-3pm, and shadows the intervention specialist. She’s absolutely loved the experience, and it has made her even more confident in her career-path choice. She’s enjoyed the FEEP experience so much that she’s still shadowing her teacher, even thought FEEP technically ended a couple weeks ago — that’s how much she loves interacting with the kids in the school environment!

Q: How have you gotten involved on campus?

A: Even though there aren’t a ton of involvement opportunities available because of the ongoing pandemic, Aryn has still found her place on campus! She joined the club rowing team this past semester, and has really been enjoying both the sport, and the team dynamic. She notes that it’s also quite the time commitment, leaving little time for much other campus involvement. She’s typically gone weekdays from 4:15-8pm, with the travel time and the actual time spent on campus. The team didn’t have any meets this year since it wasn’t safe to travel, but Aryn is looking forward to continuing the sport next year, and finally being able to compete. She enjoys being busy, so the rowing team has been a good addition to her school schedule. 

Q: Have you enjoyed the ACES living-learning community in Smith-Steeb? Why or why not?

A: Aryn is glad that she joined the ACES scholars program, in part because of the living-learning community in Smith-Steeb. She has enjoyed meeting people in the program, and has made a few close friends within the program as a result. She commented that she wishes the circumstances of the year had been different (without the pandemic), so that she could have gotten to know and hang out with more people from the program. The limitations brought upon by social distancing have left many students feeling isolated, and unable to truly get to know their floormates. 

Q: Have your career plans changed since your first semester? Why or why not?

A: Aryn’s career plans have not shifted since her first semester — if anything, they have been strengthened. She still wants to be an intervention specialist and work with elementary-school children in a school setting. She noted that the FEEP program has helped affirm her career plan, and has given her a good idea about what life as an intervention specialist looks like. She gets very excited when she talks about her time spent with the kids in her placement classroom, and absolutely adores the teacher that she’s shadowing. The experience has been a really positive one for her, and has confirmed her desire to seek out a similar career-path. 

Q: What is your favorite memory from last semester?

A: Aryn’s favorite memory from last semester was the pot painting event in Smith Steeb, which was apart of the week-long activity week in the dorm. She and her fellow ACES members got to sit outside on a sunny day and paint pots for succulents. She also recalls really enjoying the stuffed animal-stuffing event that was apart of the same activity week. The dorm activities have definitely been a favorite of Aryn’s, and have made her first year memorable!

My mentee Aryn and I decided to “go” to the Cosi science museum together for our explore columbus assignment. Since the pandemic is still going on and we wanted to be as safe as possible, we did this activity online, rather than going to the actual museum. Although it would have been a much more enriching experience to go in person, the way that the exhibits were set up on the website were still lots of fun. 

The website was set up so that you could “walk” into different exhibits. Once you were in the exhibits, you could drag your mouse across the screen to explore them. We both did it on our separate devices while we facetimes, so we just communicated where we were going, and chatted about the exhibits when we both arrived. 

We first dropped in to the gadgets exhibit. I got to show her around that part of Cosi, and tell her about my trips there as a child, as well as my more recent trips as a high school student. The gadgets exhibit online looked exactly as I had remembered it. It was set up with different checkpoints, and various facts about scientific phenomena at each checkpoint. There were even fun little science experiments that we could do! We both wished that we had the materials to do the experiments, as that would’ve been a fun add-on to our mentor-mentee date. I think that we both enjoyed the gadgets exhibit the most, out of the ones that we visited! Aryn definitely didn’t expect Cosi to look the way that it did, so it was fun to see her reaction, and how excited she was about this first exhibit. 

After gadgets, we explored the Dinosaur exhibit. Even though we were just looking at it through a screen, it was still incredible to see the life-like replications of the dinosaurs. We even saw a dinosaur femur that came from a 70-ton dinosaur! It was easily taller than us, which is insane considering it’s just a small piece of the dinosaur’s leg. As we “walked” around this exhibit, we learned more about other dinosaurs, too. The really cool thing about Cosi (for children, young adults and parents alike), is that it makes learning feel effortless and fun. Being at the museum again definitely made me nostalgic for all of the hours that I spent at Cosi as a child, and it made Aryn really want to visit the museum! 

Unfortunately, the exhibit that I was the most excited about sharing with Aryn wasn’t available to walk through on the website (they just had a few major exhibits up for free). I wanted to show her the progress exhibit, since that has always been my favorite one. In this exhibit, you get to walk through various periods of time in America. Each time period is set up with amazing, intricate details, each depicting what the towns at the time would look like. It quite literally feels like you’re traveling back in time! From the interactive parts (like the 60s diner, fully equipped with timely music playing and a play kitchen), to the mood lighting, it’s a really cool experience. Since we weren’t able to see this one, I just described it to her. 

Aryn was really excited to explore this little piece of Columbus, and she commented that she would like to actually go to the museum in the future, once it’s safe to do so again. We both agreed that we would definitely have to get together next year to hang out and explore the city, since we weren’t able to this past year. If all goes according to plan, we’ll actually be able to go to Cosi together next semester! And if anything, this virtual experience prepared us for what to expect :).

I’m definitely disappointed that Aryn and I didn’t get to do either of our Explore Columbus activities with each other, in person this year. When I was a first year, I absolutely loved going out on the town with my mentor and my co-mentee, and it really helped me acclimate to the city of Columbus. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to ask my mentor questions about college life, and her experiences as a first-year student. While the second piece was doable for Aryn and I, I wish that I was able to show her our amazing city and campus in detail. She’s not from the Ohio area, so I think that it would’ve been beneficial (and fun) to do this together!