I, Elizabeth Mills, am from the small town of Huron, Ohio. This sheltered Lake Erie town has a total population smaller than my graduating class at Ohio State. One might say that life in Columbus is going to be quite the adjustment for someone like me. They would be correct. However, despite some due nervousness about going from a high school with precisely two hallways, to the massive campus of OSU, I am not daunted by this new chapter in my life. Words cannot express how elated I am to take full advantage of all the new opportunities. In doing so, I hope to achieve my ultimate goal of discovering my passion.
One of the biggest draws to The Ohio State University for me is the chance to explore my many interests. I want to take classes that have nothing to do with my major. I want to join clubs and volunteer. I want to connect with professors. I want to seek out research possibilities. And in this way, I want to find my passion in life, a path I can pursue with an absolute zeal. Over my high school career I have enjoyed being involved with an array of extracurricular actives including tennis, teen library council, art club, and National Honor Society in addition to being enrolled in numerous AP and CCP classes. As a lover of everything from analyzing a classic piece of literature, memorizing the bones of the human body, or creating my next piece of art work, I could see myself falling down many different career paths. In reality, how can one truly be certain of where the journey of college will take them?
In my quest to find what career I am most passionate about, I have decided to start the journey in the College of Arts and Sciences as a speech and hearing science major, as well as a scholar in Advocates for Communities and Education. I am thrilled to be considering the possibility of becoming a speech language pathologist, with a focus on children with autism spectrum disorders. These past three summers, I volunteered at pediatric therapy camps at local hospitals, where I worked alongside speech language pathologists. Through these experiences, I have developed a great excitement for the possibility of making this my career. It incorporates my interest in detail-oriented biology, as well as psychology and the study of language. In addition, a career as a speech language pathologist has the potential to offer me hands on interactions with patients, allowing me to utilize my compassion and desire to help others. This could very well end up being my chosen career, but I am also exited to see where the endless opportunities and experiences of Ohio State end up taking this small town girl, because one never knows what the future has in store.