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Author: minnie.6
Year in Review
[ “Year in Review” is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student. You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]
G.O.A.L.S.
For my Columbus To Do List experience I have chosen the Local Food Favorites list. As a vegan, I am always looking for new restaurants to try out with good vegan options. Not only do I love good food but I love when restaurants have good atmospheres too, when dining out is an experience. I hope that by finding new restaurants I will also be able to explore new parts of Columbus. I’ve learned that it’s easy to stay on campus all of the time, so I hope that by doing this assignment I will get out into Columbus more. Restaurants can tell a lot about a city. I’m really looking forward to spending some more time with people in ENR, as three of the experiences have to be with other people in scholars.
For the past couple of years, every time I visited Columbus I had to go to Northstar Café. They make, in my opinion, the best veggie burger. I couldn’t even wait to take a picture before eating some of it. Along with the burger they serve an amazing side salad, and I’m not typically a huge fan of salads. Northstar has quite a few things on their menu that are very easily made vegan. For the veggie burger, I just ask for it to be vegan and they take off the cheese and change the bread it’s on. The atmosphere of the restaurant is unique and organic. Almost the entire restaurant is wooden and there is really nice lighting. I will definitely go back and have already recommended Northstar to quite a few people.
Columbus To Do List 2
One of the restaurants I chose to go to was Melt Bar and Grilled. I had been here once before earlier in the year and was a huge fan. They offer quite a few vegan options which are amazing and super tasty. I ordered just a plain grilled cheese with vegan mozzarella. That combined with their fries was so good. The atmosphere of the restaurant is also super cool. There is a lot of stimulation with all of the colors and interesting decorations. I would definitely recommend Melt to a friend, however it is true it’s a pretty heavy meal.
The next experience I chose was Portia’s Café. This was a real treat. It’s always amazing to go to a restaurant where the entire menu is vegan because it doesn’t happen very often, although it does make me want to order everything. I split a vegan waffle with a couple of girls in ENR, got a notuna melt quesadilla, and a slice of chocolate cheezecake. I almost couldn’t believe how good everything tasted, especially the cheezecake. The restaurant was very warm and homey feeling. I would very highly recommend this to any friend, especially those who aren’t sure of what to eat as a vegan. I also plan of going back very soon.
I went to Aab India for the first time. As soon as I read that it was the best Indian food in Columbus I knew I had to try it because I love Indian food. I ordered the aloo choley which is one of my favorite vegan Indian dishes. It was delicious to say the least. The menu was very well laid out and they had a whole vegetarian section. I went with Hailey from ENR and we both really enjoyed the restaurant’s atmosphere. I would say it was the fanciest Indian restaurant I had ever been to. I would definitely recommend this to someone craving good Indian cuisine.
The last restaurant I visited was Nida’s Thai on High. I ordered the edamame which Kam from ENR and I thought were very tasty. I loved the atmosphere in the restaurant as well. It was pretty upscale feeling and would be great for a date. I would definitely like to go back and try some more of the food.
My favorite experience was Portia’s Café. I had never tried that much good and exclusively vegan food. Through this assignment, I learned that Columbus has a lot to offer. Not only does the city have many amazing restaurants, but it could be seen through the other lists that there are so many other things to do in Columbus as well. I will never have to feel like I’m stuck on a college campus for months at a time in this city. Going to the different restaurants has made me want to explore the different neighborhoods in Columbus and the different cultures within those. For anyone trying to visit five different restaurants in Columbus, I would recommend pacing yourself and planning the transportation ahead of time. I found that Uber was often the most time-efficient mode of transportation and was not too expensive.
Career
[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career. Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]
Artifacts
I spoke with my mentor Marie McConnel who is a second year and is studying Environmental Science. I asked Marie these questions: what is your favorite study spot on campus, what type of volunteer hours have you done at OSU, what advice do you have for making the most of ENR, what is your dream job and why, and what advice do you wish someone gave you your freshman year.
I learned quite a few things while speaking with Marie, the first being about study spots. She said she really likes to study in Kottman and in the Agriculture Library because it is usually quiet there. I typically study in my room but have been looking for more places to go to. I think it sometimes helps me to focus if I change up the location of where I am doing homework, so I will definitely check these places out.
Marie told me about some of her volunteer experience at Ohio State. She said she has done a lot with ENR like the wetland cleanups. Along with this, she has done outside volunteer work that is similar to what she has done in ENR, some of this work being the removal of invasive species and tree planting. I have been looking for more volunteer work to get involved in so it was interesting to hear what Marie has done. It was also cool to hear about some of the different volunteer work I can do that relates to environmental majors.
As for advice about making the most of ENR scholars, Marie mentioned that it’s really important to meet as many people as you can at the beginning. She said that she did not do this right away and it made it more difficult to create good friendships in the group. While everyone is very open and accepting in ENR, if you wait long enough to make friends then people have already formed friend groups. It is harder to get into the groups then.
Marie said that she isn’t really sure what her dream job is because she changes her mind so often, but at the moment she would love to work in a national park and be a naturalist. She said it would be really cool to lead nature walks and work with kids in the parks teaching them about their surroundings. I love to hear what peoples’ dream jobs are because it tells you if they could do anything, with no consequences, this is what they would spend their life doing. I told Marie about my dream job of being a filmmaker who makes documentaries about the environment. I think that your dream job should tell you what you should aim for. So, even if I don’t become a filmmaker, maybe I should lean towards a job that incorporates more creative aspects. The same goes for Marie; maybe she won’t end up working in a national park but she recognizes that she wants to work outdoors and possibly with kids but not in a traditional classroom setting.
When I asked Marie what advice she wishes someone gave her freshman year, she said that she wishes someone had told her it’s okay to be a mess. You can miss homework assignments, fail classes, change your major and it will still turn out okay in the end. Right now I am trying to find out who I want to be and that is definitely a process of trial and error. I don’t need to know everything right at this moment. This was so important for me to hear because I was recently struggling with whether my major was right for me. I am allowed to explore other options and mess some things up on the way to finding the perfect fit for me. I also realized that there may not be a perfect fit. So many people work in careers that don’t directly use the degree they have. I can find comfort in the fact that I don’t need to always have a plan and I don’t always need to know the exact end goal of what I am doing. Marie also mentioned that experiences can end up being more important than what degree I get. So, I should take as many opportunities as I can and experience as much as I can in my time at Ohio State.
About Me
Olivia is a first year at Ohio State from Cincinnati, Ohio. Being interested in conservation from a young age, she hopes to continue to expand her efforts during her college career. She plans to get a B.S. in Environment and Natural Resources with a major in Environmental Policy and Decision Making. With this degree, Olivia hopes to possibly go on to law school for Environmental Law. She would love to work for the Environmental Protection Agency, following a similar pathway of one of her idols, Sylvia Earle. Olivia plans to participate in Scuba Club, which would allow her to obtain a scuba license. By doing this, she hopes to be able to explore parts of the world unknown to her and to gain a broader understanding of the environment and conservation actions we need to take. Along with this, she will continue to be an active member in the Environment and Natural Resources Scholars program. She is fairly new to hiking, but after spending a week in Breckenridge, Colorado hiking in the mountains she fell in love with it and the earth even more. Olivia cares deeply about animals and believes the protection of animals goes hand-in-hand with that of the environment. She loves film and is very interested in the impact that it can have on peoples’ opinions. Due to this, she hopes to be able to continue making short films and documentaries throughout college, specifically about different environmental issues. Olivia also plans on participating in education abroad at Ohio State. She has family in Germany and went on an exchange trip to Germany during high school. She gained invaluable knowledge while there, and for this reason hopes to be able to have more worldly experiences. By seeing how other governments handle environmental issues, some of those ahead of the United States, she hopes to bring back knowledge that she can apply to a career involving policy.