I went to the 57th Annual Alpheus W. Smith Lecture given by Steven Chu with a group from POLARIS, my mentorship class, and two of my other friends. I was particularly interested in this talk because it focused on climate change, its impacts, and what possible solutions we can use going forward. This event was unique compared to many of the other events I’ve been to because there was a wider age group present at the event. I really enjoyed going with a group to this event because we talked about the event before and after and were able to share our impressions. I definitely got more out of the event by going with a group and being able to distill the information I learned with my peers afterward. I have done a lot of research on climate change, since it is an issue that impacts my everyday life and will continue to (increasingly more) over time.

I understood the content Dr. Chu presented very well and I learned a lot about the progress we are making with meat replacement and other agricultural environmentally friendly policies. I appreciated the plethora of data that Dr. Chu presented to properly explain just how dire the climate crisis is and what its impacts will be in coming years. Some of the data that Dr. Chu presented I had never heard before and it made climate change all the more present in my mind. Dr. Chu’s lecture renewed my determination to do all that I can to mitigate the impacts of climate change and to lower the CO2 levels globally.

I also went to the major-specific event that the department hosted earlier in the day where we met with Steven Chu for him to give us his background and for us to have a chance to ask him questions. Hearing Dr. Chu’s story and his professional development was inspiring for me. He told us fondly of both his rejections and his successes and it made him very relatable. One of the things that surprised me was that he has shifted his areas of research and taught himself new material more than once. I know many physics majors who find it stressful to pick and discipline. I have personally worried about picking the right subfield and worried that I would have to stay in whatever subfield I picked for my whole career. Knowing that my subfield can shift with me as I evolve throughout my career is comforting. Dr. Chu has had an amazing career and continues to work hard within the field. Hearing about his career was exciting and reaffirmed my love for physics. I have found being involved in the academic community within the physics department integral to my experiences so far at Ohio State. I have networked with peers, professors, and other notable members of the physics community. I have heard talks on multiple topics and already been able to narrow down my specific interests by hearing different stories like Dr. Chu’s and learning of their research.

Last weekend, my residence hall, in collaboration with The Ohio State University’s Office of Student Life, had a Pumpkins and Pastries community event to celebrate the beginning of fall. The resident assistants had reserved the art room in our building and bought a large amount of pumpkins and pastries. The event offered a celebration of the change of season with delicious pastries to eat and pumpkins to paint. It was a welcome break from school work that I found to be a great creative outlet and fun activity. My friends and I enjoyed spending time together in a very different situation from our day-to-day school lives. I personally love fall and am rather fond of pumpkin painting and I really enjoyed getting to paint pumpkins with my closest friends at school all together. I found the event very stress relieving and it reminded me just how important having  proper balance between academics and social life is. I was reminded that even though I love the academic activities I do, I have to make sure I still stay active in my other joys like art and music. I really love that my residence hall has at least one event like this every few weeks that is an opportunity to bring residents together in a non-academic environment to relax and enjoy spending time together. My resident assistant was in charge of this event and I really enjoyed that our floor was able to offer input into the event to make it what we felt would be most enjoyable. This community event, and the other hall events we have had like it, offer a great community building experience. Based on this, I feel like one way events going forward could continually improve would be by having a comments and idea box in the lounge for residents to be able to leave suggestions. One other idea would be to put out a Google Form for interest the month before so that residents can choose what events happen. Overall, I find that events like these are the ones that bring people closer together and create a true bound within a residence community. Going forward, I’m going to make it a priority to attend residence hall community events with my friends. I also will be sure to implement more non-academic activities into my weekly life. I am already planning to have more art-focused and sport-related activities in my weekly rotation. I am actively focusing on managing my time this year and have realized just how easy it can be to fall away from my extracurricular passions. Pumpkins and Pastries reminded me just how important stress relief and taking fruitful breaks are to having staying productive longterm and living a balanced lifestyle.