Year in Review

Coming into my first year of college, I knew that making new friends was going to be tough for me. I’ve always had an established group of friends and tended not to go out of my comfort zone, so this year has been a formative time in changing that. I am blessed to have been accepted into the Humanitarian Engineering Scholars group where I made friends who I believe will be life long. Many of these people share my love for engineering, and it was awesome interacting with them in the dorms and in class. Being open to opportunities has also been something I worked towards throughout this year. From clubs, sports, and Greek life, I never would have thought I would be spending much time being involved in it. I am also glad to have found my major suitable for me and very enjoyable at times. I have made many accomplishments in and out of class such as coding a Battleship game using MATLAB or completing my pledgeship for the Christian Fraternity, BYX. Through all of the experience gained during my first year at OSU, I have become more confident in my character and skill.

 

G.O.A.L.S.

My friends and I went out to the Columbus Zoo on November 27, 2019. We walked around to each section of the zoo, starting off in the aquarium to see the manatees. One of the older manatees came up to the glass and watched us for a bit before slowly swimming away. I also enjoyed seeing the penguins because the put on a show for us. I went up to the glass to find three penguins swimming in union back and forth inside the water tank, and they eventually went back on land to make one big huddle of eight penguins. The only thing I did not enjoy was the closed giraffe section because I wanted to see how tall one was compared to me. Since we went during Halloween time, many of the children were running around in their costumes, which was fun to see. From this experience, I learned that it would take a very long time to go see every animal in the zoo and take time to appreciate the sight. I would definitely recommend the Columbus Zoo to a friend, and hope to go there during Christmas in the future.

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 guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

One day, my friends and I came across a pile of Lego pieces while hanging out. We decided that it would be a good challenge to build a tall Lego tower, and this picture shows the bottom half of the final product. I enjoyed building that tower so much that I didn’t even care what others were thinking as they walked past us. The process required my friends and I to work together, using our individual abilities to achieve the common goal of building the Lego tower. I love problem solving and working as a group, and this experience is a great representation of that. I learned the valuable lesson of being open to suggestions and feedback. We each started off building with our own strategies, but the final product was the collaboration of our ideas once we became open to each other’s input. I believe this will help me become more effective when working in a group setting in the future.

About Me

Hello, my name is Kevin Nguyen. It was originally Vy Nguyen because I was born in Vietnam. I moved to the United States when I was 5 years old and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. As a youngster, I was surrounded by technology because my father is a computer technician. I grew up intrigued with the science behind how computers worked. Playing video games inspired me to pursue a Computer science and Engineering degree here at The Ohio State University. My strongest subject is mathematics, so I believe that my computational skills will aid me as a CSE student. Programming seems like a logical process at first, but using it effectively takes creativity. I plan on using my artistic abilities to compliment the way I code to make efficient and useful programs. I came into this major with aspirations to create video games, but I am currently learning what the computer science field has to offer, and I am open to exploring what I can do with coding.

 

My top five strengths are as listed below:

1. Social intelligence- I prefer to listen than to speak, which has made me an observant person. This has allowed me to become better at detecting how people feel in certain situations.

2. Prudence- I tend to think about the consequences of my actions. Weighing the benefits before acting has allowed me to make better choices.

3. Teamwork- I enjoy working with people who can do something I can’t. I find that a group of people contributing their talents towards a common goal is a lot more efficient than working alone.

4. Judgement- I believe that there is always two sides to a story. Considering different perspectives has allowed me to be more open to others rather than enclosing myself inside my own truth.

5. Kindness- I love seeing people happy. When I see people happy as a result of what I did, it motives me to continue to do good deeds.