Sophomore year was the year of starting to become who I was always meant to be. I look back at my work this year and am so very proud of the things that I have accomplished. However, my undergraduate work has only just begun. Here are a few things that I have done this year, and a few goals I have for the future:
Global Awareness: After coming back to Ohio State after having spent the summer in my home country of Croatia, I reflected on who I was as a global citizen. I thought about how thankful I was to grow up experiencing cultures across the world. The most important things that I learned about the cultures that I interacted with were through conversations with native people. I thought about what new culture I would like to begin to experience, and Germany instantly came to mind. This year, I began taking German classes to learn the language. My goal for next summer is to take a chemistry internship in Germany and further immerse myself in the culture. I hope that in my time at OSU, I study at least one more language and visit a place that commonly speaks it.
Original Inquiry: Sophomore year was the year that I really dove into research. Reflecting on my freshman year, I decided that the topic that most interested me was theoretical chemistry. The first week of my sophomore year I joined Dr. Sherwin Singer’s research group. Theoretical chemistry is a demanding field, and I fully immersed myself in the work that I was doing. I spent the first half of the year learning how to use molecular modeling software to be able to run the experiments that I am doing now. I am currently learning coding so I can execute scripts in my research process. I have been studying C++ and I love it so much that I am taking a class over it next year and am even considering expanding my undergraduate education into a fifth year to get a computer science degree. I was awarded the Mayer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for this upcoming summer, so I hope to have my first paper about the Stokes shift in tryptophan 28 in a lysozyme published by the end of the summer.
Academic Enrichment: By the end of this term, I will have completed all the Honors courses that the chemistry department offers. I love the field that I am studying and the class that I have looked forward to the most, physical chemistry, is coming up in my next year of study. I have also developed interests in computers through my work in theoretical chemistry, so I hope to take more computer programming classes in the future and possibly even add a second major in computer science.
Leadership Development: The biggest leadership challenge that I took on this year was changing my role from student to teacher. I began teaching for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as a general chemistry lab instructor. I was nervous for my first semester of teaching, but I feel that I significantly improved at the end of my second semester of teaching. One of the proudest moments of my life was the last day of lab having so many of my students tell me that my teaching was what helped them succeed in general chemistry. I am excited to start teaching recitation next year so that I can help my students succeed even more in general chemistry.
Service Engagement: Some of the most memorable experiences of my sophomore year were through volunteer activities. This year, I volunteered in many activities assisting the blind through my sorority, Delta Gamma. My favorite event was working for the convention hosted by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio. I spent most of my time guiding people through the hotel and I learned so much about hope from them. Not a single person let their disability hold them back from doing the things they wanted to do. It was so inspiring to me. It made me want to pursue more service events because they helped me as much as I helped them. My service goal for the future is to go immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking culture for a project. I hope to spend an extended amount of time in a Central American or South American country so I could really help the people there while also getting to befriend them and learn to appreciate their culture.