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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.
Several of my interests and activities are in line with the GOALS that OSU’s Honors and Scholars students strive for. The one that sticks out to me most is Global Awareness, which is right in line with my academic plans. I plan to leave Ohio State trilingual (as much as possible) with English, Arabic, and French. To do so, it will be critical that I go study abroad, perhaps in Jordan and Senegal, in order to learn local dialects and internalize the different cultures. With a second interest in public health, I hope to improve health practices in nations around the globe, and to fulfill my childhood vision of living as a “world traveller.” I wholeheartedly believe that — especially as citizens of the most powerful nation on earth — we must not forget the amount of privilege that we’ve been handed on a silver platter as Americans, and make a conscious, deliberate effort to listen to the needs of others and do what we can to make the rest of the world a better place.
On a different note, other activities I participate in are more service driven. I am currently a member of a small student organization called Growing Green. Each week, a handful of us visit an elementary school in the local area and put on a 1.5 hour long workshop on a different environment-related topic for the students. Examples of previous projects include fall and the different seasons and composting. I have always enjoyed working with children (I used to volunteer at a pre-school) because I always walk away feeling like I’ve learned more from them that maybe they learned from me! I also just find it an extremely refreshing (if not hectic) couple of hours, especially when I’m surrounded by young adults and older professors nearly 24/7. Working with kids forces me to take a step back and remember to laugh and be spontaneous, and not worry so much about having every single second of my future planned out. Next semester, with some extra time in my schedule, I would like to find a service organization or project that I can get involved in.
I find that my scholars program (aptly named Mount Leadership Society) focuses a great deal on leadership development — particularly in how we, as individuals, can get to know ourselves and thus learn how to use our strengths to work best with others’ personality types. For example, we have spent some time talking about the Myers-Briggs Test and StrengthsQuest. I have very much enjoyed discussing these inventories, as I found other people who look at the world in similar ways that I do and given me ways to understand that mindsets of people completely opposite from me. A good leader must first understand herself, her ideals, her quirks, her values, and take into account how those could potentially clash with those around her. Having taken sometime to think about what I have learned, I can identify situations that I know will make me uncomfortable or feel worn (especially as a strong introvert), and I can therefore either mentally prepare myself for more “daunting” events (such as our recent first year retreat), or find ways to make them more accessible to me. If I find others in the same situation, I can then help them know that they are not alone (for a long time I thought I was just an anti-social person, which is totally not the case, and introverts play just as critical a role in our world as extroverts do) and hopefully make things better for them as well.
Ultimately, I look forward to the many opportunities that are available to me by having chosen to attend OSU, and plan to continue to get more involved in the university and local community to a larger extent in the future.
Career
Qualifications
Dedicated undergraduate student with a passion for foreign languages and cultures. Possesses excellent communication, writing, and critical thinking abilities, as well as adapts quickly to new situations.
Education
The Ohio State University
Tentative Graduation: May 2019
- Arabic Language Major, French Language Minor, World Politics Minor
- Cumulative GPA: 3.9
Middlebury College Summer Language Program Summer 2016
- Dedicated 8 weeks to studying Arabic language and culture in an immersive environment
- Interact with international peers from the Middle East to obtain a more authentic understanding of the region
Experiences and Activities
Mount Leadership Society Scholars Program 2015-2017
- Live and work together to build leadership skills and participate in professional development activities
- Purposefully engage in several service projects in the Columbus area
Diversity Ambassador at the Ohio State University August 2016-Present
- Outreach to underserved populations around Ohio to promote the importance of the college experience
- Interact with people of diverse backgrounds to accomplish the task of recruiting new students to the University through campus tours and recruiting events on campus
Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity January 2016-Present
- Serve the Ohio State University and Columbus, Ohio communities through group service projects throughout the semester, focus on creating relationships within the fraternity and networking
Student Dining Services: Cafes January 2016-May 2016
- Built customer service skills while working at the cash register
- Worked as a team member to keep operation of filling orders running smoothly
Summer Hire at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel Summers 2014 & 2015
- Interacted in an office environment, assisted coworkers with various clerical tasks
- Periodic trips to the West Bank in order to be more informed and gained first hand experience with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Community Service
Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS) August 2016-May 2017
- Help refugees from various countries adjust to life in the United States
- Invoke innovation and creativity to overcome language barriers while teaching English as a Second Language classes
- Effectively teach refugees how to go about finding a place of employment to support themselves with
Other Skills
- Intermediate level French and Arabic Languages speaker
- Proficient with Microsoft Office and various social media application
Reflection
Through the different experiences I’ve applied myself in, I am becoming a more well-rounded, informed, and involved leader. Humbling experiences such as my jobs at the Embassy and the on-campus café, where I found out what it means to perform tasks that I’d rather not do without being given a sense of trust or responsibility, have shown me that I cannot always expect every opportunity to fall right into my lap, and that sometimes you have to grind a little to get where you ultimately want to be. My time as a Diversity Ambassador and volunteering hands on at ETSS have instilled an even greater sense of social responsibility and global citizenship within me, and have greatly improved my communication and public speaking skills – either as a teacher in a classroom or the leader of a campus tour. Belonging to organizations such as Alpha Phi Omega and Mount Leadership Society have also emphasized what it means to give back to a community, especially when I have been blessed with so much. Each of these organizations also have opportunities to become a better leader; activities from both organizations have built more confidence in me to delegate responsibilities, become a better listener as a leader, as well as not be afraid to input my opinion on a topic, whereas before I may not have.
Artifacts
This is an advertisement for a film entitled No et Moi (No and Me). It is based off of a book by French author Delphine de Vigan, which I read in my AP French Language and Culture class my senior year of high school. I find it significant to my academic achievements because it was the first book I’d ever read entirely in French. I couldn’t understand every word (or paragraph for that matter), but at the end of the novel I felt a huge sense of achievement. I had put in enough effort over the preceding 3 and a half years to let go of my English crutches and understand a story in another language, as well as express my thoughts on it in class and written pieces. This book also forced me to realize that my work in this area was not done; I knew that there were parts of the book (be it colloquial idioms, cultural understandings, new vocabulary or humorous jokes) that completely went over my head. Although I haven’t had a chance to continue my French studies this semester (I’m currently giving Arabic a go), it has motivated me to continue to reach for more cultural understanding in my everyday life, and reminded me that despite America’s cultural ubiquitousness, every other nation also has its own share of stories that are worth exploring and reflecting on if we give them a chance.
About Me
Hello and welcome to my e-Portfolio! I am a current first year student at the Ohio State University and a member of the Mount Leadership Society Scholars Program.
Although I have yet to formally declare a major, I’m interested in pursuing a dual degree in public health and a foreign language, specifically Arabic. My aspirations for the future include living overseas and doing something to help make the world a healthier place, particularly through collaborative agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations, or the World Health Organization. I have always felt compelled to enter the medical field, as it to a large extent runs in my family — my grandmother was a pharmacist, my mom and aunt are registered nurses, and my uncle is a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. Furthermore, I have been very blessed throughout my life to have always been very healthy, and I recognize what an advantage it has been for me to live in a developed nation with one of the most advanced health care systems in the world. I want to help extend the health care that I took for granted to those who don’t necessarily have access to it.
I recently had the life-changing opportunity to live in the Middle East for two years. It was there that I discovered my love of learning foreign language and culture — while sounding out Hebrew words at a kindergartener’s level in the car, and embracing the brisk lack of acknowledgment from the woman who bumped into me in her haste to get to a café. On a vacation to Paris in December 2013, I was able to use my high school French skills for the first time. For me, it was the most exhilarating experience to feel as if I was opening an entirely new universe that was suddenly accessible to me. Although I stumbled quite a bit with my speaking skills, I felt that the hours I had spent sitting in my French class were certainly more worth my time than even my math or science class. Learning a new language allowed me to comprehend the life and experiences of people very different than myself, and communicates an understanding in a way that is so authentic and personal. To me, learning a new language is almost a privilege, not a right, because it makes you privy to a culture that is not your own, but is so dear to others. This is why I feel so strongly about majoring in a foreign language. I want to feel that rush from Paris all of the time, and to never stop feeling uncomfortable in the land that I’m in.
Outside of the classroom, I spent 3 years on my high schools’ dance teams and studied piano performance for 11 years. My other interests and hobbies include cooking and baking, listening to music, spending time with my friends, and drinking tea. My family is made up of my Filipino mother, my generically caucasian dad, and my sisters Nina (16) and Chloe (10).
Please spend a few minutes browsing this page if you would like. If you have any questions or would like to contact me for any reason, my email address is offutt.11@buckeyelink.osu.edu.