For my upperclassman mentor meeting, I reached out to Ellie Frey. I wanted to have my interview with her because during the first day scavenger hunt, we connected over the fact that we had both worked in a greenhouse over the summer. From there, we got to talking about our majors, and how she had considered mine before settling on hers, and I had considered hers before settling on mine. I figured we would have a lot of good things to discuss.
Ellie and I met at the RPAC, not for exercise but for the fantastic smoothies they have at the café. The meeting consisted mostly of me asking questions, and Ellie giving me honest and insightful answers. I asked everything from “Why did you choose your major?” to “Where’s the best place to eat on campus?” (I’m getting a little sick of Traditions already). It was really nice to have somebody who could answer my questions who went through what I’m going through just a year ago–somebody who had perspective and knew exactly what it felt like to be a new college student.
The most interesting topic of conversation for me was about why she chose to major in Landscape Architecture. When I was pondering what to major in a year or so ago, I knew for sure that I wanted to do something environmental and close to nature, but I wasn’t exactly sure what that was. Ellie told me during her experience as a senior in high school, her mom told her, “You’re good at math and science. You should be an engineer.” This sounded exactly like something I had told myself before applying to colleges. Going over all the options of things that interested me–from environmental science to biology to landscape architecture–I finally came to the conclusion that I liked science and I was good at math, so engineering should be the natural fit. Although, Ellie told me that she realized in the summer before she started at OSU as a freshman last fall, she realized that she had a creative side of her that she wanted to satisfy as well, and discovered that Landscape Architecture might be the better fit.
I had a very similar experience: I worked at a greenhouse this summer that also had a Landscaping department. On slow days, I would wander the aisles, watering plants and mentally constructing arrangements that I would put together if I had the money to buy all the plants I wanted. It was really fascinating to watch the Landscaping department give their customers designs and quotes. Being able to design a beautiful garden, and not having to be the one spending thousands of dollars? That sounded like my personal dream.
It wasn’t until this summer that I even considered Landscape Architecture as a career. Quite honestly, I didn’t really know it existed. But having talked to Ellie about our similarities, I’m interested in giving it a try. Ellie told me about some classes I can take for General Education credit that cover the history of landscape architecture, so that I can see if it interests me. Although I don’t think I’ll end up switching my major from engineering to architecture, it would be interesting to explore this new and fascinating topic, or even pursue a minor.
Overall, my meeting with Ellie was great. It was awesome to chat with somebody who I feel shares a lot in common with me, and who has had a similar experience to me at Ohio State, having been a part of the Scholars program last year. I hope to be able to speak with her again soon!