My mentor with which I had a conversation with was Katie Gorman who is a sophomore studying Evolution and Ecology at OSU. I talked with her about the following questions: What has been your most challenging major class? What advice do you have to get through it successfully? Her answer was organic chemistry which funny enough is that I’m also taking that class at the moment. She told just to be patient with it and set good studying techniques, also not to wait until the last minute to study for the exam. The best way to get through tough classes is to apply yourself and not quit when a subject is hard or you are having a hard time understanding and to not be afraid to go to my professors or TA’s for help. How have you chosen to get involved on campus? She mentioned that she had joined a leadership group her freshman year and now she is a mentor for ENR Scholars. What advice do you have for making the most of the ENR program? She told to get involved as much as I could. She told me to do all the events and service hours I could but not to just stick to the ENR planned events but to also go out there and search for events that were related to the meaning of being an ENR scholar. Also to not force myself to listen about topics that I wasn’t very interested in, she said to go out there and get involved in the topics that I liked the most about ENR and to become passionate and active about them. What do you plan to do with your major after graduation? She hopes to go on to graduate school and obtain a PhD so she can do research for conservation efforts as a career. What advice do you wish someone gave you your freshman year? She told me that she had wished someone had told her her freshman year that college is not just about expanding your knowledge about your passion but also a time to get to know who you really are and to develop yourself. She told me that college is the time to find yourself and focus on your well being and not on just making the grades.

Her advice meant a lot to me because she is someone that I already feel like I can look up to. Even though she is not much older than me she has already went through her first year and knows some of the things that are bound to happen to every freshman, the good/ the bad/ etc. One of the main things that I learned from our conversation is that I have to learn how to be patient with myself and with life. Meaning that I can’t always know the outcomes to everything that I decide to do and to just go with the flow in some situations because everything will be okay in the end. I’m gonna take this advice very seriously because I’m always stressing about my grades but I’m always fine at the end and it just makes it harder to concentrate and do well when you’re concerned all the time. I’m also going to take her advice on concentrating on myself from now on. I had notice that after she told me to think about myself and my well-being that I had in fact not taken well care of myself because I was so concerned with getting good grades and keeping my scholarship. Now I have started to pay more attention to my needs and my beliefs and values and I think overall that I’m doing better. I have noticed that now I’m more focused because I have set all of my priorities straight and I have also started to learn how to manage my time better when it comes to doing school work, work, and socializing with friends. I’m excited for the rest of the year because now I know how to “kinda” handle myself and I know what is important to myself and not. Life is about new experiences and college is going to be a big part of it and with Katie and Lizzy by my side I know that I’ll be just fine.