2017-2018 Year in Review

I began the year as an agricultural engineering major with a mission of getting a degree where I could have a career focused on sustainability in agriculture. My dream career involved working in the agricultural industry to make the production of food more sustainable, decreasing the harm done to the environment in these processes. I saw engineering as the route to solving these problems in a concrete way, so I chose a specialization in Soils and Water, and prepared myself to complete the engineering curriculum.

The first week of classes was hectic, between the chaos that was the student involvement fair on the oval, learning about Eminence, and getting acquainted to living in a dorm. But I was hopeful for the year ahead, and eager to jump into classes. My schedule in my first semester quickly became busier than I had ever been, and the difficulty of my new classes surprised me at first. As the semester went on, I came to realizations about myself and my own interests, and decided it was time to re-evaluate my major.

One day in my survey class, my advisor handed out curriculum sheets that detailed what each of our schedules should look like for the remainder of our degree. It dawned on me that day, looking over the classes I would take before graduation, that agricultural engineering may not be the best fit for me. My mission of sustainability did not seem to appear as much as I had hoped in the curriculum, and I questioned whether I should change my major.

Before settling on engineering while in high school, I had considered doing a pre-dental track with a biology or another similar subject as my major. However, as I considered changing my major in mid-October of 2017, I was reluctant to just fall back to my original high school plan simply because I couldn’t decide. I pushed myself to further research majors at OSU (which wasn’t difficult at a place this size), and reflected on what majors I could choose to best help me fulfill my future goals.

It was during this time that I came across the School of Environment and Natural Resources, a school within the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and the college I was already in. After researching the curriculum tracks for each major, I found one the Environmental Science major, which seemed to be a perfect fit. Within Environmental Sciences in the honors program, beyond the core and required classes, each student works with their faculty mentor to develop a curriculum that best suits each person’s interests, which allows them to incorporate a wide variety of interests into one major. I found that in this major, I could incorporate my desire to learn about the agricultural industry with a passion for the environment, and relate that to climate change and larger scale environmental issues. There was even a specialization called “Soil Resources and Sustainability”, which, while I have not officially declared my specialization, is the one that I think will align most closely with my academic and career goals.

Changing my major was a turning point for me. I had a renewed sense of hope when I changed my path, mostly because I felt like the classes I was taking were helping me fulfill my purpose better than in my previous major. I was then looking forward to the classes I would eventually be able to take and looking at it with excitement, which changed my perspective significantly. Since my major change came in late October, spring semester of 2018 was my first semester as an official Environmental Science major, taking classes that were necessary for my new degree. I tried to become as involved in the department as possible, because I felt like I was “joining the party” a little late. In this process, I applied for a position as a student assistant in the School of Environment and Natural Resources office, which turned out to be another turning point for me that taught me a lot about my work style and myself in general.

At the office, I take calls, schedule appointments, talk with students, and sometimes give them advice from a peer in their department. Since I began working there, I feel like my life has improved in several aspects and from various components of the job. I discovered that I need my time to be structured to be at my most successful in school. Instead of having large chunks of free time scheduled into my day like first semester, I am busy daily at least from 8 AM-5PM, which forces me to budget my time wisely and choose my other commitments carefully. It has taught me to be more efficient in my work, and I have actually been significantly more successful in my classes this semester, in part due to this. This job has provided me with social networking connections, as the office houses all the mailboxes for the faculty in my college. Therefore I have met professors who teach upper level classes that I wouldn’t be able to take until my junior or senior year, but I am making connections with them now. This has led to several opportunities for potential future research projects, which I feel will really further my academic life on campus.

But aside from academic benefits of my current job, I’ve also made invaluable connections with the other people who work in the office, including the academic advisors and other people who work in administration in the school. This has helped me not only with my own scheduling issues, as I now can easily access good advice on how to structure my schedule for my degree and can run ideas on classes by them, but they’ve become people I trust for advice in other areas of my student life. One of the things I felt I was missing during fall semester that I struggled with was that in high school, I had several teachers who served as informal mentors to me who I went to with anything that was weighing me down. In college, I lacked that, especially because of the size of my classes. I figured I would not find adults that I could connect with the same way here, but I have been pleasantly surprised this semester to find connections with several people at my job. I will be continuing that job this summer, and am excited to keep those relationships as long as possible during my time here.

Overall, this year has taught me a lot about how I work and what motivates me to do well. Academically, first semester was surprisingly difficult and my frustration grew, eventually coming to a hilt at the end of the semester in December. However, a fresh perspective and renewed hope was all I needed to recover second semester, and along with various changes in my study habits and time management, I was able to rediscover the passion for learning that I entered college with. I am incredibly excited for the next three years, and I look forward to extending myself to reach my academic and career goals in years to come.

 

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