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Junior Year (2020-2021):

Despite the unpredictability and uncharted waters associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, for me personally, this year allowed me to solidify my plans and goals for the future. I’m now much more confident in what path I want to take in my life and what I value. While I tried out a lot of different activities in past semesters – often overcommitting myself – this year, I spent much more time reflecting and diving into two of my real passions, research and service. I’m now approaching a year spent in Dr. Ayaz Hyder’s Public Health lab where I’ve been working on helping local school districts with COVID-19 surveillance, which is both challenging and immensely rewarding, and I’ve also made more progress on my thesis. This was also a big year for The SOAR Initiative, the nonprofit I lead which promotes harm reduction solutions to the overdose epidemic. Witnessing the impact we’ve made has caused me to legitimately considering staying with the organization even past graduation, which I never thought possible.

Furthermore, I’ve also taken some really fulfilling classes this semester and I think I’ve finally found my niche in GIS for Public Health. I’m looking forward to my internship this summer with the Indiana Department of Health, which will be my first “real-world” job in a government agency, which will hopefully provide even more insight into what kind of career I look for in the very near future.

Sophomore Year (2019-2020):

Autumn semester 2019 was not easy. I once again began to question my choice of academic pursuit; I kept struggling to reconcile my course material with the changes I wanted to make in the world. My GPA took a hit this semester as well, and while I limped through the finish line, I knew I had to make another change.

At this point, I had tried 3 majors and 2 minors, and nothing seemed to fit. I learned of OSU’s Personalized Study Program and after exploring it, thought it would be a good fit. Even though autumn semester didn’t go as planned, it was not fruitless – getting to interact with people affected by the opioid crisis through my research team and Safe Point and seeing the world from a new perspective, and then finding my own niche for change in this issue through The SOAR Initiative, crystallized my passion. I could fight marginalization in my own backyard through a combination of my skills and aptitude in data analytics and my love for public health, and OSU allowing me to create my own major in Disease Modeling would help me accomplish my goals.

Spring semester was the polar opposite. During this time, I had felt the most at home on campus as ever, and my outlook on the world changed drastically. With some great friends, The SOAR Initiative built on its early recognition and success to start making a real difference in our communities. Buckeyes for Harm Reduction, a new club I had helped found, hosted a successful event which facilitated a great conversation about drug policy with health experts and policymakers. Academically, I was more motivated and excited by my classes than ever before, and even though I had a full load at 18 credit hours, it didn’t feel like so much because I truly looked forward to attending class every day. Even though my path was much less traditional after I deviated from my original plans, my future looks clearer than ever.

Spring break brought a lot more great memories as I got to travel to New York City for an opioid symposium with some of my favorite people. We left New York just as the coronavirus began to shut down the country. Just like everyone else the quarantine derailed by plans, but last semester taught me not to worry about it as much as I normally would. I have been able to make the most of my free time, including finding a potential topic for my eventual honors research thesis, and I’m so excited to find out what next year has in store.

Freshman Year (2018-2019):

Entering my freshman year of college, I had my entire career outlined. I was set on majoring in Computer Science since middle school, and had barely even considered any other paths during the college application process. In April of senior year, I was fortunate enough to receive a full scholarship to Ohio State, one of the best engineering schools in the country and my father’s alma mater; everything was working out according to plan, and even better than I could’ve imagined. Once at OSU, I quickly realized that my carefully crafted path was a mirage. Broadly stated, this year was about recalibrating myself toward my true calling.

While I enjoyed my programming classes, the “Engineering” part of CSE was not for me. Furthermore, the typical pathways of Engineering graduates didn’t resonate with me, and I felt that to have the most fulfilling career possible, I had to make a change. It’s still hard to put my finger on exactly what felt “off” about this choice, but the idealistic part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that this degree was not the best way I could use my talents to help people. The better part of freshman year represented a return to exploration mode – reflecting on my goals and sampling new disciplines.

A couple weeks after the beginning of the school year, one of these sought-after new experiences unexpectedly arose. From the 2016 election through the summer after my senior year, I had volunteered for my local Democratic Party branch. My supervisor at the Mahoning County branch knew I was planning on attending OSU for Computer Science, so he referred me to the data director at ODP headquarters in Columbus; a week later, I had an interview, and secured an internship starting the first day of September. Politics was an interest (okay, an obsession…) of mine, but I had never before considered it as a career – too draining for an introvert like myself. Although the 2018 election was mixed at best for Ohio Democrats, this internship exposed me to GIS and some database techniques for the first time and I’m grateful to have been thrown into the chaotic midst of an extremely consequential campaign. While I gained a lot of technical skills, I also learned that politics for me is best left as a hobby and not a full-time endeavor, which was also extremely valuable in shaping how I view my future.

That internship also inspired the research study I would propose at OSU’s first annual Buck Tank, an undergraduate competition which gives funding to a few select projects from first-time researchers. One of the GIS tutorials I completed during my training posed the problem of filtering and mapping possible road hazards that could cause traffic accidents. I began wondering what factors in my new home city’s infrastructure contributed to the recent increase in pedestrian accidents, and what hidden socioeconomic inequalities existed within this space. A preliminary literature review produced some interesting results, and my presentation was enough for the Office of Undergraduate Research to graciously support the project.

Attending the ESRI Federal GIS conference in DC was an exciting deep dive into the research and opportunities in Geographic Information Science. Exploring applications of GIS within issues like water access in Africa and the opioid crisis offered real, meaningful possibilities to make a strong impact; I was especially drawn to those issues which prioritized improving human health around the world. Watching how my strengths and interests in Geography translated to innovative, impactful solutions soldified my decision to add a Geography major.

While I’ve been a geography nerd since my middle school GeoBee days, a series of events led me to discover a passion for something completely new – public health. Our Eminence class, just like the previous one, was evenly split and equally passionate about two issues – the opioid crisis and housing. After months of exploring the issues surrounding drug abuse in the Columbus community, including attending government meetings, participating in a Columbus EMS ride-along, and volunteering at Safe Point, where I personally interacted with opioid abuse victims, I developed a strong connection to this public health crisis. Exploring and brainstorming solutions alongside my Eminence friends and colleagues was not only intellectually stimulating but also personally rewarding. Working within a community as devastated as this one forced me to expand beyond my comfort zone of data and statistics, which challenged so many preconceived notions and at times left me in tears. For the first time, I felt what it was like to want to dedicate a career to something. I decided to change my primary major to Data Analytics with a specialization in Bioinformatics, so I could retain my interest in further studies of programming while incorporating my new passion. I also added a minor in Epidemiology, to tie all my varied academic pursuits together and develop a connection with the College of Public Health. Finally, I felt confident about my academic direction.

Empowered by these changes and inspired to explore my new fields further, I decided to take one of OSU’s unique interdisciplinary course offerings, a class on HIV cross-listed between History and Microbiology. This ended up being my favorite course spring semester, and I also signed up for the corresponding summer course in Tanzania about the impact of HIV in context. Studying abroad in Tanzania for a month and performing research on gender roles and stigma in HIV care gave me so many new perspectives on the world, both personally and academically; a year of uncertainty culminated in a life-changing adventure which cemented my goals for the future.

Not only did I grow in all the ways mentioned above, but in other aspects as well – the tough, emotional Eminence service project process reaped valuable lessons in community-building and cooperation, and living independently forced me to develop my minimal adulting skills. A year that started off seeming set in stone could not have contained more unexpected turns, but I am eager to see where the future takes me from here.