Year in Review

Sophomore Year:

This year, I did something that I never thought I would do and picked up a second major. At the beginning of the year, I was dead-set on being a Psychology major and Spanish minor, but then I took my first Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies course in the Fall and knew that it was something I wanted to continue to study. Initially, I thought about adding WGSS as a second major, but after careful consideration, I decided to drop my Spanish minor and pick up the WGSS major.

One of the biggest reasons why I want to study WGSS is because of how much I’ve grown in Global Awareness. Through theories like intersectionality, I’ve learned that every person has unique experiences of the world. Our intersecting identities are what make us who we are, but they are also the key to understanding and combatting personal and systematic oppressions. We experience all different parts of our identities, such as race, sexual identity, gender, simultaneously – which means that oppressions such as racism, sexism, and homophobia are inherently inseparable and must be viewed as parts of a larger, complex system.

Within WGGS, but also using my Psychology major, I am working on a plan to research the impact of gender-based violence on a community (like Ohio State) for my Honors Thesis. I have personal experience with sexual violence, but I want my research to reflect the systematic impact of gender-based violence.

In general, I have tried to choose GE courses that are far different from my majors. I’ve always had a fascination with the Bible, so I decided to take one course on the history of Jesus and another course on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). These courses were challenging for me, but I learned a lot and I met awesome professors that I otherwise wouldn’t have interacted with.

This year a launched a student organization called OneVOICE at Ohio State. It was a chapter of the international organization OneVOICE, which is an organization dedicated to ending sexual violence. Ultimately, I had to deactivate the student organization due to personal reasons, but I learned a lot about leadership in founding and running a student organization, and I am just as committed to advocacy work surrounding sexual violence. Additionally, I am a volunteer with Crisis Text Line, which not only allows me to help strangers, but it also has given me the skills to be able to help the people I encounter in my life on a daily basis should they ever be in crisis.

G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness: During my time at OSU, I plan on studying abroad in a Spanish-speaking country, hopefully Nicaragua because I sponsor a little boy named Juan there, for a semester. I really want to be immersed in another culture so that I can fully experience what it’s like to live somewhere else. I also plan on taking classes on Spanish and Latin American culture through the Spanish department. Exposure to different cultures is important to me because it puts the fact that the world is so much bigger than my sphere into perspective.

Original Inquiry: I want to be heavily involved in psychology research here on campus, both as a participant and as a researcher. I am particularly interested in Dr. Daniel Strunk’s research on depression and plan on contacting him to get involved with that. At some point, I would love to do research on the effects of early childhood trauma, specifically behaviorally.

Academic Enrichment: I will continue to take challenging honors courses that interest me and will help me grow as both a learner and a leader. I will take experiences learned in the classroom and apply them to the real world by discussing them with others and teaching as I learn. I plan to use my college experience to grow me as a person so that I may reach my full potential.

Leadership Development: I coach diving with Ohio State Diving Club here on campus, which challenges me to grow as a leader daily. Additionally, I lead a campus ministry and hope to eventually be a Peer Mentor.

Service Engagement: I plan on volunteering with SARNCO or the Crisis Text Line during my time at Ohio State, but I also would love to find a way to work with Mexican immigrants and provide them the support that they need. The Vineyard Community Center is an amazing place that could potentially make that happen as all of their programs are geared toward Columbus residents who are minorities.

 

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

Psych 1100H Mythbusters Paper

I wrote the paper attached for my Psych 1100H class on October 16, 2017. This paper is significant for me because, not only was it the first college paper I had written, but it also was on a topic that I find incredibly fascinating and would love to do more research in. This research I did for this paper really confirmed for me that I’m on the right path and that I am seriously passionate about psychology. The paper is on the reliability of memory, which is something that hits pretty close to home for me because I had an experience involving a false accusation based on a constructed eyewitness testimony. It was surprising to learn how easily memories can be implanted and constructed, and also how powerful suggestion can be. I learned about myself through this assignment, but the main thing that I learned is that I honestly enjoy writing research papers and coming to my own conclusions based on already-existing studies.

About Me

My name is Syreeta Palackdharry and I am a third-year student at The Ohio State University. I am originally from Wheaton, Illinois, but I’ve lived in Columbus for the past 4 years. I have 3 siblings – Maya (15), Priscilla (27), and Matt (29), as well as a labradoodle named Karu who is absolutely a part of the family. I attended Columbus School for Girls for high school, where I hold one of their diving records. Diving has always been a major part of my life, and has continued to be even though I’m not competing anymore. I am pursuing a double-major in Psychology and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

I love learning. If I could take every class offered here to learn and experience something new, I would in a heartbeat. That’s why I’m here. One of the many things that I love about Ohio State is that I will leave here not only as a well-educated and informed person, but also with a high-level of global awareness and sensitivity to different cultures because of all of the diversity here on campus. As much as I love learning, I love talking to and interacting with people even more. I love hearing people’s stories and being able to connect with them on deep levels. I plan on getting involved in social psychology research during my time here, but I’m not sure what I want that to look like yet.

I’m very interested in trauma research and would love to work with survivors of sexual violence on some level. I’m passionate about dissembling systems of oppression and giving voice to those without privilege. I am currently a diving coach with Ohio State Diving Club, and working with kids inspires me to always remain open-minded and open to feedback. The kids I coach help me to stay grounded and to never take myself too seriously.