G.O.A.L.S.

The University Honors & Scholars Center at The Ohio State University serves high-ability, motivated undergraduate students. While embracing diversity in both ideas and people, the Center fosters purposeful learning communities that enhance students’ academic and social experiences. The Center facilitates impactful, rigorous, and unique opportunities that further student success and involvement in our G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement.

G.O.A.L.S.

 

    • Global Awareness: Global Awareness, just as the name sounds, is all about communicating and engaging with the community at large about a specific idea or event to educate. Currently, as part of this mission, I am committed to Camp Kesem, an organization that raises money for a summer camp every year for kids between the ages 6-18. We record our amazing camp activities in order to for people from all parts of the country and world to recognize and spread the positive impacts of Camp Kesem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT7NT_FBeb8. At camp, I lead a group of five to six boys with ages between 6-10 with two other counselors. Accompanied with a synchronized howl, our unit was collectively known as the “Wolf Pack.” Most of these campers had parents who faced cancer, so it was extremely emotional to hear their disheartening stories. These stories were especially emphasized during the Empowerment ceremony. Campers, from all age groups, circled around and discussed their personal setbacks and emotions. I still remember a young camper who was utterly distraught and scared that her mother’s breast cancer was going to be terminal. Truly, no child should undergo such a burden alone, and the amount of support pouring in from counselors and campers alike was unbelievable. It was undoubtedly an enlightening and familial experience. Despite the personal circumstances, we had an incredible time from racing each other on the water slides to seeing who could climb the highest on the rock wall to pranking other cabins. At night, while cooking S’mores, we sang our signature Kesem songs and watched campers and counselors play an on-the-go skit. Although camp itself was only a week, it was evidently one of my most unforgettable experiences. I am incredibly grateful for the stories I encountered and the bonds I made with my campers.

  • Original Inquiry: Personally, for me, original inquiry essentially dictates the new insight or enlightenment gained from pursing specific areas in one’s field outside of academics. Currently, while performing undergraduate duties such as generating different bacterial mediums, my research focuses on the pathogenesis and resistance of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, which is detrimental to patients with Cystic Fibrosis. I performed serial dilutions of antibiotics with multiple Sulfonamide analogs in order to compare with Tobramycin (Positive Control). This was measured by a Rapid Attachment Assay and Crystal Violet Staining of bacteria on 96 well-plates with technical replicates in order to visualize growth via a Microplate Reader. Despite the process being long and the results arriving as not effective, I am exploring other alternatives and techniques to address this issue. From these experiences, I realized how arduous research can be despite the numerous hours spent to accomplish a desired goal such as, for example, gaining funding for specific tools to addressing potential concerns from editors of a scientific journal.

 

  • Academic Enrichment: Like the original inquiry, I believe academic enrichment centers itself on the knowledge gained from classes and courses and how to utilize that knowledge in a resourceful way. While tutoring for organic chemistry, I pushed the mindset of my peers to understand instead of memorize concepts. At first, most of my peers I tutored would struggle in areas such as determining if a reaction is SN1 or SN2, writing out mechanisms such as Aldol Condensation, or deciphering the proton NMR peaks associated with a particular molecule. Gradually, I was thrilled to see that I was able to promote a change to their mindset on how to approach problems, which was well reflected on their comprehension and their grades. Moreover, hearing them informing others on how to prepare for the topics in this difficult subject was inexplicably far more gifting and rewarding.

 

  • Leadership Development: Leadership also closely connects with global awareness, but slightly differentiates in that it heavily focuses on your personal contribution, growth, and leadership skills for taking charge of decisions of a group or club. As a social media officer Of Buckeyes Against Alzheimer’s, I am redesigning and updating the webpage for our club. Additionally, I am also in the process of gathering more volunteers via social media sites such as Instagram. Although I am not a big social media user, I am expanding and learning to utilize and explore multiple platforms such as Twitter and Reddit in order to advertise our biweekly meetings and important events such as Brain Health Awareness Day. In fact, in response to COVID-19, I am collaborating with other officers in hopes to assist staff at our local Alzheimer’s clinic by making face masks.

  • Service Engagement: Service engagement is simply how to help the community in any manner possible altruistically and to extrapolate one’s connections.  The connections I encountered, while volunteering, was unquestionably the prime highlight of the Bioscience Scholars program. At the Wesley Glen Retirement Homes, conversing, while playing board games and assisting with refreshments, exposed me to the wisdom and experiences from these elders, some who were also doctors. In addition, I also assisted parents and other students with move-in day while interacting with other volunteers of varying majors such as engineering. These volunteering opportunities respectively enabled me to be exposed to a different age demographic and to create a diverse network.