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My freshman year had it’s ups and downs despite the pandemic occurring during the year. Through both semesters I took Biology (1113 and 1114) and Chemistry ( 1210 and 1220) and did well in all 4. I also took French 1103, Scholars Seminar, Public Health seminar, Statistics 1350, Computer Science Engineering 1110, and Public Health 2010, totaling 33 credit hours for the year. Looking forward in courses, I am taking Organic Chemistry 2510 and 2540 this summer (2021) and this fall we are looking at Physics 1200, Public health biostatistics 2210 and Public Health 3310 – Environmental Issues as well as Communications 4736 -Health communications in pursuit of the Health Communications certificate. Comms 4736 will one of 4 classes I need for the certificate and I already have 2 qualifying classes for it- HTHRHSC 2500- Medical Terminology, which I took in high school through CCP and Public Health 2010- Introduction to Global Public Health. By the end of my sophomore year of college, I plan to have this certificate completed.

Steering away from the curricular aspect of things, let’s dive into the extracurriculars. I worked about 30 hours a week at Swenson’s Drive-in as a head server 1st semester and decided to take a break second semester as I was taking harder classes. That definitely impacted my mental health and forced me to manage my time in an effective way. I’ve always been relatively organized, but this entire school year I kept a dry erase calendar, planner, google calendar and wrote to-do lists daily. Also first semester, I volunteered about 5-10 hours a week at OSU’s Covid-19 testing lab, where I furthered my interest in laboratory work. When I was 16, I was fortunate enough to volunteer in a Human Nutrition lab, where I got to learn the ins and outs of a scientific laboratory setting, and the COVID-19 lab enlightened me from the medical laboratory standpoint. There is a clear difference between these types of labs and regardless, I enjoyed working in both. I was a candidate for  hire for the Covid-19 testing lab, but both unfortunately (From an experience standpoint) and fortunately (from a public health standpoint), it was necessary to cut volunteers/ potential students employees come the beginning of second semester due to a decrease in. specimen. Second semester, I still found ways to keep myself busy. I pledged Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity. I was leadership chair of my pledge class and organized a communication with other personality types event. I was required to attend 7 events (1 fundraising, 1 Fellowship, 1 Leadership, 1 Service and 3 choice event) as well as interview 25 members of the Fraternity, attend weekly pledge meetings and chapter and the Launch (leadership) training course. I partook in Health Sciences scholars both semesters where I received Implicit bias training, professional development, and attended events like a research panel or chemistry reviews. Second semester, I was on the Health Sciences Scholars Leadership council on the academic committee. I planned a COVID-19 Research Panel featuring 2 Clinical Laboratory managers from the COVID-19 testing lab and a physician, as well as a Study Tables event, and a Human nutrition professional development event entitled ” A Long Journey to Diabetes management and Vitamin metabolism from Polar Bears”. I have plans for biology reviews and a career exploratory event next fall. Through the leadership council I was able to receive a Resilience training certificate and attend many professional developments. Looking forward to this summer, I am blessed to have a few interviews for lab positions coming up, as well as I plan to continue serving at Swenson’s and of course, Organic Chemistry.

My school year started off with a bang when my roommate contracted Covid-19 on the first day of classes. Living 5 feet away from her, I was convinced I’d had it too. Spoiler alert- I did not, thankfully. I did go to quarantine, where I didn’t receive food for 3 days and was forced to break quarantine for water. While that was no fun, I don’t blame anyone at all because it was a hectic, scary point in time when no one really knew how to handle the volume of people in quarantine. It is amazing to see the growth that this university has had in managing Covid. First semester was roughly for this university with astonishing rates at 6%. Second semester the rates peaked at 1% and averaged around 0.5%. That shows the tactics we used worked, and as a member of the student body and a public health major, that is amazing to see in action. However, that quarantine experience was enough to convince to commute. That sucked, quite frankly. I worked my first semester away and while over-scheduling myself is one of my greatest hobbies, my mental health declined. I was blessed that my grades didn’t go with it, though. However, despite these obstacles, I was able to thrive socially second semester while I was able to dorm. I made some amazing friends and memories in my dorm despite the social distancing. Luckily, I am now fully vaccinated,  as are all my friends. I feel blessed to have made such amazing connections and receive my COVID-19 vaccine this semester. I have hope that next fall will be even better. Another fantastic change I made for myself upon going to college was that I’d went vegetarian. My cooking style has always been very vegetarian and I did “vegan before 6pm” through middle and high school, I decided to fully commit to vegetarianism and it greatly improved my life. I’ve always been an environmentalist and passionate about health and nutrition, so I’m very glad I made the change.

Overall, it was a challenging, but rewarding year for me. I did well in my classes, saved money, learned a lot in and out of the classroom, made lasting friends, and am left with a lot of hope for next semester

Goals for the next summer and year include

Saving money for a study abroad in Spring ’23

Going dairy-free (I’m lactose intolerant anyways… lol)

Getting an A in Ochem Lab and lecture

Involving myself in more undergraduate research

Maintaining a 3.5 GPA

Building my social network in non-covid-19 times

Decide on a career and work in that field