The Honors and Scholars Program at The Ohio State University is designed to enrich students beyond the classroom and help them plan for the future. The G.O.A.L.S. that the Honors and Scholars Program outlines help students become more globally aware, pursue original inquiry, become academically enriched, develop crucial leadership skills, and engage in community service. Personally, these G.O.A.L.S. have been present in my life before I even knew what they were, and these G.O.A.L.S. guide me in my future.
When it comes to Global Awareness, I feel that I have never had trouble understanding multiple cultures, seeing the true diversity in the world, and most importantly, accepting unique cultures different from mine. I grew up traveling a lot, and throughout my teenage years, have been exposed to many different cultures in a variety of different countries. Having this experience, I now hope to further my knowledge by studying different cultures in college. Up until this point, I have taken Classics 2220H and plan on taking 2 other 3000 level history courses. I also hope to obtain an international REU during my years at OSU.
The Original Inquiry section is one that I plan on putting a lot of my time into. I plan on majoring in Molecular Genetics, and have been working in a cancer lab since my freshman year. I have already completed my first project and have started on my next. The project is designed around targeting off targets of the E2F pathway in Rb deficient cells to see if we can change/ find a target that is crucial to upkeeping the E2F deregulated pathway.
Academic Enrichment to me means to chase after the knowledge that I want to obtain, and to also follow a path leading to my future career goals. I want to conduct research on cancer as an undergraduate, but also follow the Pre-medicine route. This is why Molecular Genetics seems to be the perfect major for me. Hopefully, I can get into medical school, and plan to pursue a M.D. – P.H.D. so that I could continue to work on my research. The Honors contract demonstrates a binding agreement to continue working hard and pursuing academic enrichment. The curriculum planned not only focuses on the pre-medicine track but also focuses on cancer. This is the topic that I have found to be the most interesting, and I plan on doing thesis work, as well as taking classes (such as cancer genetics) that would allow me to learn the most about targeting cancer.
Leadership Development is something that I’ve done throughout high-school and I plan to grow as a leader in college. I participated in first-year leadership initiative and joined Beta Theta Pi since then. I have attended multiple leadership conferences through Beta and plan to go to Summer Wooden, a place that primes the future leaders in Beta. I plan on playing a major role on the executive board soon as well.
Service Engagement might be one of the most important G.O.A.L.S. in my life. I’ve been volunteering at hospitals for years now, and I plan to volunteer at James and the Wexner as much as I can. I have worked at Star-House in Columbus now for a year, and plan to continue to volunteer at the James. I have also volunteered at blood drives and plan to continue to engage with the community as much as I can.
