Over spring break I had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., our nation’s capitol, with the Mount Scholars. While in D.C. I was able to make new connections. I talked to a few Ohio State employees that work in the office of Federal Relations, in D.C. I was able to meet with both senator Portman and Senator Brown, both of Ohio. I was very fortunate to have the chance to shadow my congressional representative, Bob Gibbs. While shadowing my representative I had the opportunity to meet the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. As a group, we also had the opportunity to tour CATO institute, and learn about the technologies that they create. I was very lucky to spend my spring break with a ton of great people, while getting to take part in these great opportunities and so many more.

 As a Mount Scholar service is a key part of our program, at least once a month each of us participate in service event, however most of us do more. In the moth of October, I participated in two service events, one was Fall Harvest Jamboree, which was an event that a group of Mounties went to, and helped with the event ad different stations, such as arts and crafts or running the pumpkin patch. The second service event that I took part in was Adopt-A-Street. I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to be the lead at this event. I reached out to the students who were also partaking in this event, I prepared the supplies needed, and I delegated jobs to the participants while at the project. At Adopt-A-Street, we clean garbage off of the sides of the road, and wrote inspirational and motivating messages on the sidewalks of the the street that we cleaned. This event was my first leadership role in Mount, even though it was minor, I hope to have many more opportunities to lead.

  It was very difficult to chose one photo to represent my first month and a half here at OSU. This is because I have meet so many people that I know are going to be life long friends , and I have had so many experiences that I couldn’t experience at any other school. This photo is me with my Mount “family”. The “parents” are two second years with knowledge and experiences that they share with me and my “brother” (another first year). These are just  three close connections that I have made while here at OSU. I know that I could go to any of these people with any questions of problems and they would be more than happy to answer my questions and help me in any way they could. I have also meet so many others that make this large campus truly feel like home.

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