Author: radhakrishnan.31

Career

| radhakrishnan.31

With the semester coming to an end and the impending arrival of opportunities for new beginnings, I have been finding myself reflecting on my life and planning for the future. The catalyst for this new mindset was the RIASEC discussion I took part in during the last ENR scholars class. Consistency has never been a dominant feature in my life and I have always struggled in decision making when the decision being made was intended for me. Because of this, I found the RIASEC discussion to be helpful. It provided me with evidence on who I was as a person and what I wanted out of life. Although I already had the desire to be a Marine Biologist, I enjoyed the chance to remember my childhood; a time where the only thing I wanted to be when I grew up was a musician. This dream was created through my love for music and although I have changed my career goal, I was proud to see that my passion for the art had not died down. With my new dream of being a Marine Biologist, I would have to earn my degree as a Biology major and then specialize in marine life. A part of my dream involves moving to Australia. This would not only allow me to get more experience with marine life, but it would also help me see another side of the world and travel and gain a new insight and perspective on life, and that would be a dream come true. Due to my existing plans and my passion and desire to see them through, I believe that I am in the “Reality Testing” step of the career exploration process.

I have always been fascinated with the concept of exploration. Mysteries and adventures would always give me a thrill and I always wanted to be involved in something weird, exciting, and rare. This yearning for adventure, along with my love for ocean animals and my passion for bettering the world are what led me to my current dream job of becoming a Marine Biologist. However, these traits are all a little strange and not necessarily related. This explains why I had difficulty coming up with some alternate careers. In fact, I could only come up with becoming either some other type of scientist or a journalist, since I am also passionate about writing and writing for something like National Geographic would be so cool. However, both of these careers lack one thing or another and I am not willing to accept just any job. I want my future career to be something I am excited for and truly passionate about. Therefore, my brainstorming did not satisfy me or cause me to change my mind.

One of the many reasons why I enjoyed the RIASEC discussion is that it helped me focus on the future. This was especially good because it was timed perfectly for scheduling classes and other important decisions. This helped me see specifically what I would enjoy doing in my future and what I needed to do to achieve it. My code was IRS: Investigative, Realistic, and Social. I think these results were accurate in their overall description of me. I am the type of person who likes to help people solve problems and fix things. I am an extrovert and am very social, but I also enjoy working alone. I am in love with the outdoors and going on adventures. I love coming up with ideas and testing their practicality after. I love working on things hands-on and I am very task oriented. I believe one of the best feelings is being able to come up with a plan to help others and see it come through. Based on the descriptions we were given in class, that is an IRS. In addition, I had tied A (Artistic) along with S. This also fits me because I am creative with the ideas I come up with. I value self – expression highly and I practice it myself with music. When it comes to organization, I am organized in a messy way. The way my brain makes connections and sees things is very unique and I like to think that it helps me see the world in a different way than other people typically do.

When I looked at the O*Net results for my code, most of the careers that came up were related to medicine (Nurse, Surgeon, Radiologist), science (Chemist, Forest and Conservation Scientist), or building (Engineer, Prosthetist). Although it would be cool to follow one of these career paths, it is not what I am passionate about. They all have a strong STEM base but they don’t make me feel excited about the future. I didn’t expect to see “Marine Biologist” on the list since it is not a common career path, but I did notice some similar fields such as Veterinarian or Veterinary Assistant or Lab Animal Caretaker. It was interesting for me to see these because before I decided on strictly marine life and marine animals, I was debating becoming a Veterinarian. This helped me see that I wasn’t randomly jumping around from path to path and that my dream was only transforming which was a comforting realization.

Most of the jobs had high levels of preparation, but I am willing to work hard for a future which I will love. For now, my plans are to graduate from OSU as a Biology major with a possible minor in Business and hopefully have completed a few internships. I hope to go to grad school to specialize as a Marine Biologist, and somewhere in between I wish to travel the world. It has always been my dream to see every continent, and maybe I can begin to achieve that dream through study abroad. I hope to eventually lead a happy life as a Marine Biologist in Australia. Although this discussion didn’t change my path, it did help me realize that it is ok for me to not know what I am doing or for my dreams to change. No matter what I end up doing, as long as I am passionate about it, everything will be okay.

Artifacts

| radhakrishnan.31

Being presented the opportunity to “interview” one of my mentors, Katie Gorman (a second year Evolution and Ecology Major), turned out to be a lot more insightful than I had originally imagined. Katie had a lot of cool stories and advice to share with me and her answers to my questions were very unique and they provided me with a better understanding on what to expect in my new life as a college student. Starting off with every student’s favorite topic, I asked Katie what her most challenging class was and how she got through it. Although she answered with Organic Chemistry, a class which many people agree is difficult, her reasoning for why she believed it was difficult was though-provoking. As a person who is fond of science, Katie told me that O-Chem was strange for her because it forced her to work hard on a subject that she liked. This was weird for her because she was used to putting in extra effort for classes that didn’t come to her naturally, unlike chemistry classes which she usually enjoyed. This made me realize that no matter what you do in life, you will always come across projects or tasks which you believe are impossible to solve, even in the field you are most passionate about! However, this doesn’t mean you should go find another passion or skip over the task. Katie’s advice on how to succeed in hard classes proved this to me. She said that when you realize a class is going to be difficult, you have to stay on top of the material and study actively. Basically, she advised me to work hard and truly learn the material instead of attempt to comprehend it enough to pass a test.

Moving on from academics, I then asked Katie about volunteering opportunities and internships she has participated in at OSU and how exactly she got involved with them. That’s when she told me about the job shadow opportunity she received with the Fish and Wildlife service. To me, the cool thing about this was that ENR introduced her to this opportunity. She talked about this experience with lots of excitement. Katie volunteered with them twice. One of the opportunities involved introducing children to the wetlands to provide them with a chance to experience the outdoors. I thought this seemed like a cool project to participate in because not only was she able to learn more about the environment, she was also able to give children a chance to learn about it, too. Being able to pass knowledge to others, especially through hands-on experiences like this, is one of the many things I am excited for in ENR.

This led to my third question which was about how to make the most of ENR. Katie’s advice on this question was very inspirational. She told me the best way to make the most of ENR was to get involved and take initiative. Katie helped me realize that ENR is a program which each member has the ability to change and edit to gear it more towards their own interests. She emphasized that I need to take advantage of this moldable nature of the program. We then talked about outdoor adventure, something we are both passionate about. This helped me reflect more about the camping trip to Hocking Hills and the memories and friendships I made there. This then made me even more excited for future ENR events. Katie also mentioned to me the possibility of applying for the leadership council. She talked about how it pushed her to get out of her comfort zone and participate in public speaking. Listening to her talk about how this program is helping her become a better speaker was inspiring.

Later on, we talked about our dream jobs. She told me that her goal is to do conservation research. However, her dream job is to study conservation biology at the Smithsonian! This led to us talking about Bones, a TV show we both enjoyed very much. Talking about something as interesting and personal as our dreams really helped me realize that all the members of ENR scholars form a family and that we all have eachother’s backs. This was a really comforting concept for me to realize so soon in the year!

The last question I asked Katie was about what the most important thing she had learned at OSU was so far. She told me that she was amazed by how much she had changed during her first year. She was shocked at how accurate the common cliché was, but she told me that once she allowed herself to change, she realized how great college was. She also advised me to take care of myself and learn to balance my interests with my classwork. This was great advice because I came into college stressed out about how I was going to attempt to manage schoolwork with life. When Katie told me that I needed to realize the importance of being able to balance work and fun by putting aside time for a break doing things I enjoyed, I was able to really comprehend the fact that I was going to be okay and have a great college experience. Overall, talking to Katie helped me realize that even though college wouldn’t be easy, I will be able to make it through. She also helped me appreciate the ENR program more because I realized all of the opportunities it offers to me (both in and outside of my major). Without ENR, I wouldn’t have discovered the Mountaineering club, which is something I am very excited for. All in all, I am very happy to be a part of ENR scholars at OSU and I know now that with the help of my friends, professors, and both my mentors, I will be able to achieve anything I strive for here at OSU.

About Me

| radhakrishnan.31

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Hello everyone! My name is Sneha Radhakrishnan and I am from West Chester, Ohio. I have lived in Ohio for my whole life, but my family is originally from Bombay, India. I graduated from high school in May and am now enrolled at Ohio State as a Biology major. Eventually, I hope to add a Business or Psychology minor. I am proud to be a part of the Environment and Natural Resources scholars program! I am the type of person who loves to go on adventures, meet new people, and learn new things. Since the ENR scholars program offers all of that along with a sense of community in this huge school, I thought it would be the perfect fit for me. In the past, I have focused a lot of my attention on ways in which I could better the world and the situations of the creatures living in it. I led a project in my school to clean a local river and I have also traveled back to my hometown in India to help reinstate the music program back to a local school. My ambition is to one day become a marine biologist. I love everything about marine life. I find the way in which the mystical creatures and beautiful flora live and work together harmoniously absolutely incredible. I am very passionate about marine life and hope to be able to work with and research marine animals with others who share the same interest. Along with this, I am also greatly passionate about music. Music and singing are two ways through which I am able to easily express myself and I feel like music in general has really helped me get through some of the hard times in my life. I am so excited for these next four years at OSU and I am proud to be a Buckeye!