Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

Career

First Year Interview Project

The Ohio State University is one of the largest universities in the country and may intimidate new students. I was given the opportunity to join the STEM EE Scholars, and this university became more manageable. Our first project for STEM Scholars was be bold and ask upperclassmen, graduate students and professors how they succeeded in college. For the project, I interviewed an upperclassman in pre-dental, a graduate student who received his master’s in science at OSU and a professor who is researching new types of solid state materials.

In order to talk to these people, I had to gain the courage. Being told to talk to someone who is older and much wiser is a daunting task and in regards to research it can be difficult to understand some of it. For the upperclassman, I decided to interview one of my STEM mentors as they would best understand the struggles of being a science major. The easiest person to interview was the graduate student, who is my T.A for my general chemistry class. He is a person that I can easily to talk to. While the most difficult person to interview was a professor because they tend to be busy and not interested in talking to freshman. Thankfully, I got a response from Dr. Goldberger, who I talked to for ninety minutes. I hopefully will be able to work for him, during the spring and summer.

In STEM EE Scholars, we had the opportunity to talk to second year mentors who can help guide us. She told me a lot about STEM and science classes. She mostly told me to talk to my professors because not many students show interest in their professors and it can help you in the future with recommendations and when you need help they are more willing to help. Her advice has been helpful because since talking with her I have put in more effort in to my classwork and I have talked to my math professor more and I think it has helped. I have also talked to my TAs more too.

I interviewed my chemistry teacher’s assistant, Chase McVey, who completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry with a biochemistry focus at Northern Arizona University. During my interview, I asked him a lot about his undergraduate experience and graduate experience. While we talked, he kept on reiterating the fact that going to class was important. He taught me ways to talk to professors because it can be difficult to for professors to find time to talk to first years for them. He recommended to put my name out there to as many professors as I can and show as much interest as I can because that will get professors interested in me. Before his advice I didn’t receive a single reply from a professor but after I used his advice I received emails from six different professors all doing amazing research although only four were able to meet with me.

I didn’t randomly email professors, I looked at each professor’s research on the department of chemistry page and found some professors that are working on some fascinating research and I decided to email them. Instead of randomly searching for research articles on the OSU library page, the department of chemistry gives a general overview of each professor’s research and helped me find research that fascinates me. Since a lot of my peers are interested in going to med school a lot of the professors in chemistry and biochemistry have their focus on medical research, which is cool, but personally I am not interested in that because I don’t want to be a doctor. The research page on the chemistry website helped me find professors who weren’t that involved in medical research and I talked to a theoretical researcher, Dr. Singer, a researcher that is trying to figure out how mRNA communicates with each other, Dr. Nakanishi and a researcher who is looking at new solid state materials, Dr. Goldberger.

I talked to three professors for this project and even though all the professor’s research fascinated me, one stood out. Dr. Goldberger stood out for me because he seemed to be interested in me and his research genuinely fascinated me. I thought the interview was just going to be a quick couple question interview but then we started talking about his research and he showed me some of his germanium flakes and we just talked about his research. He was fascinating and even though we didn’t talk too much about the questions it didn’t matter to me because the conversation we were having was much more interesting. He did tell me the basics though: studying is important and to take notes during class. The most memorable part of our conversation for me was when we started talking about how he decided to research solid state materials, and he is looking to make single atomic layer thick silicon, germanium and tin sheets because the discovery of graphene, which can transfer electrons extremely fast. He decided to try and make single atomic layer thick sheets of the other carbon family elements. He is using silicon, germanium and tin to make silicane, germanane and stannane and is trying to look at their properties when they are only a couple atoms thick sheets. Overall my meeting with Dr. Goldberger was eye opening and he hinted that I might be able to join his research in the spring and summer, which would be incredible.

In the end, most of my peers complained about this project and I understand where they are coming from, but I gained a lot of information from professors and upperclassmen through this project. I enjoyed this whole project and have gained a larger network of people I can talk to if I need help and I have gained a lot of experience by talking with professors. Most importantly I might be able to join a research group in the spring/summer because of this project.

 

 

Citations:

 

Atomic-Scale Derivatives of Solid-State Materials

Tianyang Li and Joshua E. Goldberger

Chemistry of Materials 2015 27 (10), 3549-3559

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b00691

 

Covalently-Controlled Properties by Design in Group IV Graphane Analogues

Shishi Jiang, Maxx Q. Arguilla, Nicholas D. Cultrara, and Joshua E. Goldberger

Accounts of Chemical Research 2015 48 (1), 144-151

DOI: 10.1021/ar500296e

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation is a reflective description of the artifact that attempts to communicate its significance.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

About Me

IMG_0722

Hi my name is Ben Redemann, I am from Glenview, Illinois, which is a suburb just north of Chicago. I have always been a student who enjoys learning, some subjects more than others, but overall I have always found that my knowledge can constantly grow. I attended public school my whole life and I was introduced to the STEM fields fairly early on in my life because of this I have always had a fascination with the STEM fields.

I have to thank my middle school science teachers for instilling the love of science in me without them I don’t know what my major would have been. They were the teachers who truly inspired me to become a science major and strive to become a teacher. I remember going to my eight grade chemistry class and my teacher, Mr. Gravagna, always knew how to get the class excited about science. He inspired everyone to think deeper and pushed all of us to do the best we possibly could. There was one day where he made us play a game about the periodic table and we had to name the elements. I got so wrapped up in it all, that by the end of the game I had won. After that I knew that science would become a big part in my high school career.

In high school, my sophomore chemistry class helped reinforce the fact that I wanted to become a science teacher. From my eight grade class I knew the majority of the material already and was able to help teach some of the students. My sophomore chemistry teacher, Mrs. Kollar always pushed me in chemistry. During my senior year in high school I did take AP chemistry and it was a daunting task at first, seeing a bunch of juniors who were just as, if not smarter than me. My AP chemistry was a rough and turbulent journey I was able to pass and did well on the AP exam. Additionally, during my senior year I was able to become a teacher’s assistant in my sophomore chemistry teacher’s class. I was able to teach lessons, guide students through labs and help them study for exams. Although some of my friends complained about being a TA, I enjoyed helping students understand difficult material. This further acknowledged the fact that I wanted to become a teacher.

Other than my determination to become a science teacher, I was very involved in high school. I made honor roll all four years in high school, I was an Illinois State Scholar, I played football all four years and was a member of the track and field team for three years. My determination to do the best on the field followed me in the classroom. I always strived to work hard and not give up and this determination always pushed me to do bigger and better things.

Eventually this led me to choose The Ohio State University as my next educational adventure. The science program at the university is one of the nation’s best and I found out that I could join the STEM EE scholars program. After attending scholars’ day and looking at all of the possible scholars programs I could join I knew that I had to join the STEM program. What really made the program my first choice was when they said one of their main programs was volunteering at local schools. I was also graciously accepted into the Morrill Scholars program, which helps promote diversity throughout the university. Everything at the university seemed appealing to me and I knew I had to be there.