Towards the end of my Spring 2017 semester at OSU, my International Affairs Scholars program offered me the opportunity to present this poster at a symposium that included all other second year IA Scholars, and first years as well as faculty and scholars coordinators were invited. I was able to talk to many people about an internship that I loved so much, and inspire some first years who were unable to think of a project that they would enjoy doing. I was also able to talk to some faculty that were researching campaign and voter trends, and were very interested in my experience as a volunteer. The symposium gave me a way to make a tangible representation of my time as a campaign intern, and talking about it all night made me realize how much I did enjoy the experience. While at the symposium, my campaign manager texted me and offered me a position for over the summer, which I rapidly snatched up. The campaign and the symposium helped me to create relationships that will be useful for networking in the future.

Earlier this semester, I participated in an event called Competitive Cryptanalysis through one of my classes, Code and Codebreaking. During the event, there were several teams competing to find the objects designated in the messages. We needed to cryptanalyze the given messages and determine the location of the objects, then retrieve them without getting shot by the other teams (with nerf guns). The main purpose of this event was to put to use the different techniques we (the students) learned in the Code and Codebreaking class in order to break the encryption on a message in a specified amount of time. This gave us the “real-world” stress of time constrained cipher breaking (but with nerf gun weapons and zipties as the objects), as we had only done untimed homework assignments in the past. Overall, the experience was a good bonding exercise with my team, and a great way to practice a series of skills that we had learned over the course of the semester.

During the Autumn Semester of 2016, I joined the Ohio State Jump Rope Club. This club was the first university-sanctioned jump rope club in the United States, and is therefore responsible for setting an example to the other budding clubs across the country. Through participating in this club, I have met world-class jump ropers, as well as gained experience planning a national event in which multiple colleges and clubs across the country are participating. This has helped develop my interpersonal and leadership skills, and opened my eyes to another world to which I was completely oblivious. It has encouraged me to suggest individual functions and team building activities, and has been a very rewarding experience. The club is unique in that its members are from every grade level and multiple majors, making the connections that I am able to make more diverse than they would be in a club that is directed towards my major. Overall, the experience has been a positive one and I plan on continuing and expanding my participation in the upcoming semester.

This semester (Autumn of 2016), I had the privilege of working on a political campaign as a volunteer/intern. This experience was extremely rewarding, as I worked with my candidate and campaign manager, as well as other interns, to work towards electing Lee Schreiner to the House of Representatives in Columbus. Working with this campaign has deepened my interest in politics and government, and has shown me that I have definitely chosen the right career path. During the course of the semester, I was responsible for door-to-door campaigning, phone banking, and research. I was able to observe the process of ordering literature, the bureaucracy of receiving funding from the Democratic Party and lobbies, and attend events with other members of the Ohio Democrats and politicians. I enjoyed this experience more than words can describe, and I will definitely miss it during the Spring semester.

I would like to share is my experience volunteering with Precious Ones Learning Center. All through high school and continuing in college (while home for breaks), I volunteer(ed) at the preschool and daycare through my church. The experience has been both rewarding and educational, as I have learned a good deal about state bureaucracy, finances, lesson planning, time management, and, of course, caring for children. Over the summers, I would supervise the children at the Kettering Recreation Center pool, and during the school year and over breaks this year I have worked directly in the classrooms with students who require more help than just one teacher can provide. I work on special projects as well as menial tasks like coping and cleaning. My job for the day depends on the needs of the center. This job has taught me LOTS of patience, organization, leadership, and (most importantly in my opinion) the ability to teach (and reteach, and reteach…) something to a student who has a hard time understanding the topic. This has forced me to think about things in a different way and has expanded my ability to “put myself in someone else’s shoes,” which has greatly helped me transition to OSU and to understand the new friends I am making. This experience has also presented me with a job opportunity, as I recently turned 18 and am now able to be hired as an assistant teacher. It has rounded out my resume as well as taught me skills and formed my character, which will affect my career in positive ways.

Though this artifact originated in high school, it has led to my love for design and writing in college. It has led me to create a private blog and revamp my resume. It has given me market experience selling ads to local and national businesses and working directly with Jostens representatives, leadership experience in creating the theme for the book and organizing everyone else’s sections around that theme, and creative experience both writing and designing that led me to want to continue both designing and writing. It also taught me how to time manage, as pages were due in huge groupings and it was the editor’s responsibility to stay on track. Overall, it was a very rounding experience for my character, my patience, my creativity, and my work ethic. My co-editor-in-chief and I created the theme for the whole book, “then & now,” which can be seen on the cover and end pages:

We were also in charge of our own sections of the book, the opening and closing:

And finally, my favorite, the pages that divided the other sections and carried the many elements of the theme throughout the book:

Every year, our director enters the book in 3 national competitions and 1 state-wide competition. Our book won:

The “second” honor rating in the National Scholastic Press Association Competition

Gold medal in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Competition

First place ranking with outstanding marks in theme, reader services, coverage, and leadership from the Ohio Scholastic Media Association

And most impressive, first place with a perfect score in creativity from the American Scholastic Press Association.

I loved every minute of working with my team, and I feel this experience and the many skills I learned will lend itself for years to come.

This year, as one of my major projects for my Introduction to Intelligence class, I chose to research the Intelligence Community of Europe and the main challenges it faces both internally and externally. First, I researched the different levels of the Intelligence Community and how information becomes intelligence that countries and law enforcement are able to use. I learned a lot about the differences between the ways Europe and the U.S. respond to issues within Europe. I also learned about how the intelligence community is affected by budget and other internal regulations imposed by government.

This project was important to my college career because it was assigned in the style of an intelligence report. According to my professor, this is a short, more general form of what intelligence analysts do and the reports they provide to people like the president. This is what I would like to do in the future, so it was eye opening to have the process taught by someone who has practiced it and then go through the motions myself. Obviously, and unfortunately, I did not have access to the information t0 which analysts have access, but I was still able to go through the motions of putting together a portfolio of information regarding the Intelligence Community in Europe. The below attachment is one part of the portfolio: the overview.

Coursepaper2 (2)

I would like to share my United Nations Millennium Goals Project. Though it was accompanied by an audio presentation, I believe the Prezi has much of the information necessary to understand the significance:

http://prezi.com/-b2-1y-ruh7z/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

This project was important in fostering my growth as a global citizen as it encouraged me to become informed on the topic of education, specifically in war torn regions such as the Middle East. Listening to the presentations of other groups and their millennium goals was also helpful in creating a larger, more detailed picture of the issues going on in the world today. Because I hope to one day work in the world of international affairs (possibly with the UN), it was educational to see the process through which the goals were to be completed. Through this project, I have learned about the disparities in education, whether a result of gender lines, disability, war, or wealth. It has opened my eyes beyond the little bubble that middle class American life has provided, allowing me to see the problem with the lack of education opportunities for primary age students, as well as the quality of education, and the consequences that result from the lack of education.

This artifact has kindled my interest in the Peace Corps and its projects involving the spread of education opportunities and infrastructure allowing such developments. In conclusion, education is a topic about which I am passionate, and this project has helped me realize that it is a world wide problem, meaning that my career could end up involving the dissemination of education on an international scale.