Second Year Reflection

Now that my second year at Ohio State has finally come to a close, I can confidently say that I have learned how to adapt to adverse situations. This year, I had a lot of barriers that made it a difficult year for me. One of the first barriers that I was present with was having a roommate who was drastically different than me. She had a partying personality and participated in a lot of illegal activities that made me very uncomfortable. Me and my other roommates tried to setup meetings to help compromise with her so that we could all enjoy our living environment, but she was stubborn and continued to make living with her insufferable. This situation taught me that not everyone is someone that I am going to be able to get along with and has given me skills to tolerate people who may be difficult to cooperate with.

Another thing that happened this year, was the development of cataracts in my eyes. This made it very difficult for me to complete my school work as the cataracts blurred my vision making it hard to read, and even write. They became even more of an issue for me after we transitioned to online learning. Because of the cataracts completing online work was a challenge due to light sensitivity. This whole situation taught me the importance of asking for help. Without asking for help from my professors, the semester would’ve been unbearably difficult, and while it was still difficult, I was able to ease the hardships by asking for help.

Although this year has been hard overall, there were still positive things that happened. I made a plethora of new friends and was able to participate in service opportunities that gave me insight into the medical field while still being able to help those in need. Hopefully I can continue to learn and grow as I go into my third year in college, and hopefully it’ll be easier for me to do this.

Vision and Action Statements

By the time I am prepared and ready to graduate Ohio State, there are several things that I hope to accomplish. I hope that by this time, I am able to be involved in one or more organizations that are dedicated to seeking change and promoting diversity and inclusion within our campus community as well as the community of Columbus. I also hope to have have been accepted into medical school and to be an active member of the Ohio State marching band.

In order to reach my goals, there is some work that I need to do. In order to see myself involved in more organizations dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion, I am going to look into what groups already exist and see if they’re goals align with my own. Then, I will join the organization that best suits my interests. Then, in order to be accepted into medical school, I will put more effort into studying and improving my grades. I will also need to become more active in service and become more involved in activities within the medical field. Finally, in order to become a member of marching band, I am going to dedicate this summer to working on improving my marching and playing skills, while giving my all during tryouts.

 

Abstract

Welcome to my e-portfolio! This post will serve as a guide on how to navigate this page in the best way. When you first open up this webpage, you should land on the home page. This will show all of my posts in a reverse order of how they have been posted. Meaning that the most recent posts will be at the top of the feed, while the oldest posts will be at the bottom. The home page is convenient for when you just want to check if I’ve posted anything, but will be somewhat unorganized as it simply shows all of my posts. For a more organized view of my e-portfolio, I would recommend using the tabs to navigate through everything.

The first tab to click on would be the About Me page. There, you will find any post that will contain any background information that would be helpful in learning more about my personality, interests, and activities I participate in. Currently, this page has a post summarizing my general interests and goals. This post will also be uploaded there as well.

The second tab that should be navigated will be the artifacts tab. This section of the e-portfolio will contain snapshots of what I’m doing throughout the year. This may be an event I’ve attended in Bio-Sci, an accomplishment I’ve made, or an update of what is happening during the year. As of now, the page includes one of my greatest accomplishments.

The next tab that would be clicked on should be the Career tab. This tab would include anything about my professional development. This page currently has my resume and a post about service that I’ve done that has given me insight on the medical field.

The fourth section of the e-portfolio is the G.O.A.L.S tab. This section highlights the 5 principles of Honors and Scholars and what they mean to me personally.

Last. but certainly not least is the Year In Review section. This section contains snapshots of what I’ve done throughout the year and how I’ve grown and developed through these experiences. Currently, there is a post reflecting on my first semester of college.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Volunteer

Help Kids EverywhereDuring my time at Ohio State, I have been involved in multiple service events and volunteering opportunities. Some of these events and opportunities have allowed me to assist patients and help them with their needs while also learning more about the medical field. The volunteering activity that has done this the most for me would be my position as a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital. I worked on the 10th floor of the hospital, which was responsible for taking care of patients with neurological diseases and disorders. My role as a volunteer was to distract patients from the reality that they were in the hospital by playing games with them, watching TV with them, and providing them with snacks. Most of the time this job was fun and allowed me to have some fun with patients, while giving them a mental break from all of the things they may have been going through during the time of their stay. Other times, the job was somewhat sad. Sometimes patients would open up about how long their stay has been, the lack of visitors they get, and what has caused them to be in the hospital. Finding these things out about the patients made me realize just how important my role in the hospital was.

My time at Children’s Hospital has allowed me to have more insight about what patients who are treated within in-patient hospitals are going through, and ways that I can help provide a distraction to them from time to time. From a medical field perspective, this experience will make me be conscious of how long patients have been in care and other conditions they may be going through as a a means to always be compassionate and sympathetic when treating them.

Scholars Program Events

One of the Scholars Events that I attended this semester was a TedTalk discussion. The speech was written and spoken by Hasini Jayatilaka and was focused on cancer research. Through watching the video I learned some interesting facts about cancer cells as well as the structure of research labs. During the discussion we talked about how the video related to our biological science interests and general research. This Scholars Event provided me with useful information on how to apply for research labs as well as what you should expect from research.

Year in Review

As The end of the semester rapidly approaches, I can honestly say that my time at OSU has been amazing. I am beginning to see myself grow and transition into adulthood. I remember at the beggining of the semester when I was worried about not being able to make any friends or be able to be involved in anything. But, through athletic band and bio sci scholars alone, I’ve been able to meet some amazing people and build some great friendships. I have also learned about all of the wide variety of opportunites that I have at OSU. There’s so many options for research, volunteering, and hundreds of organizations to get involved in. There are so many more opportunites for me to get involved on campus and I am excited for what the future has to offer!

G.O.A.L.S.

The Scholars Program uses the acronym G.O.A.L.S to demonstrate its core values. The G stands for global awareness. This being aware of the issues that are going on in my community, country and across the world. The O stands for original inquiry, which is the ability to come up with unique questions that can be answered to have an impact on society. The A stands for academic enrichment, which demonstrates the ability to expand your knowledge inside the classroom and use it for real world application. The L stands for leadership development, which represents being able to learn skills that will help you become a better leader. Lastly, the S stand for service engagement, which means being involved in the community through volunteering.

The to letters of the acronym that represent what I want to do during my time at Ohio State are A and S. For academic enrichment, I have been studying hard and making sure that I am retaining all of the information that I learn in class. My grades are very important and the better I understand the material now, the better I will do on the MCAT for medical school. For service engagement I plan to volunteer at hospitals and on campus. It is always nice to help people out when they need it, and I am always happy to help.

Artifacts

 

This picture represents the day I graduated from high school. Graduation was a major accomplishment for me because it showed me that all the hard work I put into my academics was worthwhile. The purple medallion represents that I graduated with distinguished honors (GPA of at least 3.75), the yellow cord represents my involvement in the National Honors Society, and the red cord represents that I had a GPA of 4.0 for all four years of high school.

These accolades are demonstrate all of the discipline, hard-work, and dedication that I applied to my academics. I know that if I continue this path of academic drive, I will be able to complete my future goals that include going to med-school and becoming a neonatologist.