Together with other Mount Scholars at Ohio State, I have been working hard over the past year to uphold the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement.

I have developed a better appreciation and awareness of diverse people and cultures through study abroad and service-learning involvement with cultural organizations and activities. In May 2017, I traveled abroad with Ohio State students and city/regional planning instructors to study European Cities and Sustainable Urban Planning in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. In addition to learning about sustainable urban design strategies, parks and plazas, water development, and transportation systems and analyzing their applicability within the United States, I also experienced different cultures and perspectives outside the United States that provided an education far beyond the classroom. In the future at Ohio State, I would like to take part in another study abroad program in the city/regional planning or engineering curriculum.

Similarly, I am cultivating global awareness through my current participation in service learning at the Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS), where I help to teach English and job skills to Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers. I am assisting ETSS participants with the English language and cultural assimilation while increasing my own respect, appreciation, and understanding of cultural and personal differences in our global community. I would really like to develop genuine relationships and enduring friendships with ETSS participants that extend beyond the service-learning project. My appreciation and understanding of diversity has also benefitted from participation as a team member of the Mount Global Social Justice Initiative through which we corresponded with Ronald McDonald House Charities in Germany, China, Columbia and New Zealand, participated in an activity day with children from ETSS, and hosted a Prezens donations assembly with the Nazarene Church for Nigerian Schools.

Involvement with these organizations and service-learning activities has helped me to develop leadership skills while demonstrating strong commitment to community service, which fits into the leadership-building and service engagement components of the Scholars G.O.A.L.S. In addition, as a Mount Scholar, I am currently taking an Ohio State class on Leadership in Community Service and participate in extensive leadership and service training programs focusing on topics such as Civility, Citizenship, and Goal Setting. I have also participated in leadership roles as a Mount mentor, welcome week leader and representative of the Wellness and Athletic Committee. Scholars program community service engagement has included letter writing to military members, participation in special needs student programs, and work with the Fall Harvest Jamboree for underprivileged Columbus families.

Service engagement on campus and within the community is a passion, and I know that leadership and service involvement is essential for ordinary people like me to become good global leaders who make a positive difference.  I hope to use my Ohio State engineering education and skills to continue my commitment to service in the future by representing underserved communities and their residents through urban planning and design to combat urban blight, equalize resource allocation, and engineer structures and landscapes that integrate and unite city areas and people. My service engagement at Ohio State has included work for Habitat for Humanity as part of Ohio State’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Service Project. I also participated in the BuckeyeThon Dance Marathon to raise funds and awareness for childhood cancer treatment, and for the past three years, I have been part of the vocal worship group and youth ministry program at my church.

My current activity that fits into the Scholars G.O.A.L.S of original inquiry is participation in Ohio State’s Second-Year Transformational Experience Program (STEP). Through STEP, I hope to engage in faculty-supervised research that will enhance my engineering education. My STEP project proposal involves harnessing natural resources for sustainable development with focus on integration of industrial components into the natural environment. I plan to pursue my research over the next year in the southwestern region of the United States by visiting the Hoover Dam and the Glass Overlook at the Grand Canyon. Both engineering feats capitalized on efficient use of natural resources within the United States to promote sustainable development by incorporation of manmade industrial design in an environmentally conscious manner.

Since starting at Ohio State last fall, I have been pursuing a rigorous engineering and city planning curriculum both in and out of the classroom in upholding the Scholars commitment to academic enrichment. In addition to admission to Ohio State’s College of Engineering and studying sustainable urban development in Europe, I am interning with the City of Green Engineering Department. As part of this engineering service-learning internship, I am exposed to City project and development plans involving analysis and synthesis of often-competing priorities, such as economic growth and development, social justice for underserved segments of the community, personal safety concerns/remedies, environmental protection, and sustainability. Through this internship, I hope to explore alternative ways of practicing engineering to maximize city sustainability and integration by balancing considerations relating to economic growth, social inclusion, opportunity and resource allocation equality, and environmental stewardship. Recently I have joined two extracurricular engineering organizations in which I hope to become more involved in the future in order to cultivate further academic enrichment and practical engineering knowledge; these are the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), OSU Student Chapter, and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Collegiate to Career Member. I look forward to educational and professional activities with these groups, as well as further pursuits in upholding the Scholars G.O.A.L.S.