My first semester at OSU has gone much better than I could have ever expected!! My two largest fears about college before coming into it were that I would have trouble making friends and that the course load would be too much for me to handle, but the exact opposite has proven to be true! I have met some of the most wonderful, insightful people and I am doing rather well in all of my classes! Being a member of the Humanities Scholars has allowed me to explore parts of campus and the world that I would originally never wandered to! It helps me to feel more connected to my community and knowledgable of aspects of other cultures and ideas around the world that are different from my own. In the future, I hope to remain very active with the Humanity Scholars! I can’t wait to see all of the ways it allows me to help improve and connect with my community!

In my time here on campus, I have been able to get involved in a service- based musical theatre organization on campus called Off The Lake Productions. It is full of amazing and talented people and I am amazed that I have the opportunity to perform with them! College has allowed me to grow tremendously, even just within my first semester here. I can’t imagine what I will be like by the time I graduate. I’ve learned so much about myself in such a little amount of time. I’m really starting to figure out what makes me happy and what the best way is for me to balance my school work, organizations, and social life! Since I have first arrived, campus has seemed to shrink in size tremendously. Walking around my first week here was extremely intimidating and I was extremely worried that I would feel that way all year! But once I began making connections with people and figured out how to get around campus, it didn’t seem so scary anymore! Everywhere I go, I seem to run into someone I know. Of course, there are still parts of campus that seem foreign to me, but without a doubt I will have it all figured out soon. It is so amazing that I am given this opportunity to expand my knowledge of so many different topics at this school. I feel as though I have learned so much at this school just within the first semester. I am so excited to see where these next four years will take me and how they will allow me to grow. Ohio State is a place full of endless opportunities and I plan to grasp onto as many of those opportunities as I possibly can!

Jajuan Hopkins is a second year Neuroscience major from Columbus, Ohio. I asked him to tell me any story he would like and this is what he had to say:
“So are they gonna hear the recording?… Okay Good. So you know, it’s your everyday story of a high school success turned college failure, thinking that since you breezed through high school, college will be just the same. ‘Studying is for wimps’ and ‘You’re just better than that’ and it turns out no one is better than that. You are just not going to be successful if you aren’t reading your book and it’s taken me two whole semesters to figure that out. Countless midterms waisted because I wasn’t good enough because I thought I was better when I wasn’t ready yet. You know, it really puts things in perspective. When you live your entire life being at the top of your class, everyone always telling you how intelligent you are, and always noting how ‘You don’t have to try in that class’, ‘You don’t even need to pay attention and you will still get an A on the test’, but there is no one to note that in college. No teacher who is going to give you a midterm that you can get an A on without studying. There are no ‘Easy A’ college classes. So I’d like to know the story of the people who claim they have these, because that is a reality I will never have.”

As the months until move in day turned into weeks and into days, I had become increasingly anxious about entering the next stage of my life: college. All of this worrying turned out to be completely pointless because my first week at The Ohio State University went more seamlessly than I could have ever imagined! From the moment I arrived, every person I have encountered has been so welcoming and willing to help me if I ever needed anything. Coming to campus a few days early due to being a part of the OWL program allowed me to meet so many wonderful, intelligent people and get acquainted with the campus a few days before the rest of the students. It created a small world for me in this seemingly never-ending campus.

Once all of the freshmen had officially moved in, we all attended Convocation together. It was genuinely shocking to see the large amount of people that make up the class of 2021. Nevertheless, it made me extremely excited to see what we are all able to accomplish in the future! Looking into the crowd, my excitement increased as I thought about the new people whose lives would soon mesh with mine. Meeting new people, learning new material, and joining different groups has to be what I am most excited for here at OSU! I can’t wait to get involved in one of the many programs I discovered at the Involvement Fair during Welcome Week. It really allowed me to see what type of program I am interested in joining and all of the options OSU has to offer for such activities. All of the events the University planned for the freshman last week only allowed me to become increasingly hopeful and excited for the future. I can’t wait to see where a place like The Ohio State University will lead me and the person that will come out of this experience in four years.

[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.]