KindCarts Service Initiative Anniversary

KindCarts celebrates its first official anniversary on February 17th, Random Acts of Kindness Day! This service initiative would not be what it is now without the support of the James Cancer Hospital and our amazing volunteers!

We’ve done a lot in our first year:

  • Executed 19 diverse projects
  • Won 2 grants to support us financially, totaling $1533.00
  • Collaborated with 5 different on-campus groups
  • Organized 1 outside service event with Buckeye Village
  • Gained 34 volunteers
  • Received 2 sets of major donations
  • Made 16 different types of crafts
  • Held 1 program focused on grassroots service and the importance of giving back
  • Volunteered over 236 hours
  • Gave away 629 donations to the patients of the James Cancer Hospital!

I’m so happy to have had the chance to found KindCarts and meet such passionate volunteers and lovely patients! I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for us!

KindCarts Collage 20160209

Formal Public Speaking Events

Each year, I’m given amazing opportunities to practice public speaking and present for amazing groups here at OSU and beyond. Whether it’s discussing research or mentoring first years, the chance to present and make connections is always a great one!

Ohio State Advising Conference 2015

URO “Spilling the Beans” Student Panel

URO Fall Undergraduate Research Forum

URO Panel Discussion for Leadership Initiatives for Women of Color

First Year Success Series: “Excelling in Honors”

URO “Speaking of Summer Research” Panel

URO “Undergradute Research in Honors Learning Communities” Panel

OSU-Women’s Heart Alliance

9th Annual OSU/IU Folklore and Ethnomusicology Conference (Embodied Expression: The Body in Academia, the Field and the In-between)

URO Fall Research Forum 2016

Introduction to H&S e-portfolio (multiple)

First Year Success Series: “Stress Less” (twice)

First Year Success Series: “You Don’t Snooze, You Don’t Lose”

University Admissions’ Admitted Student Panel in Cincinnati

ILO Distinguished Leadership Brunch

Commencement Reception 2017

 

 

KindCarts Logo

New year, new beginnings! KindCarts Service Initiative finally has its own logo, showcasing how simple acts of kindness bring us closer together!

KindCartsLogo-2 (1)

Thank you, Lauryn Paige, for your incredible design work!

Awards and Honors

Honors and Scholars Academic Enrichment Grant 2015

Emerging Eminence Award 2015 from Mortarboard Senior Honorary

Research Scholar Award May 2015

Professional Development Grant from Critical Difference for Women

Undergraduate Student Government Academic Enrichment Grant

Undergraduate Education Summer Research Fellowship

e-Portfolio Peer Mentors Scholarship

Brown College of Public Health Dean’s Scholarship in Public Health

Ohio State University Dean’s Distinguished University Fellowship

Emerging Leader Award (Annual Asian Excellence Awards)

Ohio State’s College of Public Health MPH Culminating Project Grant

Women and Philanthropy Scholar

Sphinx Senior Honorary (Current Member)

Mirrors Sophomore Honorary (2014-2015)

University Honors Student (Arts and Sciences)

Dean’s List (Multiple semesters)

Final Honors Peer Mentor Internship Reflection

1300 words. Each reflection I’ve written this year has fallen around this word count, about two pages full of thoughts and musings on the past few weeks’ favorite memories, teaching moments and areas of improvement. As I write my final Peer Mentor reflection, I’m struggling to think of how to sum up the entire semester’s experience in a couple of pages, into 1300 words. But I’ve so enjoyed this opportunity. From overcoming my own obstacles, to learning how to interact better with the students, I’ve gained so much. I’ve learned what I’m keeping from this year, what I want to change and where I still need to improve.

One area that I’ve improved on and would like to continue growing in is the peer mentor events. Last year, I arranged two peer mentor events and one PM meet-up, where a total of four students attended. This year, I had five PM event and three PM meet-ups, with a total of twenty-five students! Many factors contributed to this, such as the new PM calendar, which allows students from other classes to know about your events, but I do feel like my programming skills improved this year. I focused on more social events this year, with both planned events allowing for conversation and group atmosphere. They were also both events that I thought students would want to go to, even without a survey grade incentive. These worked very well, allowing for more students and more engaged students. My favorite of these planned events was the Buckeye Village Fall Festival, which combined crafting and service for the children who lived there.

I did offer some non-calendar PM events throughout the semester. A few students couldn’t make anything on the calendar, so we met up for coffee/food and talked about life. I held a couple academic-related events, exploring the Fall Undergraduate Research Forum and attending the “Spilling the Beans on Research Panel,” which were centered around a topic that the majority of the class had expressed interest in. In order to incentivize the students to checking out Research Week, I offered these programs as an alternative PM event—if you go, come and chat with me at the event and I’ll count it as a PM event. The last impromptu event was semi-planned: an end-of-survey lunch at the Short North with the other peer mentors. It was incredibly fun to get to talk to the other students and peer mentors in such a fun and relaxed setting!

Next year, I will definitely continue on in the vein that I started this year. I think that including academic-related events as a possible PM event may help convince students to check out something that interests them, but I want to keep the planning focus on the social events that work so well. I definitely will repeat BV Fall Festival as an event next year, as well as peer mentor collaborations!

There are other areas that I’d like to continuing improving on as well. One is being prepared for the unanticipated. I’ve had a couple of unexpected situations this semester, from being approached by a student in need to having ambiguous student participation at a PM event. I did handle them, but I would like to feel more ready for such situations and have more confidence when handling them. I would also like to get better at knowing my students, although I have definitely improved in this aspect over last year. I see many of the students in the Neuroadvising office and around campus, but there are still times when I see people and am not sure whether or not I know them from survey, from elsewhere, or if my mind is playing tricks on me.

This semester, I was also ecstatic to find that students were more comfortable in approaching me with questions. Some stayed after class; others sent emails, but in overall, they were more open to using me as a resource than last year. Again, many factors came into this. Part of it was the age difference—it makes more sense to ask a junior for advice than a sophomore and the fact that I was Lead Mentor this year may have also played a role. The biggest difference, in my opinion, is my demeanor. I was far more confident this year in talking to others and sharing my opinion. I’m also more comfortable in and out of the classroom, and so my interactions with the students/mentors have become less unnatural and more like how I actually behave. I’ve changed that way I carry myself, and that makes a difference.

This internship has also helped me grow in so many ways. I loved the increase of responsibility this year, from arranging the schedules of the mentors in the class to the internship project. The internship project was especially rewarding. I remembered suggesting that mentors get to make a lesson plan for next year, and the project basically served in the same context, giving me the possibility to show the students something that I considered important. The conversations that arose from the presentation were thought-provoking and just what I wanted. The other idea that I had for the project in the beginning of the year was talking about what leadership really means. If I do the internship again, I would like to try something in this theme, perhaps talking about how to program events or how to do meaningful service.

My favorite part of this semester, however, has been the personal connections I’ve made with the students and my other peer mentors. This semester, I’ve developed closer relationships with my students. Between seeing them in class, at events, and around campus, there are multiple students that know on a personal level. After one-on-one PM meetings, I always email students with resources relating to what we talked about, whether it’s letting them know about a grant that could fund a study abroad they want to go on or giving them more information about moving off-campus. For example, I know Bernadette, a girl in my class, enough that I’ve been able to email different opportunities in her interest fields, from clinical psychology research job openings to crafting organizations. One girl, Claire, isn’t even my class, however, she’s come to all my PM events and we hang out outside class at various club and university events.

I’ve also made such great connections with my fellow peer mentors this year. I love the way that we work off each other and how everyone takes initiative. Carol created a PM event calendar that greatly organized and improved how we handle those events and was able to take care of a student in a sensitive moment. Sean organized our correspondence through Groupme and has stepped in when other mentors are sick or had to leave to help students. I’ve also been able to meet other mentors, such as Shannon. The four of us did a joint event to North Market that allowed me to become closer to the students and all the mentors.

Although there are always areas to improve, I’m proud of how I’ve grown and what I’ve done this semester. This experience has been absolutely amazing, and worth far more than these 1214 words can convey.

Honors Peer Mentor Internship Reflection #3

If these past couple weeks in survey have shown me something, it’s that I’m the adult now.

Even though eighteen was when I officially entered adulthood, there’s still a significant amount of leeway I receive due to being twenty years old. Others still consider me a kid; the word “college” just happens to be put in front of it. There are times that I admit that I still feel like a child in my mother’s shoes, especially when I waffle over career plans or commitments. Sometimes it’s the woman in me who says “I’m already twenty,” and sometimes it’s the girl that goes “I’m just twenty.”

But to the first-years, suddenly those two years and change that separate us become the difference between being one of them and one of the adults. Suddenly, I am the “authority figure,” the one who is expected to have the answers and to hold them accountable. This division was never really apparent to me during class or other interactions, but for some reason, I became aware of this continually shifting boundary this past month.

The first feeling came during scheduling week. Suddenly I was receiving multiple emails from students, asking for recommendations for GEs, what my opinion was on certain workloads, etc. One student asked about the process of changing her major to Health Sciences. I found myself spending a good hour trying to learn about her new choice, gathering resources to email her and explaining the steps to changing (from making an appointment with their advising office, from letting her know the requirements to become a pre-major to major to explaining that she would need to talk to Joe because that major was in a new college etc.) and what I would do in her situation. I spent a long time on these emails, not only because I wanted to be a good resource, but also because I remembered that, when I was a freshmen, I took what the peer mentors said as truth, the same way I trusted the information from my advisor.

Presenting my internship project was the next hurdle. I had centered this project on dialogue and recognizing and reacting to triggers, a topic that I hadn’t encountered in a survey class before. My original plan to create small group discussion had to change last minute when I found I lacked the handouts, so our discussions took place as a large class.

There’s a distinct difference between presenting something for a class, such as doing a skit or PowerPoint, and asking for their participation. You are now at the mercy of the students to interact and give you something to work off of. Silence, I learned, doesn’t mean disengaged. Even when the class was completely quiet, I could tell I had their attention from the nods, eye contact, and changes in facial expression. These nonverbal cues were a confidence booster, but I definitely gained a newfound appreciation for those students who have no fear of talking in class and giving their opinion. Their participation usually helped other students talk and comment off each other’s’ viewpoints. And, thankfully, the presentation did do what I wanted it to: spark discussion and dialogue. The other peer mentors and I, as well as our advisor, starting talking about the controversy of sensitivity training, bringing up questions like when is it too PC and discussing opinions on the statement, “some situations don’t have a right answer.” As class left, Sean and I ended having a conversation with another student about their biases against humanities students, business in particular. During the presentation, the student commented that he knows it’s wrong, but also knows that he’s guilty of it himself. As we left, he commented that he feels bad about it, but believes he’s right and it’s okay as long as he doesn’t verbally belittle anyone about it. Sean brought up that “that might actually be worse,” and we ended up discussing it as we went to our next classes. In the end, I consider the project a success, because it started deeper discussions about understanding our biases and the ideas of appropriate behavior.

The point that really drove home this feeling of “adulthood” was my second and last peer mentor event, which, ironically, was all about being a kid. For five hours on a Saturday morning, the students and I volunteered at the Buckeye Village Fall Festival, setting up and running crafts tables and activities. This event was a collaboration I organized between BV, MUNDO (a club I’d been in since freshman year) and KindCarts, a service initiative I started, and so, was very close to my heart. It was amazing to see the students have fun and de-stress, as well as to see them get enjoyment out of helping the younger kids paint, color and be safe.  On the CABS ride home from the event, the students and I got to bond over the event, and talk about different topics like moving off-campus, service, applying for grants, and pre-med problems. With two hundred children running around with access to paint, scissors and glue, it was a while before I noticed that one student wasn’t actually participating. This student, who we will call Layla, was sitting on the couch playing with her phone, while the other students were interacting with the kids. After noticing this, I checked in on her periodically, and each time, she was on her phone or talking to a friend in the corner. I never saw her interact with the families or work the event.

I had no time to think about it during the event, but found myself troubled about it afterward when it came time to send her name to her advisor. On one hand, I didn’t feel like she fulfilled the assignment, either in the talking to the peer mentor or the participation in the event. On the other hand, during the event, I never went up to her and specifically told her to participate more, and due to the many duties, kids and students I was juggling, it’s possible that I merely looked over when she was taking a break, and she was working the event when I wasn’t looking. I was torn over if this was something that I should tell her advisor. I personally didn’t think it was respectful to the children or Buckeye Village, but, depending on the advisor’s opinion, it could have resulted in her not getting credit for the event.

As students, there is an implicit understanding that, in ambiguous situations, we cover for each other. We make sure the situation goes the way that benefits our follow student because, at the end of the day, we understand their experience with classes and work and clubs. This mentality stretches strongly to a class like this, where “it’s just survey.” There’s a mentality of being in one group, and professors in another, so you should stand with your group. Telling her advisor would be like crossing that group boundary and joining the adults/authority. I asked other peer mentors if I should let Layla’s advisor know and got mixed responses, following the same reasons above.

In the end, I did end up telling Layla’s advisor what I observed at the event, as well as my disclaimers of not seeing her all the time and not explicitly telling her to talk to the kids after the first explanation of the event. I had multiple reasons for deciding to let her advisor know. First of all, all the other students had great participation, from helping the kids to cleaning up, so her behavior wasn’t characteristic of all students. Secondly, there were multiple options for PM events, most of which didn’t involve volunteering, so if she had somewhere she needed to be, or didn’t want to do the event or service, she didn’t have to. The reason that held the most sway with me, however, was the fact that this was a service event. It wasn’t solely a program to have fun and craft (although we did that as well!), it was about making sure the children had the best time that they could. For some of the shyer kids, having someone to play with them, paint with them, or show them how to use the tacky glue can make their day. If something is just for your fun/education, the only person you’re truly affecting is yourself. But if you sign up to volunteer and then don’t, you start affecting the experience of others.

To me, the PM event situation highlights the see-saw feeling of being child and adult. Although I made the decision to let her advisor know, I don’t have the final responsibility of deciding whether or not Layla gets credit, a decision that I’m currently grateful to not have to make. And, although I felt more like an adult this month, as the end of survey comes along, I know I’ll tip back over to a kid as I start thinking about no longer seeing the new friends I made this semester due to Peer Mentors.

 

Professional Development Grant from Critical Development for Women

I have just been awarded a Critical Difference for Women Professional Development Grant! This grant will help me continue to run/fund KindCarts Service Initiative, my kindness-based service project for the James Cancer Hospital. It will allow us to expand our donations and include more health–related items, such as rice bags, which help ease pain by acting as a heating/cooling pad for the patients. From my opportunities and my support system, to all the love around me, I have been so lucky and am, once again, to have been given this opportunity to help others and do what I love!

Growing through Navigating Controversy

Today, I was able to present my Peer Mentor Project through my internship with OSU’s Arts and Sciences’ Honors Advising Office. As students, and people, come into our own, we form opinions. And, such as, it’s inevitable that those opinions will clash. Challenging ourselves, our assumptions, and our viewpoints are an essential part of growth and I am so overjoyed to have had the chance to present about how to navigate these situations, from identifying the differences between dialogue, debate and discussion to choosing appropriate responses to triggering situations.

Navigating Controversy Presentation

 

Honors Peer Mentor Internship Reflection #2

Coming into my second year as a peer mentor, I’m not quite sure how much I expected my experience to change. Although I anticipated more responsibility, and hoped to improve on the areas where I struggled, I still believed that the classroom experience, especially the interpersonal component, would be nearly identical. As the semester goes on, I find myself happily surprised. My connections with my students and fellow peer mentors has become closer than I would have ever thought, which has brought a different, but special, twist to this year’s class.

One of the areas that I feel like I have definitely improved upon is the peer mentor event. Earlier in the semester, I had a few impromptu events during Undergraduate Research Week. The overwhelming majority of my survey class has expressed an interest in research, so I thought adding the extra incentive of it counting for a peer mentor event might push them to check it the URO’s events. I had two students come, one to a research panel discussing how to get involved, and another to the Fall Undergraduate Poster Forum. Each time, I was able to talk with the students and answer questions, from how I got involved in research, to how I decide to budget my time. I did like the tenor of the events because it allowed the students to ask questions that they’re curious about, but haven’t been/won’t be covered in class. However, due to the small number and the instructional nature of the events, the students saw the “mentor” before the “peer.”

For my first official peer mentor event, I arranged for the students to come to Jazz by Mirror Lake. I was ecstatic when ten students arrived! A few came on their own and others came in groups. This event had a significantly more social feel, with the students interacting freely with each other and with me.  The large group and relaxed atmosphere definitely made the students seem more at ease, so here, I was more the “peer” than the “mentor,” which led to amazing, more personal talks.

One difference I wasn’t expecting was the changing relationship I have with my students on an individual basis. Last year, despite the fact that I became closer to some students more than others, they were still largely one entity for me. They were “the class.” This year, I know more of them by name and face. This may be due to the fact that we can identify with each other more. We’re all focused on biological sciences, all pre-med and most of us are Neuroscience majors. I constantly run into and interact with the first-years in the Neuro Advising Office. Sometimes the run-ins become an almost hilarious occurrence. There’s one student, Claire, who I met at Pre-Convocation Survey. She’s not in my class, yet we see each other nearly every week purely by accident. We’ve bumped into each other at URO events, at MUNDO meetings, at Recess on the Oval, at the Party at the Wex, at the Kinky Boots musical downtown, etc. As odd as it started out, it’s turned into a lovely friendship where we can tell each other about different events we may like (since we have similar tastes), about what Neuro classes we’re planning to take and about life in general. Seeing her so often has also made her comfortable enough to email me with whatever questions she has about OSU and her first year. Although not logistically feasible, it would be incredible if I had such a relationship with all my students, where “peer” and “mentor” are synonymous with “friend.”

Another student-interaction difference this year was that someone reached out for my help. After sharing my transition story, a student (whom we will call Christopher) approached me and confided that he was going through similar issues. The feeling was bittersweet. On one hand, the reason that I applied to Peer Mentors in my sophomore year was for this situation—to serve as a voice for those in my situation and to help those still in it. However, I also wished that no student would be in that place and I worried that I would give the wrong advice or suggest a path that, while it may have worked for me, would not be helpful to him. Thankfully, Christopher was able to get the support he needed, from myself, the peer mentors in my class, and others around him.

This incident brought home that fact that, more than anything, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the dynamic between my follow peer mentors and me. We work together in a way that often seems seamless. We share our different ideas throughout the week on GroupMe and keep each other up to date on various in-class issues. In Christopher’s case, we all kept an eye on him to see how he was doing from survey to survey. I could talk to him about certain issues; Sean was able to be there for him as a friend outside of class (they were in Bio lab together) and Carol walked him over to the Student Health Center at a critical moment. So when our advisor, Joe Brately, commented that Christopher seemed off, we were able to let him know of the situation.

Another similar situation occurred during “Communication at the University” week. I wasn’t originally scheduled to come in, so Sean and Carol created a game plan of who would handle the presentation, how the skits would go, etc. When that week became an AHOD day, they were able to quickly change their plans to that I would be included as well. Later in that class period, Carol had to leave suddenly, leaving Sean and me to completely improv skits that he and Carol had originally prepared. However, even with all the changes, the presentations/skits went amazingly.

As the term goes on, I find myself looking forward to different parts of survey. Often I look forward to the subject matter, especially if it’s something I’m passionate about. Sometimes I’m excited for the student presentations, such as when they share about the resources they’ve learned about on campus. But every class, I know I can look forward to the people in my survey and the connections we make each and every day.