I have had many long- and short-term service engagements throughout my time at OSU. I regularly volunteer as an Honors Peer Mentor in Arts and Sciences (now Honors Lead Mentor) and as a Restful Nights volunteer at the James Cancer Hospital. I founded Kindness on the Carts, a service initiative benefitting the James, and regularly organize and perform service through it. Mid-length commitments I have made include organizing and participating in the campus wide Blanket-Making Drive collaboration between ResLife and MUNDO and a service-learning trip to New Orleans, where we performed community service around the city. Short-term engagements I have had include Community Commitment, volunteering at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, and acting as a host for A Day in the Life of a Buckeye. In the summer of 2015, I volunteered regularly at Global Gifts, a fair trade non-profit, and became a Peer Research Contact, which I will continue throughout my college career.

I plan to continue to engage in the community by continuing my current activities and participating in new ones. I will continue to run KindCarts for the James Hospital, as well as volunteer with Restful Nights. I also plan to continue serving as an Honors Peer Mentor, participate in service-learning trips and take advantage of one-time opportunities OSU provides for service.

Sophomore year: I am involved in many varied activities on campus. I serve on the executive board of MUNDO, was involved this year as the Random Acts of Kindness Chair for Mirrors Sophomore Honorary and serve as an Honors Peer Mentor. I am also a member of OSU SHADOW and the Sexual Violence Committee. At the end of first semester, I founded the KindCarts Service Initiative for the James, which I continue to run.

Junior year: I have expanded my leadership opportunities in my various organizations, as well as beyond. I created and now hold a new position in MUNDO, Communications Director, after seeing a need for marketing and communicative organization. I won the Emerging Eminence Award and now work with Mortarboard Senior Honorary as part of their Emerging Eminence Cohort to plan programs to create social change at OSU. I have graduated to Honors Lead Mentor and also serve as an intern for the Honors Advising Office through the same program. Various other organizations I’m involved in include Folklore Student Association and University Ambassadors.

These activities contribute to my development as a leader by giving me the skills that I need to succeed in medical school and the work force. Each commitment allows me to practice public speaking, organize and program events and generally take responsible for a project/task and see it to fruition. Personally, my involvement in these organizations allows me to fulfill my love for organizing, programming and implementation. It also allows me to explore other enjoyments of mine, such as exploring other communities and crafting (an element of KindCarts). They also allow me to serve as a mentor to freshmen or younger members, a particular enjoyment of mine. Career-wise, the public speaking experience each of these activities gives me is especially helpful. Learning to balance all my commitments, as well as the various skills I gain, will help me learn to budget my time for medical school.  My medical-related commitments also serve to familiarize me with the field that I hope to enter.

I have dedicated myself to the goal of academic enrichment through the coursework that I have chosen to pursue. I chose my major, Neuroscience, because I was interested in the material and knew that the courses it entailed would stretch me. My minor was chosen because while indulging in my love for English, I discovered a new passion, Folklore. My GE courses were chosen mainly due to the fact that they overlapped with my minor or pre-med requirements.

My selections of coursework overlap demonstrate my commitment to excellence. A majority of my GEs are honors classes, or classes at/above the 4000-level. I have also stretched myself in my major requirements, by choosing to take a graduate level course in the medical school, rather than the possibility of an undergraduate honors class. I have decided to explore a different avenue of study through folklore, which doesn’t relate to, but does enhance my science-based major. My planned curriculum relates to my future aspirations because they give me a lot of background in the sciences, which is required for medical school, and also gives me a well-rounded edge by having a mix of humanities as well.

I have had many experiences with the research and creative process. Many of my science classes, such as Chemistry 1220 and Biology 1114H, have had research projects built into them, where we conduct an experiment and end with writing a scientific paper in the same format as peer-reviewed scientific articles. I have also experienced the research process from a non-scientific viewpoint, with a research project in my English 2270, where I researched and wrote about the intersectionality of the LGBTQ+ and African-American/Black community.

I also experience original inquiry in the neuroscience/immunology research lab, where I volunteer roughly ten hours a week. Over the summer of 2015, I received the Research Scholar Award, which allowed me to create and oversee my own independent project, focusing on the synergization of chronic stress and repeated social defeat (RSD). I also recently completed a project in folklore, examining fairy tale musical adaptations and establishing a common formula and its effects. I will present both at the 2015 Fall Undergraduate Research Forum.

I will continue to further my original inquiry skills by continuing to work in the lab and the field. I’m continuing the stress project, repeating the experiment with splenlectomized mice to further find the immunological causes. I’m also pursuing a research project focusing on domestic womanhood in traditional and online media. I plan to use this project as one undergraduate research thesis, with plans to do another project in Neuroscience for a second research thesis. 

I have attempted to develop my Global awareness throughout student organizations, such as MUNDO and Allies for Diversity. I serve on the executive board of MUNDO as Action Team Leader and Communications Director where I work to expand the cultural collateral of the student body. We endeavor to introduce and educate the student body about other communities and their customs and issues. For example, some of our programs this year included a discussion of Bollywood in South Asia and its stereotypes, a study abroad to Puerto Rico and a panel discussing Islamophobia and how it’s perceived in other countries. Programs that I myself have created include a program on how beauty is perceived globally, education on invisible minorities and collaboration/discussions with SHADES, the campus group for LBGTQ people of color.

I have expanded my Global awareness through my classwork as well, taking folklore classes that examine the texts and cultures of communities worldwide. In the future, I will continue to work on MUNDO’s executive board and take other classes, like Sociology 1101H, to further my global awareness.