Month: November 2017

G.O.A.L.S. Reflection

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To enrich my future experiences, increase my successes to come, and reach my personal goals, service engagement and global awareness are necessary. These two pieces of G.O.A.L.S. are the most significant because they are the more interpersonal of all five. Whereas original inquiry, academic enrichment, and leadership development involve the direct betterment of me, the ones I chose are indirectly affect me through the individuals around me.

I plan to get involved in COMO in the next 4 or so years to come as part of Service Engagement. COMO is a nonprofit that operates a free respite center to all women on the street. This includes a warm meal, medical attention, showers, washers and dryers, basic supplies, and more. I plan to use the volunteering experience to ready me for joining the peace corp post-graduation at some point. Furthermore, giving back to the community through helping women is a core principle of mine. It is a personal goal of mine to increase the quality of living and inspire as many as I can around me and COMO is the perfect way to do so. Additionally, by volunteering with organizations like COMO I am motivated to make the most of my future career as a computer science engineer. More specifically, I want to exemplify that it is never too late and anything is achievable for the women and girls afraid to go for their dreams and feel as if its hopeless.

To fulfill global awareness I want to go on a Buck-I-SERV trips around the country as well as out the country. As aforementioned, volunteering is a love of mine. Buck-I-SERV combines my appreciation of the different cultures around the world with giving back to the community. Through traveling with Buck-I-SERV I am able to learn more about our world outside of the United States of America. Gaining a better understanding of the people, cultures, governments and ideas allows me to better understand where I fit in the equation and what I can contribute. This higher understanding will inevitably increase my successes in the future because I am more clear about what the world needs out of someone like me. I want to be an example of success for women around me and this is more easily achieved if I know what limits their growth and dreams. On a more personal level, I have always wanted to travel the world while volunteering. I feel as if the experience would be the right amount of humbling and eye-opening I need to be the best me I can become.

PREFACE

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Before my first year at The Ohio State University started, I was in PREFACE, or Pre First-Year Academic and Career Engagement Program. The program went on for the duration of a month from the end of June to the beginning of July. It covered multiple first year typical engineering courses, such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, english, and engineering graphics. The courses prepared me for the rigor of the engineering program at The Ohio State. They were structured very similarly to their counterparts offered by the college of engineering in that they had midterms, finals, projects, essays, and lab reports. The level of difficulty in each course was tantamount as well. Due to the course offered in PREFACE I was able to pre-set a study schedule and figure out what worked best for me in terms of studying in general, sleeping habits, and amount time set aside for decompressing. The transition from high school in Missouri City, TX to college in Columbus, OH was made that much easier because I knew the general vicinity of where all my classes would be, what to expect in terms of assignments and exams, as well as gaining an established support system in the college of engineering.

Besides the academic rewards to PREFACE, the program exposed me to a multitude of engineering professions and resources that are available to help me reach my career goals. During PREFACE each weekend was a new and educational experience. Places like the Football Hall of Fame, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and Tecumseh emphasized the importance of being the representation for future generations. Places like Marathon and General Electric Aviation provided access to how engineering fields translate to industry. The program clarified a lot in terms of my own self-significance as an aspiring minority in engineering and whether or not I could see myself as an engineer.