Katie is enjoying her second semester at the Ohio State University. Because Katie was undecided about her major during her first semester, I asked her what her current major is and if she enjoys it. Katie is a public affairs major with a Spanish minor. She is pursuing different routes and career possibilities, but she is most interested in non-profit work. Rather than working for educational government policy making, Katie would enjoy doing something like public relations. She really wants to help people and do something that doesn’t have much controversy or political debates. Katie has developed some great study habits. For example, she relies heavily on her Google calendar, which helps her stay organized. By breaking her work into steps or spreading work out if there is an overwhelming amount, Katie finds it the easiest to get her work done. In addition, Katie enjoys studying on the sixth floor of Thompson by the library book stacks because she focuses well in that area. If she’s not at Thompson, Katie will also study in the lounge of the floor in Smith-Steeb. Katie does homework from 11-4pm on Mondays or studies at night.
Katie has been a part of some awesome student organizations so far at Ohio State. Last semester, Katie was involved with CHAARG, a female organization that exercises together on and off campus. CHAARG includes working out with a small group of females and attending workouts at gyms and other workout facilities in the Columbus area. However, Katie is not involved with CHAARG anymore because of the fee members had to pay. Also, it was difficult for her to attend the off-campus workouts because they didn’t align well with her class schedule and free time. This semester, Katie joined Boo Radley Society, which promotes random acts of kindness to others. I think this a great organization for Katie and her kind, bubbly personality. In Boo Radley, each member is assigned to a “commily” that combines both family and community aspects. Katie mentioned that on the GroupMe app each commily has a pun-themed group name that incorporates the Boo Radley name. Each commily has to create two events, and each member has to participate in seven events that focus on promoting kindness to students on campus. Lastly, Katie is still involved with Smiles with Style. This organization partners with the Ronald McDonald organization and puts on fun events for the kids such as dress up, spa day, or any other form of self care and play!
In general, Katie said she liked her first semester in ACES. Specifically, she enjoys the flexibility of the commitment. With ACES, you have participation requirements; meanwhile, the commitment enables members to still have the opportunity and time to join other organizations. Katie and I agreed that ACES encourages members to join other organizations to fulfill the service hour requirement, which is a really cool aspect of the program. This low time commitment compared to other scholars programs allowed her to join CHAARG, Smiles with Style, and Boo Radley Society. With the ACES living-learning community, Katie stated she was not only able to meet friends in ACES, but she was also able to branch out and make more friends, those that are not in ACES. Something that surprised Katie about the ACES program was that there was not as much of an education aspect as she anticipated. But, Katie added that she actually enjoyed that because it has made her aware of other topics other than her initial passion of education. Also, Katie said that her survey class was more quiet than she would have liked and would have liked if people were more social. When I asked Katie if she was interested in joining the Leadership Council, she said that she would love to get more involved with the social media portion of ACES and will be applying for a spot on the LC!
As a public affairs major, Katie has become more confident in her career goals. Her main goal is to help people and she would love to participate in a Teach for America program in the future. I mentioned that I am a part of STEP, and Katie said that she would be interested in a possible internship if it aligns with her major or something in non-profit work or public relations.
Katie stated that the Michigan game was her favorite memory from first semester. Like myself, Katie enjoys spending time with her family. So when she had to leave Thanksgiving break early to come back to campus for the game, she was actually a little sad because she wanted to stay with her family and two dogs for a little longer. However, once Katie woke up on gameday, she knew she had made the right decision and was so eager to cheer on the buckeyes! For the remainder of the semester, Katie wants to boost her GPA and increase her ACES involvement as I do too. Lastly, Katie is currently training for a half marathon! I’m really thankful that Katie is one of my mentees because she always exudes a very positive energy and makes me happy. She is continuing to grow as a person and is enjoying her time at Ohio State!