I did compete my final project of making the Saplings Mentor Council applications for the 2017-2018 school year and helping select which mentors would be selected and would be on the mentor council. I committed around 15 hours total to the project.

To complete this project Brooke, Marie and I all met and looked at past applications and picked and chose what we liked and what we did not like. Then we chose questions that we liked to use on our application and we added a nature background and a picture of the 2020 class so it looked more personalized to them. Next, we went to a first year seminar class to talk to the first year about what being a mentor entails and described our experience as mentors. Then, I went to the selection process to talk about if we thought that the candidates would be good fit or not. Which I do not think we turned anyone down. Finally, I attended the Mentor Council Retreat to talk to the new mentors about our experiences and things that could be changed, fixed, or improved for next year.

I did think that my final project was rewarding because it was helpful to the new mentors. This was important to me because as a mentor I was not really needed by my mentees so this was a way for me to give back to them outside of me being their mentor and more of a one on one basis.

I do not think that I would do anything differently, I think that everything went well and without a hitch. One thing I learned from this project would be how to make an application that is going to tell you what you need to know. It is nice to add some questions to really get to know the person instead of just their accomplishments because with this being their first year they may not have gotten their footing in the college world yet.

Yes, I have started my project. The mentor/ mentee interview really gave me a chance to connect with some of my Saplings and get to know them and their interests much better. Both Haley and Tess were undecided in exactly what they wanted to do but they had some great ideas of what they wanted their end goals to be.

I am still in the beginning stages of my project because I am getting to know my Saplings because it is important to have that trust and strong foundation before delving deeper into the relationships. I think that I should be a little further in my project as of now. It would be nice to be in the stage where we are meeting regularly but we just have not found a time that works for everyone yet. Eventually, I hope that we can get to this point without having to force the interactions between the Saplings and Mallory and myself.

The project is meeting my expectations but it is different than I thought it would be. I thought that the Saplings would need more help and guidance from me but that has not been the case. I am okay with this as long as they are getting the help that they need from another source rather than just not getting the help they need at all. Overall, I am still getting a lot out of this experience even though it is not as  demanding as I thought that it would.

One change that I need to change my plan is to get a regular meeting time so we can all get to know each other really well and then situations and conversations will not feel as forced. This will help open doors to the Saplings so they will feel more comfortable reaching out to me whenever they need something.

For my second year I will be a Sapling’s Mentor to first year students in ENR. This will include me being an informative source for them to ask me any questions that they may have about their first year and also me attending the weekly meetings to stay involved in the ENR program.

This is going to benefit me because it will be a good way for me to expand my leadership skills while doing something that I am interested in. Also, it will be a way for me to create new relationships with first years and better my relationships with the other mentors that I do not know that well. Someone else that will benefit from this will be my Saplings. They will benefit from this because they already have someone that they feel comfortable talking to coming into their first year. This will be useful to them because this will help them make strong connections to their others Saplings and to me as their mentor and making good relationships in your first year is essential to their success.

I would like to work on this project because I feel that it could really make a difference. Maybe it will not effect the lives of hundreds but it will make this year go a lot more smooth for my 5 Saplings. It made a huge difference for me last year just knowing that there was someone that I could ask any question that I had. Even though I never really needed my mentor, she was still there if I ever did need her.

Something that I hope to gain from this project will be a better understanding on how to make connections like this work. For example, it is completely up to the Saplings what this relationship will look like and I’ll have to be there for them in whatever way they need me. For some that might be answering a lot of questions and for others the relationship will be a lot different because they like to figure things out for themselves.

My favorite experience from the Columbus to do List this semester was finding some really cool cafe’s to study in. I learned that there are a lot of coffee shops in Columbus. Some of them are not in places that you would just stumble across. I am glad that I did this list because I had never heard of some of these places. I would like to keep exploring Columbus whenever I have the time because there are some really interesting places to see. I would recommend all of the places I went to, especially in the winter because they had some amazing cold weather drinks.

The first place that I went was Fox in the Snow Cafe. It was a little out of the way but it was worth it. On first impression it was a little intimidating because there were a lot of very professional, dressed up people. The drink pictured to the left is what I ordered, a New Orleans iced coffee. It was very good! It was not too strong but it also did not have too much cream in it. I also loved that they used jars if you chose to drink it there because that eliminates a lot of waste. Something that was a little confusing was where to put the glasses when you were done. I watched other people until I knew what to do. One thing that I loved was they had a very little outdoor seating area. I would recommend this place to a friend because the drinks and the atmosphere were great!

The next place that I went was Impero Cafe. It was much easier to get to because it was directly on High Street. It was very small but also very cozy. Seemed like a place that gets a lot of regulars. I got an iced tea here. They had several ones but the one that is pictured and the one that I purchased was a tea with a natural strawberry flavor. It was very subtle but it really did taste like strawberries. The only confusing thing was my inability to find a trash can for a little while, then I finally found it. My favorite thing about this place was that it was very quiet and it would be a really nice place to study. I would recommend this place to a friend because it was a great place to find.

The third place that I visited was Mission Coffee. This was still easy to find because it was just off of High Street. When I was here I decided to get an iced tea. I got adventurous and decided to get mint. It was not my favorite drink, the mint was a bad decision on my part. It was still good, just not the best that I have ever had. My favorite part about this place was the seating space. They had a really nice couch, tables and chair, and a bar area. It looked like it would be a great place to bring some friends and get some studying done. They had a ton of different kinds of coffee but it was 80 degrees and I wanted a cold drink. I plan on going back net fall to try some of their hand crafted coffees. I would recommend this to a friend because they have so many different options.

Last but certainly not least was Roosevelt Coffeehouse. I was excited to come here after we had talked about it in class. Pictured above is the frozen. It was like a coffee and milkshake combined. Two of the best things put into one. I liked the handles on the mug, made it easier to hold. It had the most area of any place that I went to. It even had additional seating in the back and some picnic tables outside. I would love to come here to study sometime. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone because it is good coffee for a good cause!

The final week of the Earth Month Challenge went very well, my final challenge was taking the stairs everywhere and avoiding the elevator. This went very well except for the fact that it was very hot and humid out. My overall experience with the Earth Month Challenge was that it went very well. I was not sure what to expect when it was first brought up in class because it was a big project with everyone in Honors and Scholars being involved. I thought that it might take a lot of time out of my day. However, it did not. It was a lot of little things that really did not disturb my day to day at all. Most of these challenges were things that I should be doing anyway and I will probably continue to do them in the future. Some things that I learned about myself during this experience were that I really enjoyed being involved in this big project and that I enjoy learning about things that I can do to help with the environment. I am thinking about doing more things like this and maybe get involved in more environmental organizations in my community and here on campus. I will definitely continue to turn off my lights and my power strip when I am not using them because that it just a good habit to get into in your daily life. While on campus I will continue to take the bus as little as possible because it is easy enough to walk where ever you need to go. However, when I go home for the summer I will have to drive everywhere because nothing is in walking distance. Some ways that I can continue to help the environment are that I could carpool or even take a bike if it is close enough. I will also continue to take the stairs whenever possible. The main reason that I can see myself taking the elevator would be if I had to go to a high floor or if I was late to class and did not have time to take the stairs. I would like to try another challenge like this. Maybe in another challenge area. One thing that I would like to add about that challenge was the fact that you could see how your actions were saving CO2 and money. One thing that I might like to do in a future challenge is to be able to do things in other challenge areas as well. Maybe choose one thing from each area to do.

For my third challenge week I continued to turn off the lights when I left the room and turned off my power strip when I was not using it. In addition, this week I started to take the bus only once per week. This week went really well with the exception of it being the most rainy that it has been since I came to Ohio State. Even though this was the case I still focused on my challenge area. I remembered to turn off my lights and power strip every time I was not using them. Something that I could do differently to help me would be to turn off my lights during the day and use the natural lights instead of electricity. Something that I learned about myself this week was that I like to stick to my schedule because even though it was really rainy I still walked instead of taking the bus. Something that I learned about my challenge area is the fact that people are much more willing to take the bus when it is raining compared to when it is nice outside. I think that next week will go well because I am going to keep doing the things that I have been doing and I am adding on taking the stairs instead of an elevator or an escalator. I try to do this most of the time anyway so this will just really force me to take part in it. My CO2 savings were 926 pounds a year and my financial savings were $165.

For my second week of the Earth Month Challenge I continued to turn off the lights whenever I left the room and I also began to turn off my power strip when I am not using it. This week went well but I did forget to turn my power strip off a couple of times because I charge my phone before I go to bed and I fell asleep before I turned it off. Something that I could do is plug my television into a power strip because TV’s use a lot of electricity. My roommate and I do not watch the television that often so plugging the TV into a power strip or unplugging it completely when we are not using it would really go a long way in saving electricity. Also, as I stated last week I told everyone on my floor to turn the lights off after they are done in the bathrooms so that is even more helpful now that everyone is somewhat participating in this with me. Something that I learned about myself this week was that I really enjoy doing stuff like this because it brings out my competitive nature. This challenge makes it enjoyable for people to get involved in helping the environment and they are able to directly see their impacts. One thing that I learned about my challenge area is that it can save you a lot of money on electricity. Growing up my parents always told me and my sisters to turn off everything when we were not in our rooms and I now know why. I think that next week will go well. The website still didn’t tell me my CO2 or my financial savings.

I am doing the challenge in the area of Energy and Transportation. For the first week of the Earth Month Challenge, my challenge was to turn off my lights and fan every time I left my room. The first week went very well. Something that I could have done differently was make sure that everyone else on my floor knew what I was doing and have them do it as well because many different people keep the bathroom lights on when they are done and they stay on for hours at a time when no one is using them. Something that I have learned about myself is that I can adapt to change really well because there was not one time that I forgot to turn the appliances off before I left the room. I also learned that I would like to be more involved with things like this that are going to help the environment because it is going to take everyone to help the planet. Something that I learned about my challenge is that many people do not take things in this area because they think that everyone uses energy and transportation so they assume that there is not anything they can do to make an impact in the world. In reality if everyone did just a little bit it would make a substantial impact. I anticipate that next week will go well because I am just going to turn off my power strips and unplug appliances that I do not use very often. My c02 savings are about 328 a year and I am saving about 28 dollars a year.