One of my favorite things about being an Ohio State student is how many opportunities that I have to get involved in so many different ways on campus. To start of, specifically in the Honors and Scholars community, I am a member of the Health Sciences Scholars (HSS) Leadership Council. As a group we plan events for our scholars program that will work to benefit members of the community, provide related opportunities for them within the field of health, and strength our community bond. My specific position, Social Committee Chair, requires me to work with my committee to plan social events for the HSS students.  Another student organization that has allowed me to develop my leadership skills is College Mentors for Kids, where I work one-on-one with my little buddy (a second grader at a Columbus City School) doing various activities and also lead a group as engagement manager for an activity day. Being involved with these two things on campus, as well as being a Team Captain for BuckeyeThon, have all allowed me to grow as a leader, meet so many people, and form smaller communities within Ohio State. These leadership skills will have huge benefits on me in the future and learning to be a leader who encourages collaboration and encourages the sharing of ideas will allow me to create welcoming communities in my future career.

After exploring a lot of different major options as far as major goes my freshman year, I decided upon majoring in Health Sciences. Throughout the process of deciding what I wanted to major in I knew that I wanted to be involve in the health world somehow and explored a lot of majors within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. Health Sciences specifically was the right major for me because it gives me the opportunity to explore so many aspects within the health world from health law to research to patient interaction. With my Health Sciences major I have chosen a minor in Business as well. Minoring in Business will allow me to have a solid background knowledge that will benefit me in any future career, I also find the material interesting and applicable. Something I find very interesting the considering my major and minor is the way that they interact and the way that the things I learn in the two separately can often be applied and compared together. In addition to taking major and minor courses I have also, of course, taken a number of general education (GE) classes as well. There are so many options for GEs here at OSU, so sometimes choosing what to take can be a trying process. I have found that taking GEs I am interested in (like Children’s Literature) or ones that relate to my major (like Abnormal Psychology) provide academic enrichment and expand my knowledge even outside of my major.

My scholars program — Health Science Scholars — provided me with many opportunities to give back to my community. During the first semester I gained experience in service and service hours in a few different ways. I started off the year by participating in Community Commitment which showed me just how involved in giving back OSU is. My group was assigned to pick up trash in a beautiful park not too far from campus. In the autumn semester I also made Halloween/fall goodie bags with the student organization “Breathe, Hope” and ran the Hot Chocolate 5K in Columbus to benefit Make a Wish. My service for the spring semester included involvement in MLK Jr. Day of Service, where I volunteered at COSI, as well as assisting with the annual Model UN OSU hosts for high schools, and reading to children at Community Day School back at home in Pittsburgh. One of the things that I enjoy about the diverse kinds of service I participated in this semester is all the different people I got to meet, work with, and serve.

As a sophomore at Ohio State, my service involvement has expanded more and more. This year I dedicated my service capstone project to a student organization called College Mentors for Kids. This organization and my involvement are explained more fully on the slide available at the link provided (Slide 29)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QHVoFrU57dLNlbGMcu-5tUn3wVRjnnHd8YcOUBOIqtg/edit#slide=id.p