Mentorship Program Reflection

Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, I had the pleasure of meeting and mentoring Mollie Couch. Mollie is a Psychology major from Ohio and has a big family that means a lot to her. At the start of the year, Mollie was worried about being away from family for large chunks of time and was having trouble getting involved and finding the right groups for her. Throughout the year, I watched her grow and find her place at OSU: within ACES and her fraternity, Omega Gamma, which centers itself around Mental Health awareness and Inclusion.

I loved getting to know her. As psych majors, we have a lot of interests in common, but I loved to learn about what she wanted to do with her psych degree after college. Mollie is interested in continuing in social work and is passionate about non profit work. At the beginning of the year, she thought she might want to go to grad school in psych and being a psychiatrist or psychologist, but as she progressed, she realized that is not what she wants.

Being a mentor was a rewarding experience. While me and Mollie did not become the best of friends, it was a fun and new experience for me and I enjoyed sharing what I know with Mollie about resources, tips for undergrad, and all about ACES as a first year student. I encourages Mollie to reach out to organizations that she wanted to get involved in, as that is the hardest part! I also let her know about all of the free resources we have as buckeyes like career counseling, free workout classes at the RPAC and all of the great deals on d-tix! I grew a lot as the Member Relations Co-Chair with Hannah. We learned a lot about the challenges surrounding mentorship and grew in our leadership abilities.

Mentoring programs have a great number of benefits and allow older students, peers, or those with more experience, give advice and guidance to younger peers. Within ACES, creating bonds between 1st and 2nd year members is vital to create the sense of community that we need to accomplish our goals in serving our larger community and to be better advocates and volunteers as a group. I am happy that I participate in the program and that I took on a leading role as the co-chair as it ended up being a crucial part of my experience as a second year in the ACES program.

Pictured above is Mollie and I our first time meeting each other at Mirror Lake to conduct our First Semester Interview.

Year in Review

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

Mentorship Program Reflection

Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, I had the pleasure of meeting and mentoring Mollie Couch. Mollie is a Psychology major from Ohio and has a big family that means a lot to her. At the start of the year, Mollie was worried about being away from family for large chunks of time and was having trouble getting involved and finding the right groups for her. Throughout the year, I watched her grow and find her place at OSU: within ACES and her fraternity, Omega Gamma, which centers itself around Mental Health awareness and Inclusion.

I loved getting to know her. As psych majors, we have a lot of interests in common, but I loved to learn about what she wanted to do with her psych degree after college. Mollie is interested in continuing in social work and is passionate about non profit work. At the beginning of the year, she thought she might want to go to grad school in psych and being a psychiatrist or psychologist, but as she progressed, she realized that is not what she wants.

Being a mentor was a rewarding experience. While me and Mollie did not become the best of friends, it was a fun and new experience for me and I enjoyed sharing what I know with Mollie about resources, tips for undergrad, and all about ACES as a first year student. I encourages Mollie to reach out to organizations that she wanted to get involved in, as that is the hardest part! I also let her know about all of the free resources we have as buckeyes like career counseling, free workout classes at the RPAC and all of the great deals on d-tix! I grew a lot as the Member Relations Co-Chair with Hannah. We learned a lot about the challenges surrounding mentorship and grew in our leadership abilities.

Mentoring programs have a great number of benefits and allow older students, peers, or those with more experience, give advice and guidance to younger peers. Within ACES, creating bonds between 1st and 2nd year members is vital to create the sense of community that we need to accomplish our goals in serving our larger community and to be better advocates and volunteers as a group. I am happy that I participate in the program and that I took on a leading role as the co-chair as it ended up being a crucial part of my experience as a second year in the ACES program.

Pictured above is Mollie and I our first time meeting each other at Mirror Lake to conduct our First Semester Interview.

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.  For more guidance on using your ePortfolio, including questions and prompts that will help you get started, please visit the Honors & Scholars ePortfolio course in Carmen. To get answers to specific questions, please email eportfolio@osu.edu. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

Attached above is a research poster I created for my Introduction to Environmental Science Class in AU 2020. This class allowed me to explore a passion I have outside of my majors: environmental issues.

Mentor/ Mentee First- Semester Interview 

Getting to know my mentee, Mollie Couch, throughout AU 21 has been so wonderful! Mollie is a first year psychology major. Since I am a psych major as well, we have a lot that we relate about. We have similar motivations for entering the psychology major and through our interview, I learned a lot about her! Here are five of the questions I asked her:

How do you like to study?

Mollie likes to study at 18th Avenue Library. It is right by all of her classes, and she has found success in going there in between classes to get all of her work for the week done. Since she has some pretty big gaps in her class schedule, she goes there a few days a week and gets everything out of the way so that she can enjoy her time or go home for the weekend to spend time with family.

What kind of involvement are you interested in on campus?

Mollie is currently in Humanity First, and is getting involved in community service by volunteering at NMAP food pantry. Mollie found getting involved and finding organizations that interested her to be difficult this semester, but she attended the involvement fair and found a few things that did interest her.

What are you most looking forward to in the ACES program?

As she has gotten more involved, Mollie has discovered new things that she is passionate about and wants to get involved or do service in, such as women’s shelters. Mollie has learned a lot about service, and how to be a good advocate. The social aspect of the ACES program are also very exciting, and Mollie has loved the opportunity to meet more people who have similar interests to her.

What is your dream job and why?

Mollie dreams of working at a nonprofit organization with kids, maybe within the foster care system. It is most important to Mollie to live in Cincinnati, close to her family. Family is the most important thing for her, so a lot of her career goals involve being close to her family and starting her own family.

What is the most important thing you have learned at Ohio State University?

Mollie has learned that it is so important to be 100% yourself when meeting new people. She discovered that it is important to do this so that you are not changing who you are to be friends with everyone else.

Explore Columbus 1st Semester

For our explore Columbus activity, I wanted to introduce Mollie to the best cookies in Columbus: Lion Cub’s Cookies in Grandview. They are very thick, warm, and gooey. I was introduced to them by my brother and sister-in-law. To get to Lion Cub’s, I borrowed my boyfriends car to drive us there. I was a little nervous about this because I do not usually borrow his car, but I wanted to take Mollie somewhere off campus. Next semester, I will probably take her somewhere we can get by bus, but it is good to have the option of taking a car there. Lion Cub’s is located on the main street of Grandview, so we walked past places like Jeni’s, a plant store, and a candle shop. It was very cute! The cookies were delicious and we enjoyed eating them sitting in the outdoor seating by the shop. I really enjoy going a few brief minutes from campus and enjoying a cookie or coffee, since Mollie is not a big coffee drinker, I opted for cookies! Mollie had never been to Grandview, so I was glad to introduce her to a new area off-campus. This is when we completed our first semester interview. It was nice to enjoy a lovely cookie and a few lovely moments with my mentee, Mollie.

 

Mentor/ Mentee Second-Semester Interview

Are you enjoying your major? Why or why not?

Mollie explained that while she really likes psych, she might switch. She does not intend on going to grad school, and does not think that she will accomplish the career goals that she wants with an undergraduate degree in psychology. She is thinking of switching to social work.

How have you gotten involved? How are you managing academics?

Mollie uses her planner for everything. She has enjoyed using it for both personal and academic things. Mollie has gotten involved by joining Omega Gamma, which focuses on diversity and mental health. She also works at Union Market

How was your first semester in ACES?

Mollie has gotten a lot more involved in ACES in the second semester and has been enjoying getting to know the girls on her floor.  She thinks that ACES could improve by doing more social events, especially at the beginning of  the year for people to get to know each other.

Have your career plans changed a lot since the first semester?

At the beginning of the semester, Mollie thought she wanted to be a psychologist or psychiatrist, but know she knows that she does not want to do that. She is heavily interested in social work.

What was you favorite memory from your first year?

Mollie’s favorite memory is going to Gatlinburg Tennessee for Omega Gamma’s formal She got to know her fraternity members a lot better.

I was able to listen to my Mentee, Mollie Couch’s reflections on her first year at the Ohio State University and was able to use the information she provided me in order to guide her towards resources like career counseling, reaching out to the College of Social Work’s advising, and talking to her Psychology advisor more.

Explore Columbus Second Semester

For our explore Columbus activity in the second semester, Mollie and I went to Jeni’s Ice Cream in the Short North. We visited the ice cream shop on a Friday afternoon after classes and it was the perfect end of week celebration. I entered a raffle for discounted Jeni’s gift cards, so I suggested that we go there, on me! We talked a lot about taking advantage of the opportunities that we pay for here at OSU, like d-tix programs, the COTA bus routes, fun group fitness classes, and residence life events. To get to Jeni’s, we rode the COTA and it was pretty easy to get there, but we did have to wait a few minutes for our bus on the way there and the way back. I would definitely recommend Jeni’s to others, and I think it is a great place to go for a quick chatty hang out, especially because I know that Mollie does not like coffee, and that’s my go-to!

About Me

Hello there, my name is Lisa Vogeler! I am pursuing a double major in Psychology and German in the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University. I hope to continue my education through grad school in order to become an academic advisor in a psychology or German department in a large institution.  I am a member of the Advocates for Communities and Education Scholars (ACES) program. Being involved in the honors and scholars program through ACES has provided me with so many opportunities for involvement in the buckeye community, and the service experiences are invaluable to me. I am the German club Treasurer, and love to build community centered on language learning. I love being on the Ohio State campus and being involved in the spirited, proud community centered around academic achievement.