Sophomore Year In Review

As a student in the Honors Program at OSU, it is my duty to uphold the Honors G.O.A.L.S. These “G.O.A.L.S.” refer to five key areas of personal development, which include Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. I cannot believe that in only a month, my time at OSU will be halfway complete. I have made significant strides as a sophomore in my exploration of the Honors G.O.A.L.S., and will now review my progress, as well as suggest ideas to further my experience.

The first area is Global Awareness. I have developed Global Awareness through classes, such as Spanish and Classic Civilizations of Rome. Even more importantly, I have cultivated my global citizenship by maintaining friendships with people of many different cultures. This helps me to appreciate the cultural diversity on not only our campus, but the entire world as well. It has interested me to learn about my friends’ vast differences in religious and cultural practices. I have made an effort to try a variety of new foods and discuss belief systems. I am interested in studying abroad sometime before college is over.

The next area is Original Inquiry. This is an area I have had much experience in during the past year. At the beginning of September 2018, I joined the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Kirby who conducts neural stem and progenitor cell research in the Psychology Department. As part of the lab, I have learned many advances techniques, including qPCR, cell culture techniques, brain slicing and harvesting, histology, BCA protein quantification, mouse weaning, and performing western blots. I have worked to perfect these skills. I have been encouraged by my research mentors, Dr. Kirby and Dr. Jiyeon Denninger, to apply for funding to conduct my own research project. I spent two months reading literature relating to our lab’s interests in order to write my very own proposal. Supervised by Dr. Denninger, I constructed a largely independent research project for the summer and submitted it for a grant. While I did not receive funding, I have learned an incredible amount about original inquiry and my ability to come up with scientifically unique, advanced research proposals. I will use STEP funding in order to complete my proposed project this summer. My work will help me determine which experiments I will perform next, culminating in a Senior Research Thesis. My future goals are to apply for more research grants and present my work at local, regional, and national conferences.

The third goal is Academic Enrichment. I am committed to pursuing academic excellence in my major classes, in addition to general education requirements. My planned curriculum explicitly relates to my future aspirations of matriculating into an MD-PhD program following undergraduate and maintaining a career as a physician-scientist. I selected the Neuroscience Major because of its application to my future. It is a medically heavy major, supporting the physician side of my goals, and relates to my interest in continuing part-time neuroscience research as a career. The courses I selected within the major include mainly upper-division and some honors classes, emphasizing my academic commitment. The GE’s selected demonstrate the application of my primary passion, science, to other areas of study. A few examples of this include taking Microbiology 3704 (the history of HIV) for my history credit, and Physics 3201, a holography course, as my visual arts credit. I think it is important to take interdisciplinary courses that I am passionate about.

The next G.O.A.L.S. area is Leadership Development. I am involved this year with several extracurricular activities in which I build my leadership skills. First, as part of the medical professional fraternity Phi Delta Epsilon, I was directly involved in a small task force that worked to put on an Anatomy Fashion Show to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. As part of the task force, I assisted with fundraising, planning event logistics, and researching information on anatomical organ systems. This opportunity has taught me about planning a large event and networking donors. Next year, I hope to take a higher leadership role in the planning of our next fashion show. In addition, as part of the Wexner Medical Center Cardiac Internship, I became CPR and AED certified. I help to coordinate with campus organizations to schedule hands-only CPR trainings. At these trainings, I present the hands-only CPR technique to groups of 2 to over 100 people. Presenting to large groups of people has improved my public speaking ability and made me better at leading large groups. Both activities relate to my future career, which requires networking and planning.

The final category is Service Engagement. Some service-oriented activities I have been involved with are volunteering at Grant Hospital in various departments and doing the volunteer CPR trainings. I have also done some service events with Phi Delta Epsilon to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, such as planning the Anatomy Fashion Show. I will continue to engage with the community by doing more volunteering at Grant Hospital. I would like to also get involved in some form of environmental volunteer work.

Overall, I have remained dedicated to supporting the Honors G.O.A.L.S. There are some areas in which I want additional experience. However, I am proud of the progress I have made over the last year in developing skills so necessary to my future.

Final Reflection

It is difficult to believe that my first semester at Ohio State is almost over, when it feels like it began only yesterday.

The semester was full of challenges, the biggest of which was making the adjustment from a high school workload to a college one.  It took me over half the semester to really get into the groove of doing extra studying, preparing for midterms, and working ahead in my classes, all things required to earn the grades I want.  After receiving lower grades than I desired on my first set of midterms, I made some adjustments in these areas until I found what worked.

Through lecture attendance, I explored mainly majors in the various Arts and Sciences categories.  For example, I looked into chemistry, neuroscience, anthropology, and sociology.  I also attended the lectures on Arts and Humanities and on the Public Health and Pharmacy.  I chose to explore these majors because I like science and plan to go to medical school, but considered doing a humanities major at one point.

My thoughts on majors have not changed too much over the semester, except the fact that I realized I definitely wanted to do a science major.  I recently declared Neuroscience as my major. I think it is a very good fit for me, because it contains the science that interests me and will prepare me for medical school, in addition to having a math specialty that will hopefully work well with my strength in math.  I am very excited that I discovered the program and cannot wait to take neuro classes.

The most beneficial thing about attending lecture was being exposed to majors I did not know existed.  It was nice being able to choose which lectures I wanted to attend based on which majors were being presented, because I did have a relatively good idea which sectors my interests fell in when entering college and therefore felt like I was not wasting time attending lectures that did not pertain to me.  In my opinion, the lectures covered all that I needed to know, and I cannot think of anything else that I wish had been included at them.

Once again, I have already declared Neuroscience, so I am done searching for a major.  However, my goals for the next semester are to form my four year outline for completing my major, get involved with an extracurricular, and find out more about applying to medical school.  In order to achieve these, I plan to meet with my advisor and apply to volunteer at the hospital.

If I could go back to the beginning of the semester, I would tell myself to work ahead in my classes and not get behind.  I struggled a little with that in the beginning, and if I had been more organized, my grades would be slightly better than they are now.

In summation, however, I survived my first semester at Ohio State and am proud of the magnitude to which I have grown and developed in such a short time.

 

Informational Interview

My Information Interview with Senior Student Prabhpreet Dhanoa, who is majoring in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Me: When and why did you choose Pharmaceutical Sciences?

Preet: I chose my major towards the beginning of sophomore year, but I had to wait until the second semester of sophomore year to get in because of how the timing worked out.  I chose it because I immediately really enjoyed taking organic chemistry, which is a huge part of Pharmaceutical Sciences.  It therefore wasn’t a far leap for me to choose PS.

Me: Did you start as a Pharmaceutical Sciences major?

Preet: No.  I was a Biochem major before I chose Pharmaceutical Sciences because I felt I had to choose something before coming to college, but as soon as I started really looking through the required biochem courses, I felt that some of them were uninteresting to me and wouldn’t be useful for pre-med.  I did not have any interest in taking Calc 3 or integrated physics.

Me:  So you feel like you chose the right major?

Preet: Yes, I really do.  As soon as I hit the ground running in Pharmaceutical Sciences, I realized how applicable it was to being pre-med.  I have learned so much about medicinal chemistry and how medical drugs work in the body, which I find really interesting.  Conveniently, this is also super important if you are a doctor prescribing potentially dangerous prescriptions to people.  I kind of just made all my interests fit.

Me: What was your favorite major course and why?

Preet:  It was without a doubt organic chemistry.  *Me: “no one EVER says that!”*  I loved both OChem 1 and 2 because I liked science and chemistry already but found these courses to be my most engaging science courses yet.  I was keeping up with the workload easily and was never really confused.  (Me: It was better than GenChem?  Preet: WAY better than GenChem.  I got the grade I wanted.  Me: What grade was that?  Preet: An A.  Me: JEEZ!)  I found it fun because I liked the visual aspect of drawing the molecules and seeing the bonds.

Me:  So OChem obviously stands out for you, but what was your favorite course outside your major?

Preet:  That would probably be Global Public Health.  I took it completely randomly to fulfill a GenEd, and the professor had gotten 5 stars on Rate My Professor, so I was just like “yeah, I’ll take it.”  It was actually a really awesome class.  It still tied into my major a little bit because we were talking about health topics, but it was eye opening because it was the first time I was exposed to things like epidemiology and population studies, which are aspects of health I hadn’t ever considered before.

Me: It all sounds great.  I love how you managed to tie your variety of interests together!

Reflection

As an undeclared premed student looking to major in something on the science side of the spectrum, I easily selected Preet to interview.  He is a senior student majoring in Pharmaceutical Sciences and planning to attend medical school next year, and he also is very involved with medical based research, spending nearly 20 hours a week in the lab.  We met in Spanish 1101 this semester and it was quickly apparent that we shared some similar interests.

I have never really considered Pharmaceutical Sciences as a major which is why I thought interviewing Preet would be informative, but after the interview I will definitely keep it open to possibility if I decide I like organic chemistry.  This interview also made me feel like I am on the right track with pre-med and in search of a major, because a lot of the things Preet discussed were of interest to me.

As I said previously, I learned a lot of unexpected things about a major I literally have never given a thought to.  It definitely is something I could see myself possibly being interested in.  I never fully considered before this interview that Pharmaceutical Sciences was a major that could be useful for other post-undergraduate avenues like medical school, and is not a major that is merely a stepping stone for future pharmacists.

There is a lot I still need to learn about this major before choosing it, such as how long it would take me to graduate, the courses I would need, and most importantly, if I would truly enjoy the subject matter.  In addition, currently I am looking into Neuroscience as a major possibility, so I’d also need to see if that is the route I need to take.  A lot will be determinated by my feelings regarding OChem and pre-neuroscience courses.

For me, I think this interview was a big help in exploring majors.  I also think that the personality test we took in class and the suggested majors that were offered based on this test were helpful, because it helped indicate that a science major may be the right route for me.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves in the future, and what I end up choosing.

 

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 information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

G.O.A.L.S.

[ “G.O.A.L.S.” is a place where students write about how their planned, current, and future activities may fit into the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S.: Global Awareness, Original Inquiry, Academic Enrichment, Leadership Development, and Service Engagement. For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.

Global Awareness: Students cultivate and develop their appreciation for diversity and each individual’s unique differences. For example, consider course work, study abroad, involvement in cultural organizations or activities, etc .
Original Inquiry: Honors & Scholars students understand the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers across campus and in the global community. For example, consider research, creative productions or performances, advanced course work, etc.
Academic Enrichment: Honors & Scholars students pursue academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.
Leadership Development: Honors & Scholars students develop leadership skills that can be demonstrated in the classroom, in the community, in their co-curricular activities, and in their future roles in society.
Service Engagement: Honors & Scholars students commit to service to the community.]

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 information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artifacts

[Artifacts are the items you consider to be representative of your academic interests and achievements. For each entry, include both an artifact and a detailed annotation.  An annotation is a reflective description of the artifact that attempts to communicate its significance.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

About Me

Abby Volk is a first year undergraduate student in University Exploration.  She hopes to complete the necessary classes to attend medical school and become a doctor, but is unsure yet of what her undergraduate major will be.  She is currently considering pursuing a humanities major in addition to her scientific pursuits, as she loves writing, literature, and learning about diversity around the world.  Abby is excited to find campus extracurriculars that exemplify her academic fascinations in these subjects.  In addition, Abby enjoys making scrambled eggs with tomatoes, reading, and spending time in nature skiing, hiking, and climbing.