I think back to last summer, the summer before starting college at The Ohio State University and it all feels kind of like a dream. It feels like graduation was a lifetime ago. I had no idea what I was getting myself into by traveling hundreds of miles from home, away from my friends and family, starting as a D1 athlete and a double major. I did it all in high school and still had free time and I though college would be the same. I was very wrong. I though college would just be a continuation of high school and nothing harder. I thought Health Science Scholars would be just a class and less of a community type feeling in my life. Unfortunately I was wrong, but it wasn’t bad that I was. I had to do a lot of rearranging of priorities, quite a sport that I loved, and focus in on school work a lot harder than I have ever had to. I had to spend more hours than I thought existed in a day studying for chemistry or calculus, writing papers in French, and reading lots of literature and textbooks. Working out and meals became my only breaks in the day and sleep was less of a leisure activity and more of a necessity to be able to function the next day. I found my niche at Ohio State though, especially in my sorority and through many of the friends I made on my floor and in my dorm building. My goals for next year is to begin the school year being more prepared for my classes and have more realistic expectations of how life will go. I am looking forward to participating in HSS events and I would like to take on more of a leadership role amongst younger HSS students. I also am looking forward to volunteering through a single organization and making a bigger impact in one place.
My most memorable service experience in my first year of Health Science Scholars was easily my participation in weekly volunteer shifts at Wexner Medical Center. I am currently a University Ambassador at the Wexner which means that I come for two hours a week and escort patients from one place to another if they have different appointments or in different locations. I also take their family members or other visitors from the front area to their rooms or to waiting areas. To be perfectly honest I really wasn’t looking forward to this volunteer position because it was at 7 am on Friday mornings. I am not a person who is super into going out or anything on Thursdays, but I tend to be not much of a morning person and enjoy doing homework or studying late into the night. My first shift at the Wexner changed my mind however. Because I go into the hospital at an early house, most of the patients I interact with are going in for surgery, an area I am interested for a future career. I get to take patients in who are nervous about their surgeries and family members that are often very anxious about the upcoming events and hearing back news. I get to be a person for them to talk to that isn’t involved in any of their health care. I am just someone to smile at them, walk, or push them if they are in a wheel chair or bed, to their proper location and remind them that everything is going to be okay. A lot of times in health care I feel like the person to person connection is lost especially between a doctor and the patient because the patient often doesn’t understand everything that is happening to them or everything that is about to occur in the procedure, but I am there to remind them that they are humans, their feelings are valid, and that they are in good hands from the second they walk in the doors at Wexner Medical Center.