At the beginning of the 2016-2015 school year I will start my first experience as a Resident Advisor working in Taylor-Tower here at OSU!  I have worked with housing, as an Office Assistant, both my freshman and sophomore years, and I am excited to continue to work for housing.

I included being an RA, because it has already become one of my most transformative experiences. So far I have only been meeting with my staff, and taking a class to train me mentally for the job, but I am already very excited. I am gaining real-world skills on how to deal with, stress, anxiety, depression, anger, students leaving home, fights, social situations, and how to support my residents. These skills are skills that I will need throughout the rest of my life because I am becoming better at interacting with people, and I better understand the multitude of issues each individual might be dealing with. I will, in a sense, be ushering students into their first years of adulthood, and what could be more exciting than that! I know it will be challenging, and I will have many a sleepless night, but I am excited for my job to be building a community amongst a group of people. I know these skills will transfer greatly into the workforce, as I learn to build community for workers, deal with complex and tense situations, and learn how to bring people together!

From May to June of 2016 I will be interning with Canadian Parliament. This experience is important for me in that it is my first internship and real-world experience with my major. I have two majors, Political Science and Business. I hope to gain experience in Political Science by interning with Canadian Parliament. So far I have begun by taking two courses on Canadian Politics and Canadian Culture to prepare myself to work in Parliament. I have learned the differing mindsets of the Canadian public and much about their values. I also learned a great deal about how the Parliamentary system works, how the people are represented, what powers politicians have, and what issues are pressing for the Canadian public at the moment.

It has been a great learning experience in that I am understanding what makes Canada, Canada. Perhaps even more interesting is now I know what makes America, America. I have found, often times in my study abroad programs, that study abroad experiences teach you just as much about your home as it does about where you go to visit. I hope through this experience I will come back with a unique perspective on American politics, and hopefully I can bring my fresh perspectives into the workforce to drive change here in the U.S..

Towards the end of my freshman year I went to Toronto with my International Affairs Scholars group. This picture he shows the city of Toronto, and for me looks like what our average day looked like. I went on this trip with IA to better understand Canadian culture and immigration. Though Canada is right next door to the U.S., their culture is different in a lot of ways. Canada prides itself on multiculturalism and bringing in a wide array of citizens through immigration. Understanding how they value immigration, why, its value, how it helps Canada, and the mindset of Canadians on immigration, helps me to understand the value of living in a more inclusive and cultural society. I wanted to understand what a culture was like that was more welcoming of immigration, especially since the U.S. seems more hesitant to immigrants than in the past.

I selected this picture because it taught me a lot about how different other areas of the world can be and what we can learn from them. Canada is one of our closest neighbors, yet hardly anyone in the U.S. can tell you anything about them except they have a maple leaf on their flag. In learning about Canada I began to understand the economic value immigration can bring, and how a mindset of multiculturalism works. I began to understand the difference in approach Canada takes with its culture than the U.S. does with its. Because of how insightful this experience is, it has also become one of my favorite college experiences.

This picture is from the reveal of how much total money was raised during the Buckeyethon from autumn of 2014 to spring of 2015 (we raised 1.25 million for the children at the Nationwide Hospital’s Cancer Research Center in Columbus). The picture is from the closing event of Buckeyethon. Every year Buckeyethon closes with a 24-hour dance marathon. Here we dance, have live performances, games, tournaments, all while a few of the children we raise money for come and dance with us. The children are given royal treatment and come in on a long red carpet to thousands of Buckeyethon members cheering for them.

My first year with Buckeyethon was as a general member in the 2014-2015 fundraising year. I was so moved by the experience I decided to become a Team Captain of Fundraising for the International Affairs Scholars Program. I help coordinate fundraising efforts for my entire scholars program.

These experiences with Buckeyethon taught me the power a strong cause can have. The efforts to raise money for children fighting cancer has attracted over 5,000 students from OSU, making Buckeyethon the largest student run philanthropic organization in Ohio. I understand, more so than ever, how powerful teamwork can be. I hope to use these skills to help mobilize people around other causes throughout the rest of my college and professional experiences.

During my freshman year (autumn 2014-spring 2015) I was a Director of Academics in learning for the Board of Activities for Smith-Steeb (BASS). This picture happens to highlight my favorite event I put together with my Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Culture (which mainly studied Indian culture). I decided to work with BASS to create an event highlighting different aspects of Indian culture.

Residents were able to come and watch Bollywood movies together while my professor explained how the movies exemplified Indian culture. Afterwards we all had a wonderful lunch full of different kinds of samosas (one of my favorite Indian treats). The event culminated in what you see in the picture. This type of event is called Holi and is held around spring of every year. It is a festival of color where communities come together out in the streets and through different colored powder at one another. It was a great way to bring the residents of my residence hall together and we had a blast.

This event helped me learn how beneficial active and cooperative learning can be. Often times interactive learning fosters community amongst individuals, while making content learned more difficult to forget and easier to process. I hope to continue creating opportunities like these for myself and others throughout college and as I enter the workforce.

This picture is from the second largest Hindu Temple in the world. My International Affairs Scholars group got to visit this location during our study abroad in India back in summer of 2015. The picture epitomizes the entire experience I had in India. I acquired a vast knowledge of eastern culture and especially eastern religion.

My experience in India was a transformational one. I learned about the differences of people and culture throughout the world, but more importantly learned how similar everyone is. We all have our struggles and our own versions of culture and most people are kind in nature. The most exciting thing I learned was how interconnected western religions are, and how similar many religious ideas and values are in the east compared to the west. So many arguments and fights come from the differences everyone has, yet people seem so similar in ways they do not always see.

My study abroad experience taught me how to better understand varying perspectives and mindsets (such as those between eastern and western culture). I now understand how important it is to immerse yourself into others’ lives to truly understand situations and why people are the way they are. This will help me work with people in a more understanding way throughout the rest of my college experience and throughout my career.