Student Organization Post

One of the things I was most excited about when I chose Ohio State was joining student organizations. There were so many options to choose from, I didn’t even know where to start. After the Mini Involvement Fair, I found a lot of student organizations that sounded interesting. Among these were Engineers Without Borders, Big Data Analytics, and the group I will talk about in this post, STEM Outreach. STEM Outreach sounded interesting for multiple reasons. First, it was a group that I had heard of before. Many of the 2nd year STEM Scholars I have met are either members or have tried out STEM Outreach. I had only heard good things about it. The second reason was because of what the organization does. STEM Outreach describes their purpose as, “to inspire K12 students to go into engineering or to be interested in STEM concepts, by teaching students how to build inexpensive science projects and the scientific backing for how they work” (from their organization page). I loved the idea of combining the STEM field with service, especially when it comes to helping kids. I remember loving all the STEM-like projects in grade school and I really liked the idea of helping other kids learn to love them as well.

It turned out that STEM Outreach was actually having a meeting the same night as the Mini Involvement Fair. A group of friends and I decided that we would go and check it out. This was good because I was way less nervous having a group of people to go with. When we got there, we were welcomed in and offered pizza. There were a good amount of people there but there were still seats for us. After a short presentation and icebreakers, were free to start on the project. We were tasked with building a small circuit that made a wire jump off a screw. During this time, we all got to know each other and bonded over the project. And the student leaders were super nice and helpful throughout the meeting. Overall, the meeting was a success. The best part was that we got to keep the projects we made! These are the projects we made at the last two meetings. The second one is the circuit mentioned above, and the first one is a flashlight that week made at the second meeting.

The first week or so, I found it difficult to find organizations I had interest in. For one, I have really late classes this semester, and many meetings take place during my physics lectures. After the Mini Involvement Fair, however, I found a few organizations that I didn’t know about that I would be interested in. STEM Outreach turned out to be a great choice. It will also be easy to fit this organization into my schedule. Meetings are bi-weekly on Wednesdays which works well and the events happen frequently enough that I can fit those in too. I think that being a member of this organization will be good for me in many ways. Obviously, I will be meeting new people and have something to occupy my time, but I will also be helping people while doing it.

Academic Resource Post

Today, I visited the Dennis Learning Center for academic coaching. Truthfully, I have never utilized a resource like this before. I have always been under the impression that tutoring and coaching weren’t for me, and I was thinking this could be a good experience. I think that there is certainly a stigma that comes with this kind of thing. Apart from myself, I believe that many people share this arbitrary feeling with me, that asking for help is a sign of weakness. I think that this partially comes from the experience we have had in high school where students are scared to ask questions because they will be perceived as stupid by their peers. I too was under this impression during high school and I am ready for a change. Needless to say, I was excited to see what this service had to offer.

I met with Sarah Hairgrove at the Dennis Learning Center’s north campus branch in Busch House. I was welcomed into the one-on-one setting and we got our meeting started pretty quickly. The first order of business was to decide what kinds of help I was interested in. After talking about it for a few minutes, we decided to talk about procrastination and study habits. Sarah was able to offer me some tips on how to combat this nasty habit. She suggested I start dividing my time and begin assignments (even just a little bit) right when they are assigned. For dividing time, Sarah said that splitting up large tasks into smaller deadlines worked for a lot of people. For example, if I had a 10-page paper due in a week, I shouldn’t say that I have a 10 page paper due on 9/18, I should say I have a 3-page paper due on 9/13, 9/15 and 9/17. This should help split up a scary deadline into more manageable parts. The second thing she suggested was to start assignments early. She suggested that if I have an exam a week from today, I should look at the first topic right after class. From my own experience, I can attest to the effectiveness of this tip. When I had a book to read earlier this semester, it took me a long time to pick it up for the first time. However, when I finally started to read the first few pages, it got easier and easier to read from then on. I think that these tips are really going to help me this semester, and during the rest of my time at OSU!

I noticed a lot of things during this visit. First, Sarah was very good at guiding me through the coaching process. It wasn’t just a lecture, it was more of a conversation between her and me. This was a great way of learning the tips and examples she was giving me. This also gave me a glimpse into the world of being a tutor/academic coach. I think that I might want to pursue a position like this in the future. Overall, this was a great experience for me and I will definitely be returning soon!