Author: Kristen Wood

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.

 

Columbus To-Do List #1

For this project, my group decided to visit Kafe Kerouac on Tuesday October 30th. Kafe Kerouac is a a small bookstore and coffee shop combination on North High street. This coffee shop has space for people to spend time together, eat and drink, and purchase books. From my experience, the part I liked most was the atmosphere and their hot chocolate. I’m not a coffee person but I really enjoyed their hot chocolate. I would have to say my least favorite aspect was that there wasn’t that much sitting space. In the end, I learned that a short trip to this book store is not quite enough time to fully become settled in and get to explore the different books they have. I would like to go back and get to explore the bookstore part of the shop more or go there to study sometime in the near future. When I looked on the Columbus to do list website, it looked like they have lots of fun activities happening throughout the month such as poetry nights and stand up comedy. I would definitely recommend this coffee shop to friends as a place to go study or eat, and I plan on going back again.

 

Columbus To-Do List #2

On November 11th, I went with my roommates (Meredith Baker, Tiana Stussie, and Rachel Pierce) to Eden Burger. Eden Burger is a vegan burger restaurant on High street. I am vegetarian and Rachel is vegan so we decided this would be a fun place for us to try. I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant. I got their BBQ Western burger with cheesy fries and a chocolate milkshake. The burger was really good but it was a little too spicy for my liking. The milkshake and fries were also really good, although I haven’t had vegan cheese or vegan milk that much so I could tell that they were different than normal. I learned from my experience that I should get a burger that isn’t as spicy and that it might be easier to get the food to go because it is a smaller space with not much sitting space. I would definitely recommend this to my friends and I think I am going to go back with one of my other vegan friends when she is home for break.

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

Artifact #1

For my first artifact, I chose my water polo suit from high school. My water polo suit is special to me because it brings up a lot of memories. Water polo has been important to my personal development and it continually challenges me to overcome my weaknesses. Throughout water polo, my confidence and leadership skills have grown immensely. Water polo also is special to me because I have made some of my best friends through water polo and it brings me joy when playing the game. After a hard day at school, water polo helps be relax and unwind. I’m glad that I decided to play club water polo here at tOSU so I can continue to relax after classes, make new friends, and grow as a person.

 

Artifact #2

One experience that has been meaningful to me during my first semester here at college has been joining The Society for Women in Engineering(SWE) and getting a Big through SWE’s Big/Little Program. Initially when I came to OSU, I struggled a little bit because despite the fact that the number of women in engineering is growing, there still are not that many women that are pursuing Mechanical Engineering. When I joined SWE, I was immediately a part of large group of women who are passionate about engineering and are willing to support me as I pursue engineering. I decided that receiving a mentor through SWE’s Big/Little program would be beneficial for me as I work toward achieving my academic goals. Getting my Big has been important to me as I’ve gained a new friend and someone who understands what I am going through and is able to guide me as I pursue my major.

About Me

Hi My name is Kristen Wood and I am a student currently attending The Ohio State University. I am a freshman in the Mechanical Engineering pre-major, and I am in the Humanitarian Engineering Scholars program. At tOSU, I am involved in the Society for Women in Engineering, and I play women’s club water polo. In high school, I had two internships with Abbott in their High School STEM intern program, I was captain of my schools water polo team, and I was heavily involved with our FIRST Robotics Team.

 

My top 5 Strengths:

 

  • Discipline

Getting discipline as my top strength makes a lot of sense for me because I thrive when I have structure. I create routines within my day and I try to keep the space around me organized. I like to create a plan and I struggle when I am not organized.

 

  • Activator

Activator is closely tied to discipline for me in the aspect that I like having a plan for action and I enjoy the beginning part of a project. I am good at starting projects that interest me, but sometimes I lose interest after starting a project, and become interested with other new projects. I notice this trait when writing papers because I can start writing easily, but I have trouble editing and proofreading. This trait also causes me to speak my mind a lot and to be impatient.

 

  • Restorative

This trait makes sense for me since I want to go into engineering. Restorative deals with being good at identifying and fixing problems. Often times I give my friends advice about their problems and I enjoy taking on new projects or hobbies.

 

  • Empathy

This trait helps me be good at seeing situations from others’ point of view and I’m aware of others emotions. Something I found interesting about this trait is that in the application portion of the report, there was a recommendation for individuals with empathy to pair with an individual with activator because individuals with activator are willing to make the best decision even if it mean sometimes hurting individuals feelings. I personally feel that having both empathy and activator as my top traits can be helpful, but also leads to internal conflict after I’ve made decisions because I take individuals feelings into account after taking action.

 

  • Individualization

This trait deals with understanding how people are different and what unique talents they bring to the table. I find that this trait is important to my leadership style because within teams or groups I find myself trying to figure out what individuals fit best into certain roles, and helping them use those talents in a way that will benefit the group.