Year in Review

Before I entered college, I was a much different person that I am now. I was someone who would listen and observe, but would rarely share my ideas or opinions. I would compare other people’s thoughts to my own or think or a solution to a problem instead or adding to the conversation. Needless to say I was more of a follower and a thinker than a leader or a conversationalist.

Looking back, I think the main reason for my behavior was my fear of being rejected or not fitting in. When I signed up for the STEM EE Scholars, I had done it with the intention of improving myself academically. However, when I joined, I ended up not only achieving my initial goals, but also improving myself as a person. The very first thing we did as a group in STEM EE Scholars was complete a ropes course. For many people, it was a fun activity with no significant meaning. For me, I was my first step towards who I am today.

One of my biggest fears was heights, so I was not looking forward to the ropes course. I had even thought about not participating in the course. Even thought it was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life, I am glad I did it. While I was up on the course, with the poles that were holding it up wobbling with every movement, fear filled in me. However, I built up enough courage to go through the first obstacle, and noticed it wasn’t that bad, so I moved on to the next one, and the next one, and so on. With each obstacle I completed, the next one became easier, and I learned to overcome my fear.

After completing the ropes course, I decided that I didn’t want my fears to control my life. In the other STEM EE activities, I started to participate more, and even took the role of leader for some activities. I started being who I was rather than who I thought other people wanted me to be, and I found I liked that person a lot better.

Overall, I don’t think there is a part of me that hasn’t improved over the last year. I have become more social and open with my ideas, and through many of the STEM EE activities, I have honed my leadership skills. I have also gathered better study habits through participating in activities such as the Math Study Skills events provided by STEM EE Scholars, and have done better academically because of it. I am now more willing to share my ideas and opinions with others, and have revised and improved them because of this. Overall, I am a more confident, well rounded person, and now that I have my own experiences to share, I feel not only more prepared but also more excited to be a peer-mentor for new STEM EE students. It may not have been what I expected, but joining the STEM EE Scholars program has been the best decision I could have mad for my first year in college.

G.O.A.L.S. Discussion

Of the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S., the two that are most applicable to me are the Original Inquiry and Academic Enrichment. The Original Inquiry goal, as defined by the Honors & Scholars website, is for students to understand “the research process by engaging in experiences ranging from in-class scholarly endeavors to creative inquiry projects to independent experiences with top researchers”. At some point in my college career, hopefully next year, I plan on participating in some undergraduate research. This will be the first time I preform major research and will be my basis understanding on research. I already understand how a little about research by going on lab tours in my 1182.03 class. At some point I will hopefully have an internship in which I will also utilize the idea of Original Inquiry. After graduating, I may enter graduate school, which would be a lot of research, and would most definitely require me to use my knowledge gained from my previous years to complete.

To reach my goals, the first thing I need to do is graduate college with good grades to get into graduate school. That is why I chose Academic Enrichment as my second part of the G.O.A.L.S. The Scholars website defines Academic Excellence as perusing “academic excellence through rigorous curricular experiences beyond the university norm both in and out of the classroom.” I would like to one day enter the research and development industry, and in order to do I will need to excel in my classes so I may enter graduate school. It will also be good for me to know the materiel that I cover well so I do not need to revisit it if I need to use it later. Additionally, showing my determination to learn will look good to potential employers.

Even beyond my college career, I will use the idea of Academic Excellence. A career requires you to learn new thing every day and keep up with the information you are provided. I you are unprepared or out of date with your information, you are less likely to be trusted with projects, or might even get fired if you mess up because of it. Additionally, going above and beyond in your work will most likely get you promoted to a higher, more important, better paid position.

Far down the road, I will still incorporate these two ideas in my life. Eventually, I hope to enter the research and development industry. This career will incorporate both Original Inquiry and Academic Excellence. I will rely on my experience both in college and throughout my previous career to be successful as a researcher. I will also have to incorporate Academic Excellence into my job by learning from other people’s research as well as knowing how to incorporate what I find through my research. These two will even be used together. To complete the research process, you need to study what you are researching and understand what it is you are doing. I will be using the ideas of Academic Excellence and Original Inquiry throughout my life.

 

Artifact 1

For my first artifact, I chose the project portfolio for my 1182.03 class. The portfolio was done as a website and can be found by following the link below. The main objective of this project was to build a Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) that could reliably test the concentration of fluorescein. This website contains everything that was accomplished for this semester long project.

To the website

Overall, I enjoyed this project; It felt satisfying to build something and have it work well. Our chip worked so well that, for the final test, we had the least percent error out of the class for 2 of the 3 samples. Through this project, I think that I grew as both a team member and a problem solver. Throughout the project, we needed to work on a team for nearly everything. We also had to troubleshoot the problems with our first LOC design. The liquid kept flowing backwards and often created bubbles in the wells. We deduced this was because the liquid was moving too fast and the pressure was different in the well than in the channels. We then needed to fix these issues in our second design.

 

Reflection

Many of the Scholars activities require us to work in teams and use and build our teamwork skills. As an engineer, I will most likely to work in a team, so I will use these skills acquired through the Scholars program throughout my career. Other activities, such as the case studies done in class, require us to use critical thinking and problem solving to complete. Additionally, activities like the experimental design outreach program, encourage creativity and people skills. All of these are important skills for any career.

Strengths

My top 5 strengths are adaptability, analytical, consistency, empath, and deliberative. These strengths are represented in various ways in my current life. When I moved into college, many things were different in my life, however, I was quick to adapt and created a daily schedule. Within the first couple weeks, I had a consistent schedule set up for each day of the week. However, even now, I am quick to change that schedule if circumstances require me to do so. I am also deliberative in many of my decisions; I always analyze the positive and negative outcomes of a decision. Empathy comes into my life mostly when I’m with my friends. I can tell when they are upset or not feeling good, and tend to make them feel better.
I believe some of my strengths also show in my academics. I have a constant schedule of when I do my homework, however I am quick to adapt and change it if something of importance comes up. My analytical nature makes me wonder why and how things work, and I spend time exploring them, resulting in me having a better understanding in that subject. My deliberative nature helps me identify the top priority and make that my main goal in a class.
Knowing my strengths has helped me concrete my thoughts about my future. These skills will be very useful in my future engineering career. Engineers are often faced with problems where more issues may become introduced as they are trying to fix one. In this instance, adaptability would be very useful. Also, being analytical and deliberate are very important when engineers make decisions.

Welcome to my Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio

This is my Honors and Scholars ePortfolio. Here I will compile my experiences, both academic and career related, I have had in the STEM EE Scholars program. In this portfolio you will see how I put my leadership skills and my kind and caring nature to use by participating in various volunteering opportunities. This portfolio will also demonstrate all the skills I have honed and learned to help me in my engineering career to come.

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

Matt_Bio_Photo (2)

 

Hi. I’m Matt Workman and I’m a freshman here at The Ohio State University and plan on majoring in chemical engineering. Ever since I was little, I’ve always been interested in science. I constantly wondered why things did what they did or how they worked. For example, every spring break, my family would visit Washington D.C. and go the Smithsonian museums. One of my favorite sections was the gems exhibit in the Natural History museum. I wondered how they were formed, what gave them such varied colors and textures and what their purpose was in the world.
I took my first chemistry class in high school, and I was instantly enamored with it. I was interested in how and why the chemicals reacted with each other and continually wanted to learn more about chemistry. When it came around to my junior year in high school and I needed to start applying to college, I knew I wanted to major in something that had to do with chemistry, so I started doing research on what jobs I could do where I could pursue my interest in chemistry. I came across chemical engineering fairly early on in my research, and was drawn to the idea of utilizing chemistry to solve problems and improve society.
While applying to The Ohio State University, I became aware of the scholars programs. I wanted to become part of the STEM scholars because of the opportunities they offer that I believe will further my education as an engineer. I was also interested in the career exploration that STEM EE offers. I’m still not sure what kind of job I want to do with my chemical engineering degree, so I hope that the STEM EE program can help me discover some career paths.
Another aspect that drew me towards the STEM EE program is their K-12 outreach because I have always loved working with kids. While in middle school, I participated in a summer camp called L.E.A.D., which consisted of volunteering at different events. My favorite place to volunteer was at a local summer camp for elementary school kids called Wyandot Camp. It was so fun to play with and help the kids, and they always looked forward to having L.E.A.D. volunteers. I also volunteered at the Columbus Zoo over the summer for the last five years. There, I helped out at the Animal Encounters Village, where I got to hold different animals for kids to come touch and then educate them about that animal. I hope to continue doing things like this through the outreach program in STEM EE.