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.

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.