G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness

Having grown up in Spain, I fully intent to continue to speak and learn Spanish through my college career, taking higher level classes in both the language and culture.  Being bilingual is an incredible asset, and I was fortunate enough to be put in a situation where I could grow up speaking two languages.  I don’t want to lose that gift, and so being involved in clubs where I can regularly interact with other native speakers will be one of my focuses as I move through college.  I also work as an interpreter for an organization called Vocalize Columbus which should also help open up opportunities for global awareness.

Original Inquiry

I work in the Kirschner Lab at the Biological Research Tower, looking into how knockout variations of the SHDH-2 gene affect thyroid tumorigenesis in cell lines.  Moreover, I will be engaging in clinical outcome research on how trained medical interpretation alters limited-english patient outcomes through my work in  Vocalize Columbus.

Academic Enrichment

My course load, as planned over the next year, will be more than sufficiently rigorous for the Honors standard, with two labs in the Spring 2020 semester (Biology 1 and Chemistry 2), one of which, Biology 1, will be an honors course, as well as several honors courses in the Autumn 2020 semester.  This course load, coupled with research credits, should prove sufficiently rigorous.

Leadership Development

My leadership development largely comes from my work as President of Vocalize Columbus, a nonprofit organization that trains and connects volunteer medical interpreters with free clinics that are in need of their services.  Working with and within the amazing executive team we’ve put together has really helped me grow as an individual and a leader, and working to make connections with individuals and organizations in the public health space has taught me skills that will be incredibly useful for the rest of my life.

Service Engagement

Most of my service engagement also unsurprisingly comes from Vocalize, where beyond my responsibilities as a president I also work as a certified interpreter.  Working as both an interpreter and leader within the organization has helped me get an excellent view of the organization as a whole, and how I can make a greater impact.  I am also involved in service for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund through my work on the Executive Board of my fraternity, Delta Tau Delta.

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

[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 includes both a description of the artifact and a reflection on why it is important to you, what you learned, and what it means for your next steps.  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.]

About Me

Joe Ziegler is a third-year Eminence Fellow at the Ohio State University, majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish.  Coming from the American School of Barcelona, a small international school in Barcelona, Spain,  he is excited to experience the vast resources that a large school such as Ohio State has to offer, and to experience life stateside once again.

After three years working as, leading, and training, medical translators for an annual mission to Peru, facilitating the treatment of almost 6,000 locals, he is pursuing medicine as a career, and is President of Vocalize Columbus, a nonprofit working to help work to bridge the gap between the rapidly changing demographics of the United States, with more and more native Spanish speakers every year, and a relatively stagnant medical workforce (from a linguistic standpoint), by providing interpretation services free of charge to free clinics in the Columbus area through key partnerships with the Charitable Healthcare Network and many of their member clinics.  Additionally, he words in the Kirschner Lab working on thyroid cancer, and how alteration of metabolic proteins can lead to changes in tumorigenesis.

Year in Review

This last year I continued to do research and continued to work as a college student, but most importantly I continued  to work with a few others to get Vocalize Columbus, a nonprofit dedicated to helping connect volunteer medical interpreters with hospitals that need their services, off the ground.  Going through the process of not only working with other organizations and individuals in the field to determine how we should operate, but actually doing the legal and logistical legwork to get the organization off the ground, has been an amazing experience, and has taught me so much.  I’m incredibly excited to continue working within the organization as its president and as one of its interpreters.