Hello, my name is Maria Znidarsic, and I am a rising sophomore here at The Ohio State University. I come from a family of five which includes my parents and two younger sisters. I went to high school at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin in the small town of Chardon, Ohio. I graduated with about 170 students in my class. While in high school, I had a lot of opportunities to challenge myself on several different levels. Throughout my time there, my leadership experiences grew the most. Starting my freshman year, I organized a team for the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk for a Cure in Lake County, Ohio and gave people the opportunity to buy a team t-shirt. On the day of the walk my senior year, close to 100 people from all different grade levels showed up. That was a very powerful experience for me to get so much support from the people at school. I hope to continue to be involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation here at Ohio State and keep on practicing my leadership skills!

As a student here at OSU, I am majoring in chemical engineering. I joined the Women in Engineering Club as a way for me to meet others in my major. This year I used it mainly as a service resource as I got involved in the outreach program there. It allowed to work with a STEM program at a local school and help the kids with their projects. In the future, I hope to utilize this more as a career resource as there are people going through exactly what I am doing, and then there are also those who have already done this and can give advice. I really hope to get internships through this group, and then have a career lined up for myself before I even graduate college.

I joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority in January 2016. This has allowed me to become even more involved in service opportunities, as we raise funds for our philanthropy St. Jude’s. Through this experience, I have grown to meet several people including more engineers. I plan to continue to stay involved in this organization, and hopefully get a leadership position, as this offers many great connections and again is a big resource opportunity for me.