A Closer Look at my Team

                                 

Candice really helps with getting the group together. She is the one that is always sending messages and setting up meeting times.  Also, she has done a really great job at reaching out to her OSU faculty network and seeking their support with the challenge.

Beth is defiantly the go- getter of the group.  She is constantly making phone calls and reaching out to anyone she can possibly think of.  Also, she is very organized and keeps track of everything that everyone else is doing.

Cameron is very dependable.  Whenever anyone comes up with a new idea or task Cameron always steps up to the plate.  He is relatively quiet, but when he has something to saw it is worth everyone listening to.

 


Ben is constantly thinking outside of the box, which is great for our team.  He is always thinking of new people we should try to reach out to.  He has also done a great job of reaching out to his network of friends and family members from home.

Then there is me, I think that do a pretty go job of supporting my team members and appreciating their hard work.  But, it is defiantly something I can improve on.  I need to work on acknowledging the little things that my team members do, not just the big things.

Cultural Understanding

When I saw that Jessica was my partner I immediately began thinking of experiences to share with her that are meaningful to me.  I decided to bring her to one of my BuckeyeThon meeting.  I have been a part of BuckeyeThon since my freshman year and it is a cause and an organization that truly love supporting.  The entire BuckeyeThon Steering committee is broken into sub-committees, and I am part of the Recruitment and Retention Sub committee.  Jessica got to go to my sub-committee meeting and the entire steering meeting.  I hope by coming to the meeting with me Jessica was able to get a better understanding of BuckeyeThon and why I am so passionate about it.

             Before Jessica came to my BuckeyeThon meeting I went with her to her Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow meeting.   I know absolutely nothing about agricultural so it was nice to go to the meeting to see what the organization did.  I know that Jessica’s major is Agricultural Communication, so I thought it was really nice that she is part of an organization that compliments here major and gives her experience in the field.  While at the meeting I could tell that everyone was really excited about what they were doing.  One really cool thing I found about the organization was that every meeting one of the members brings dinner for the whole organization.  It was a really nice was for everyone to mingle before they started to work on business things. Another thing that stuck out to me about the meeting was that the organization was putting on so many different events.

Overall I really enjoyed going to the Agricultural Communicator of Tomorrow meeting with Jessica and I hope she enjoyed the BuckeyeThon meeting.

Retreat

Being an Ohio State student who is involved in multiple student organizations I have been to a plethora of retreats.  But, I have to say that our BLF retreat last Sunday was probably my favorite.  Going into the retreat I did not really know what to expect.  I was just hoping we didn’t do all of the typical icebreakers and I was pleasantly surprised when we didn’t.  There were a few things I wanted to get out of the retreat.  I was really hoping to get to know all the fellows better particularly the senior class.  Before the retreat I had not really many interactions with the senior fellows and I did not even know most of their names.  I really enjoyed working with them and getting to know them better.  It was good to see them outside of a semiformal meeting setting.  I was also looking forward to getting to know some of the junior fellows better.  The fellows who are not in my pod or challenge group I had not really had a chance to interact with.   Overall the retreat was great for getting to know all of the fellows.

Going into the retreat I was also looking to build a better since of trust between the fellows, and that is exactly what we did.  I think it is very important that we all trust each other since we spend so much time working together.   We did a number of trust building activities.  I think my favorite one was when we had to guide one of group members to find an object on the ground.  But the twist was that one person could see but not move or talk, another person could move but not talk or see, another person could talk but not see or move, and the last person was a spotter who could not do anything beside stop the person that was moving from bumping into things.  I think that activity required a lot of trust with each other because we had to depend on everyone to help guide us.

The retreat definitely showed us a lot of things that will help all the fellows with our challenges.  We were able to get to know each other better, build a better since of trust, and learned how to think outside of the box.  The retreat was a lot of fun.

            

Managing Stress

I like to think that I am a pretty organized person, so I try to plan things out so that I do not feel overwhelmed or stressed very often.  Although I am organized, sometimes I still procrastinate.  It is typically when I procrastinate about something that I get stressed.

            When I feel like I am starting to become stressed about schoolwork I like to breaks to give my mind some time to relax.  Typically for a break I will take a short nap, watch a show on Netflix or even paint my nails.  I just like to give myself about 30 min to relax and not think about whatever it is I am working.  I also feel like the student organizations I am in relieve my stress.  They are just another way to take my mid away from schoolwork by doing something else I enjoy.  When things other than school stress me out, such a friend or family member is adding stress to my life, I handle my stress the same way.  I just take a little time to calm down and relax and then refocus on what I was doing.

            I think I need to work on not procrastinating.  If I did not procrastinate I would not become as stressed by schoolwork.  I do think that I procrastinate less and less each year, but it is still something I can definitely work on.   Overall I think I do a pretty good job managing my stress, but there is always room for improvement. 

Definition of Sucess

Over the last couple of years I have changed my definition of success.   Growing up I thought the only way for someone to be successful was if they were at the top of their company making a lot of money, a student who has a 4.0, or an athlete that continuously comes in first place.  But recently I have come to realize that success if not all about money and being on the top.  I have come to understand that in order to be successful you have to make sure what you are doing is something that makes you happy and something you are really passionate about.  Success if is about finding something you enjoy and working to be about your personal best.

            I know that everyone has their own idea of what success means to them.  Over the summer I was worked on a group research project that was part of a summer program.  Within my group there were many different ideas about what would account for making our project a success.  A few members of the group thought the project would be a success just to have it completed, while others thought it would be a success only if the paper was published.  I thought the project would be a success as along as it was completed and everyone gained some type of knowledge and experience from the whole thing.  Our research was on obesity within America and I wanted to make sure I expanded upon my knowledge about obesity.  It was challenging to work with the people in the group who did not really care about the project and did not want to gain anything from the experience.  However, that is just a part of life.  Everyone views things differently and has different onions.  In the end, even though people had conflicting views about what needed to happen in order for the project to be called a success we were able to complete the project.

            Success is different with regards to every of a person’s life.  But, in general I think as long as a person is doing something they enjoy and are passionate about and are working their best at it, they will be successful.

How I see myself as a leader

My first video blog :)

Initial Reaction to the Challenge

Our Initial Reaction When We Heard the Challenge 

Just a few minutes before Eddie announced the challenge I jokingly turned to Nora and said, " I bet we are going to have to find people to donate cars". Low and behold that was our actual challenge.  The initial thought was that I am from out of state; I don't have any connections in Columbus, or know anyone who would be interested in donating their car instead of selling it.  After taking a few minutes to calm down and actually think about the challenge, I began to become more excited about it. Prior to that day, I had no idea of the wonderful things the GoodWill does for the Columbus community. When I heard GoodWill, I just thought of the resale stores they have all over the country. I was very amazed by all the wonderful programs the GoodWill has, and I very excited to be able to work with them. I think the challenge will be a way for us to help spread information about all of the positive things the GoodWill does, because I don't think many people actually know.

The feedback I received from the StrengthQuest workshop and test has reassured me that I have some key strengths that will be useful during this challenge. One of my strengths is focus.  Once I have a task I am going to work very hard to ensure the task is completed and done to the best of my ability.  Another one of my strengths that I think is important for this challenge is that I am relator. This means that I enjoy working with groups to achieve a common goal.

Through this challenge I plan to expand my knowledge and skills in a vast amount of ways. I think there is room for improvement with everything. I even think is it important to work to improve your strengths. If I had to pinpoint one or two things I would like to specifically improve on I think I would have to say my ability to think outside of the box. I think that in order to do well with this challenge it is going to be important to be able to think of creative ways to get people to donate cars .

Overall, I am very excited about this challenge I cannot wait to see how many cars my team can come up with!

         

Summer 2012

Summer 2012 

I had the pleasure of spending six weeks of my summer participating in the Summer Medical Dental Education Program (SMDEP) at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio.  During my time with SMDEP, I got a chance to shadow doctors, take some review courses, work on a public health research project, and listen to a plethora of guest lectures.  Overall I thought the program was a wonderful learning experience.

            Since I do have plans to go to medical school after I graduate from The Ohio State University, my favorite part of the program was shadowing the doctors.  I was particularly interested in observing in the operating room.  Unlike many of the other people in the program I was not nervous at all about being in the operating room.  I found the entire experience to be very fascinating.  I observed a simple surgery, a hernia being removed, and I was constantly asking the doctor questions about everything that was going on.  Spending weeks in the hospital environment allowed me to observe firsthand what it is truly like to be a doctor.  For me, my hospital experiences continued to confirm my desire to become a doctor.

            Additionally, I worked on a group public health research project.  My group focused on the obesity epidemic within America.  We looked into the neuroscience behind what makes people want to eat calorie dense foods and how the foods the government subsides effects eating habits of the country.  We proposed that over-nutrition, which can lead to obesity, should be considered a form of malnutrition.   This was the first research experience I have had thus far and I really enjoyed it.  Due to the positive experience that I had, I am currently looking to do more public health research here at OSU.

            This past summer was the first time in four years that I did something besides work as camp counselor, at a camp near my house.  Although at times I did miss the craziness of the children, I really think I learned a lot over the summer.  The SMDEP allowed me to have some great clinical and research experiences and ultimately aided in both my professional and personal growth.