YEAR IN REVIEW
My freshman year was a roller coaster ride, from relocating to a strange new land to making friends from different cultures to experiencing all kinds of cuisines to learning to live like an adult, it has been a very fun ride. The year started off with a great Welcome Weekend, the Fireworks and Foam party during the weekend reminded me of home 8000 miles away on a Diwali (Indian festival of lights) night. It was quickly followed by a rush of meeting with many important people that promised to shape my college career exquisitely and then came the first semester. Fall went by so very quickly, I had no time to grasp what was going on, I had so much to do and so less time!
I was overwhelmed with the amount of work I had taken up, eighteen credit hours of classes really left no time in my schedule. My weekends were packed with homework and laundry, but I still found time to make some great friends and explore a little bit of Cincinnati. A handful of club meetings and sleepless nights in the dorm just added a little zest to my semester. I was absolutely determined to achieve a perfect GPA and so I spent most of my time at Langsam library, reading up and staying awake with a little help from my very caffeinated friend, the Grande Hazelnut Latte. I was surprised at how little I felt like I had achieved despite having a jam packed schedule. When I looked at that 4.0 at the end of the semester I did not feel anything close to what I thought I'd feel like, so I decided to change my lifestyle.
I decided that instead of becoming a member of a number of clubs, I would get very involved with a few that really meant something to me. I joined an organization called Emerging Ethnic Leaders and it completely changed me. I found like minded people who believed in the same things I did and propagated racial justice, after graduating from the program I applied to become a peer leader for my sophomore year and was selected, I can't wait to see how it turns out! EEL also pointed me towards my upcoming honors experience- Women in Leadership and Learning, after an interview and an eye opening retreat with 20 other female identifying people I was taken into the program and it seems very promising. I also started volunteering at Sycamore Senior Center where I met the sweetest woman, she was absolutely hilarious and so kind, her positive attitude towards life had me going back to the place to volunteer a lot more. I also started working at the CECH IT Solutions Center in the Spring to get some real work experience and that has been great, I learnt a lot more over the four months than I did in years of classes. I applied to University Honors Program as a transition student over the winter break and come Spring semester, I got in and everything that I wanted to do started to mean so much more to me.
I decided to take up a leadership position and so I applied to be part of the executive board of the University Honors Association and got elected Secretary. I hope to arrange a few amazing events through the organization. Spring was a lot more hectic than the fall and I thought for sure I'd lose my perfect GPA, what with working twenty hours a week and taking up so much responsibility? But in the end all went well and I achieved my academic goals as well. All in all, it has been a very eventful year. From meeting Prez Ono at the Welcome Weekend to Garba Night at TUC to Sunsets at Stratford Heights to Dessert Days at Cilantro to experiencing my first snowfall, my year at UC has been splendid!
This coming year I intend to be just as dedicated to my academics and I just know I'm going to be so much more involved on campus. I hope to finally get cracking on living healthier and hopefully shed some pounds, this is my personal goal, I also intend to document my journey to a healthier life via a photo blog which I will provide a link to on this website. I learned this past year that once I set my heart to something I will go ahead and achieve it, so this coming year I will not shy away from anything. I have become so much more independent and so much stronger, I can feel the tingling sense of opportunity in my palms as I type this, I will be part of some amazing movements and make a positive change alongside some really cool people (wink, wink, nudge, nudge: WILL and EEL!). This year will be a hoot, I just know it. Stay tuned to see the cool things I'm going to do!
FRESHMAN YEAR 2014-15
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SOPHOMORE YEAR 2015-16
This was one of the most unpredictable years of my life. Upon returning to the States after a glorious summer break in India, I found myself in an absolute mess. I was out and about the city of Cincinnati looking for an apartment to live in and basically learning 'how to adult'. It took me about two weeks to learn to survive by myself, but it was well worth it. I learned to cook and started to experiment a lot with food, set off quite a few fire alarms, but it was all well worth it.
The academic year posed many challenges. I was working twenty hours a week during the year to gain work experience and took eighteen credit hours of classes both semesters. All this while staying true to my passions and responsibilities had me spreading myself out too thin, but I still sailed through. The fruit of all the hard labor? An astonishing change in personality and some complications. All the work left me gasping for a breather, which I didn't get, and my mental health took a good blow. The CAPS program at UC helped me through, recognized my anxiety and helped me uunderstand that many college students go through the same things that I was going through and that there was a way out. Needless to say, I'm a lot better now and absolutely on the path to more success and positive experiences. This helped me realize the importance of mental health and the lack of awareness in our community. I hope to be more involved in the Mental Health Ambassadors program that Student Government is currently working on.
One of my most major commitments of this year was the role of a Peer Leader for Emerging Ethnic Leaders. It took quite a lot of collaboration and patience on my part to make the meetings and deadlines because of my busy schedule. I'm a little sour about the whole experience because the retreat got cancelled last minute because of an anticipated "storm", which turned out to be light rain. A year's hard work just washed away with a little drizzle, and that left me a little unsettled. However, every cloud has a silver lining and I am now going to be a Peer Leader Chair for the coming academic year for the program, which is super exciting!
As usual, my academics were my priority and I had yet another setback because of Intermediate Composition (H). There was some miscommunication between the class and the professor and perhaps my perception is wrong, but the requirements for the class did not seem too clear to me, which finally resulted in me receiving a B+, which was definitely a big blow to my perfect GPA. However, I still managed perfect grades in all my other classes and currently hold a 3.97 GPA, which isn't bad, but it isn't a 4.0. My plan is to find time in the near future to get a grade replacement for the class.
My time in WILL (Women in Leadership and Learning) was tested as well, with the Women's Center going through a lot of changes and losing staff, I felt like I didn't get as much out of the program as I anticipated, but it was still an amazing experience. I look forward to starting a new chapter in the program this year, with the new staff and new programming.
Another testing experience was my role as Secretary for the University Honors Association. After losing two executive board members, the organization seemed to just fall apart, despite my attempts to initiate conversation with the remaining two members. We might have lacked inspiration and support, we were not quite sure how we were supposed to go ahead with it. I had big plans for the organization and felt like an incompetent leader when we failed to make anything happen. I still hope to get the organization re-registered and bring some change to the way it functions, I would hate to see an opportunity go to waste.
The most recent major event that happened was when I got offered a Resident Advisor position for Siddall Hall! I was so pumped to take the opportunity and it was a major self esteem boost. But, unfortunately, I had to decline the incredible opportunity to accomodate my co-op schedule. I will still interview for next year or if something comes up in the Spring, I'm all set to take this new experience head-on!
The coming year, however, seems very promising. I applied and got elected to be Director of International Student Affairs in the Undergraduate Student Government. I hope to positively change the International Student Experience and bring about more harmony between the International and Domestic student population. I'm a Welcome Weekend Leader for the 2016 Welcome Weekend, which is going to be a superb experience; I get to be a part of Welcome Week again! Plus, I get to share my amazing experiences with incoming students, which is even more exciting! I will also be on the committee for Love Your Body Week which is being organized by the Women's Center to promote body positivity and help combat body shaming, which is very close to my heart. I was chosen to be an ambassador for CECH, and I'm super excited to represent my college to prospective students, I have so much to say and I hope to inspire some promising young women to get into Science and Technology through the ambassadors program.