2nd Year (2016-2017)
Two years of college. This thought itself hit me like a splash of rainwater from a passing car. Fortunately, as a student in a co-op program, I have 3 years left of my time at the University of Cincinnati, which helps to soften the blow. Reflecting on my 2nd year, I have adapted to what I was as a first year and have grown into myself.
As a freshman, I was ambitious and joined as many organizations as possible, while this year I tightened my focus to fewer organizations, so that I could take on positions and truly be a contributing member. Through my work with organizations, I came to an important conclusion about accomplishing tasks; having relationships are crucial for the success of events. For example, as the VP of External Events I was responsible for executing the Student Alumni Council’s annual Pennant Day at a UC baseball game. In the past, SAC normally had fewer than 10 organizations design pennants for display. This year, we had 28 pennants with over 500 votes on the best design – making this year SAC’s most productive Pennant Day in years. I do not take sole responsibility for the success, as much of it was due to relationships with in SAC. I utilized the membership of the organization to have SACers reach out to other organizations of which they belonged to encourage participation. This was much more successful than hoping for other organizations to participate – proving my statement about the power or relationships to have successful events.
At the same time, I began my co-op experiences in January and into the summer of 2017. The balance of life and work is an obstacle and while I feel I managed adequately. During the spring semester, it was a challenge adapting and my free time shrunk. While I still was active in organizations, after work I was tired and productivity was reduced compared to a semester in class. The challenge of time balance is something I would have changed if possible. In the future, I plan to typically co-op during the summer, as it is not as challenging to still be engaged with organizations during the summer. With this, I also would have liked to have been more productive during the spring after co-op and using my time on weekends to do work for organizations. Not to mention to better plan free time for myself to better manage my time after work and on weekends, rather than wasting it.
Diving into my third year, I am aiming for several personal, professional, and educational goals. I hope to continue in strong academic performances and to take courses that challenge me outside of purely business courses. Professionally, I hope to look for and find a great co-op for hopefully the summer of 2018. I may aim to have an out of town experience or try and see a business of a different scope. Personally, I want to grow in time management skills. After co-op, I have found more techniques with limited free time. Returning to class, I hope to retain structure so that I can be efficient in coursework, helping organizations, and in free time. Within organizations I aim to continue to grow and sharpen my leadership skills and I want to continue to pursue ways to truly transform organizations to make meaningful contributions to UC. I want to continue to use my passion for UC and Cincinnati to give back to the UC community through my work with the Student Alumni Council and other organizations, making deeper connections between alumni and UC along with deepening the pride of UC for current students. Lastly, I want to continue to use my time appropriately during my time in college. So far I have been flummoxed by the speed of two years. I want to take my third year to maximize my experiences, taking more classes for my love of history and German, studying or working abroad, working with organizations which have missions in which I truly believe, and importantly carving out time to be with friends and enjoy myself. My second year has been great, but I want time to slow down for the rest of my time and I aim to wring out the most from the next years rather than have regrets of wasted time.
As a freshman, I was ambitious and joined as many organizations as possible, while this year I tightened my focus to fewer organizations, so that I could take on positions and truly be a contributing member. Through my work with organizations, I came to an important conclusion about accomplishing tasks; having relationships are crucial for the success of events. For example, as the VP of External Events I was responsible for executing the Student Alumni Council’s annual Pennant Day at a UC baseball game. In the past, SAC normally had fewer than 10 organizations design pennants for display. This year, we had 28 pennants with over 500 votes on the best design – making this year SAC’s most productive Pennant Day in years. I do not take sole responsibility for the success, as much of it was due to relationships with in SAC. I utilized the membership of the organization to have SACers reach out to other organizations of which they belonged to encourage participation. This was much more successful than hoping for other organizations to participate – proving my statement about the power or relationships to have successful events.
At the same time, I began my co-op experiences in January and into the summer of 2017. The balance of life and work is an obstacle and while I feel I managed adequately. During the spring semester, it was a challenge adapting and my free time shrunk. While I still was active in organizations, after work I was tired and productivity was reduced compared to a semester in class. The challenge of time balance is something I would have changed if possible. In the future, I plan to typically co-op during the summer, as it is not as challenging to still be engaged with organizations during the summer. With this, I also would have liked to have been more productive during the spring after co-op and using my time on weekends to do work for organizations. Not to mention to better plan free time for myself to better manage my time after work and on weekends, rather than wasting it.
Diving into my third year, I am aiming for several personal, professional, and educational goals. I hope to continue in strong academic performances and to take courses that challenge me outside of purely business courses. Professionally, I hope to look for and find a great co-op for hopefully the summer of 2018. I may aim to have an out of town experience or try and see a business of a different scope. Personally, I want to grow in time management skills. After co-op, I have found more techniques with limited free time. Returning to class, I hope to retain structure so that I can be efficient in coursework, helping organizations, and in free time. Within organizations I aim to continue to grow and sharpen my leadership skills and I want to continue to pursue ways to truly transform organizations to make meaningful contributions to UC. I want to continue to use my passion for UC and Cincinnati to give back to the UC community through my work with the Student Alumni Council and other organizations, making deeper connections between alumni and UC along with deepening the pride of UC for current students. Lastly, I want to continue to use my time appropriately during my time in college. So far I have been flummoxed by the speed of two years. I want to take my third year to maximize my experiences, taking more classes for my love of history and German, studying or working abroad, working with organizations which have missions in which I truly believe, and importantly carving out time to be with friends and enjoy myself. My second year has been great, but I want time to slow down for the rest of my time and I aim to wring out the most from the next years rather than have regrets of wasted time.