2020 - 21

If I had to pick a theme for this past academic year, it would be payoff. Looking back, there was so much

I was apprehensive of or unsure about that ended up working out even better than I could have hoped for. In June, I was in the middle of searching for a co-op with little success and was mentally preparing myself for another semester of classes. By the Fall, I had landed a position with a fantastic company, learned so much about my major and my field, and was invited to return for my next rotation. In December, I was trying to figure out how I would manage a Spring semester with all my classes online and lockdown restrictions confining me to my house in Cincinnati. I ended up moving back home with my family for four months, the most continuous time I’ve had with them since I moved out in 2017, and successfully navigated an online semester, despite a nine-hour time difference. A few months ago, I was working my way through an application for the new NEXT Innovation Scholars programme, unsure if my proposal had any legs and wrestling with the essay prompts. Now, with the support of friends and mentors, I have joined a team of highly motivated students, all of whom are passionate about finding ways to change our university for the better and creating a culture of innovation that resonates throughout all of UC.

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Looking forward, the most important lesson I learned from my experiences this year is to trust the process. As we slowly move back in-person and more opportunities become available for me both on and off campus, I will try to remember that success is hard to predict. It’s easy to look back at the challenges I’ve faced and realise in hindsight that I needn’t have worried about them so much. But at the time, I did not have the benefit of hindsight, and those problems felt so much more insurmountable than they do now, on this side of 2021. It is inevitable that I will face insurmountable problems again, and it is also inevitable that some of them will prove to be just that. This academic year will serve as a time capsule for me, I’ll be able to look back at the story of a year where success came about because I took my challenges head-on and was rewarded for my efforts.

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