Freshman Year: Fall 2011-Spring 2012
From the beginning of my college experience, I have been involved with the University Honors Program. The week prior to the first day of the academic year, I began my honors journey at the Honors Welcome Retreat, where I had a chance to meet other first year honors students, current honors students, and connect with honors faculty. Additionally, I completed my first Honors Experience through participating in The LeaderShape Institute retreat in December 2011, which allowed me to collaborate with honors students of all ages and further develop my leadership skills. I continued to incorporate honors level courses such as English 101 and 102 Honors into my schedule and have plans to deepen my involvement in the University Honors Program in coming years. During the 2012 Summer, I completed my second Honors Experience, which was self designed under the pillar for Leadership. Throughout that semester off classes, I coached a swimming team on the westside of Cincinnati. I worked each day to improve my swimmers skills and form relationships with them that would allow us both to grow in new ways. The experience was highly rewarding and provided me with a sense of accomplishment and pride because I was able to use all knowledge that I had gain throughout my years of being a swimmer to instill in my swimmers important qualities such as discipline, hard work, and perseverance. Also, before the 2012-2013 school year began, I returned to the Honors Welcome Retreat as a Retreat Leader in hopes to assist incoming freshman with their transition to college life.