Through the UHP, I hope to maintain my creative and academic drive by participating in various experiences around the globe. I hope to embark on at least a couple study abroad trips to further immerse myself in the Spanish language and learn about other cultures. As well, I have always had a fascination with nature, thus I wish to participate in programs relating to sustainability and our environment. The UHP will allow me to further broaden my horizons by taking courses and embarking on adventures that aren't related to my major.

Winter 2022

Spring 2021

In May of 2022, I began a new chapter in my life. I moved out of Ohio for the first time! During the spring semester, I accepted a co-op offer with SnackCrate out in Denver, Colorado. The decision to take this job has proven time and time again to have been a great choice and fit for me. Not only do I enjoy the work that I do, but I love where I live. I am on my second rotation working for them for spring 2023! Being so close to my favorite national park, Rocky Mountain NP, has been so incredible. I love the mountains and the various species that inhabit them. Colorado is truly such a breathtaking state, and I feel so lucky to have accepted this job and forced myself out of my comfort zone by moving out here. I have been able to travel throughout Colorado during my two semesters here, and it’s been so lovely to visit Great Sand Dunes National Park as well as RMNP. 

After the summer semester wrapped up, I took off to Ohio. A seventeen-hour drive seems like nothing to me now. I’m fortunate enough that my mom was able to fly out and do the drive back with me, as well as driving out to Colorado with me both times I moved. Getting to spend so much time with her after a long semester apart was much needed, and her and my dad were two of the biggest reasons I was nervous to leave Ohio in the first place. It was hard to leave them and all my friends behind. I’m glad my movement is only temporary, for now.

Anyways, the fall semester began and I quickly realized that I was going to struggle this semester. I did tons of work that I am extremely proud of, but it was so much to juggle while it was happening. The curriculum in place for the semester meant that in every single one of my DAAP classes, I was working on a group project. I value group work and enjoyed working with each of my teams, but scheduling time to work together across three different teams of people proved to be the biggest challenge and made the semester a lot more stressful than it would have been had I been doing more individual work. I started my first in-person semester of being a NEXT Innovation Scholar, which meant I had even more obligations outside of my coursework. This fall semester taught me a lot about myself and my ability to plan, prioritize, and organize my life. I had to be communicative with all of my groups and keep myself to a rather set schedule. It was hard to find time to eat, to socialize, and to exercise because of how hectic everything was. But at the end of the day, I came out of the semester with great work, stronger relationships, a greater appreciation for myself, and the idea that I have to let myself rest more.

In the spring, I wrapped up another great co-op semester with SnackCrate, and had a great time exploring Denver in the winter. In late April, me and my roommate, Katie, took a weekend trip to Utah to visit Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. They were both breathtaking and I’m bummed I didn’t have more time to explore Utah. I’ll be back for sure!

At the end of the spring semester, I had yet another drive back to Ohio. Except this time, my best friend was able to fly out to drive back with me. I put together an itinerary for us because to us, this is more than just a drive back. It’s a road trip, baby! So we set off north to South Dakota to visit Wind Cave National Park, Mount Rushmore, and Badlands National Park. We spent the first night just outside of Badlands so that we could visit the park the following morning. Upon departing Badlands, we stopped along the way to visit various landmarks and spent our second night in Omaha, Nebraska.

On our way to Omaha, we were treated with the best surprise of my life. I got word via Twitter (and later my mother) that there was a geomagnetic storm this night, which meant that certain parts of the contiguous United States were able to see the aurora borealis! We just so happened to be in the corner of Iowa nearby South Dakota and Nebraska when it was getting dark, so we pulled off the highway, away from towns and lights, and got out. I’m thrilled to report that we were able to see the aurora! It was so spectacular and truly a highlight of my year so far, though I’m not sure much else can top it. I had my tripod accessible and was able to take some beautiful long exposure photos that really brought out the true colors of the aurora.

From Omaha, it was on to St. Louis, Missouri, where we stopped to visit Gateway Arch National Park! I’ve driven past it many times but have never been able to stop and ride to the top, and I’m thrilled that it’s an experience I got to have with her by my side. Her and I spent every single day of the Covid-19 quarantine together, so being cooped up in a car for four days straight is light work for us.

After I got settled back in Cincinnati, myself and three of my closest friends took a trip to North Carolina for some much needed R&R. We stopped in West Virginia at New River Gorge National Park and it’s safe to say we all fell in love with Appalachia. We want to go back so badly! The beach in North Carolina was wonderful, though we all got painfully sunburnt. This trip was a nice welcome back to the East and rejuvenated me for the summer semester. This trip to New River Gorge NP puts my total National Park count at 12! I’m thrilled to have experienced so many in my short 22 years of life, and I can’t wait to keep growing that number.

Legacies & Landscapes of the Yucatán was a study tour I participated in during December of 2022. This tour took myself and about 25 other students on a trip to study the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico through an archaeological lens. I have a fascination with ancient architecture, and after visiting the Incan’s great Machu Picchu in 2019, I knew I had to take this opportunity to see another early Central American civilization’s work. The Maya population spread throughout the Yucatán peninsula, and what remains of their people is truly stunning. 

Throughout the trip, we visited three key archaeological sites: Uxmal, Chichen Itzá, and Ek Balam. This trip wasn’t just about the archaeology, though. We stayed in Mérida for the first few days of the trip and learned about the city’s history. We visited multiple haciendas and cenotes during our travels, and while the archeological sites were definitely the highlight of the trip for me, this reflection wouldn’t be complete without mentioning those travels as well. Swimming in a cenote is such a beautiful experience, I recall feeling very connected with nature as I swam around and jumped into these naturally occuring pools of water. The haciendas we visited were nothing short of spectacular, the people there were all extremely kind and the food was incredible. I truly feel so fortunate to have experienced the hospitality given to us at these locations. 

We traveled north of Mérida to Celestún, where we visited a nature reserve and got to see a large flock of flamingoes! They were hanging out in an area where the freshwater and seawater meet, which I learned is called brackish water. Also on this adventure, we got to boat through a mangrove swamp! Such an intricate ecosystem and I wish we had more time to learn about the species and innerworkings of them. 

After seeing Celestún, we traveled east towards the city of Izamal. On our way, we stopped at a school to spend some time with the kids and learn about how their schooling system operates. They put on a lovely performance for us and were so precious! Afterwards, we all played a game of soccer together. Those kids kicked our butts. They’re all so talented! It was so fun to get to connect through the game of soccer, and I got to put my Spanish language skills to the test chatting with the kids and throughout the entire trip. Izamal was beautiful and contained the ruins of an ancient Maya pyramid that we were able to climb. 

Then it was off to Chichen Itzá! We stayed at a hacienda close by, and woke early the following day to explore the site. It was super hot every day that we were there, which was a nice break from the Cincinnati winter, but boy were we feeling it on this day! We walked around the site for the majority of the day and saw so many structures. It’s so incredible to see such a site preserved as well as Chichen Itzá is. I love imagining how ancient people would move throughout their cities and utilize different spaces. I wish I could time travel merely to observe, so I didn’t have to imagine.

The following day we headed towards Cancún to get some much needed rest and relaxation. We stopped to see Ek Balam on the way, and it was here that I saw the most well-preserved Mayan ruins of all. They were still being restored, but they truly looked like they were sculpted yesterday. 

Being a photographer, one of my primary goals of this trip was to capture the experience through the eyes of a traveler. I love observational photography, and I think I achieved my goal. Below is a collection of my images from the trip. Part of the requirements for this course, aside from going to Mexico, was to write a paper on the experience. I kept a journal the entire time we traveled and collected it all in a paper that I submitted at the end of the semester. You can read through that here, if you’d like! 

Over the past year I have seen a lot of change. I completed my first co-op experience at Hyperquake in the Fall of 2021 which prompted a lot of personal growth and helped show me what I value as a designer. Through this experience I was able to solidify my interest in designing for the human experience, which is something I plan to pursue as a career option in the future. Designing for the human experience is a pretty broad interest, which is very exciting for me because it can be applied in a number of contexts such as interactive design (whether that be physical or digital), brand identity design, as well as marketing activities, to name a few. 

After that experience, I was off to classes and of course, the co-op search. This semester proved to be quite a challenging one for me, but one of my favorites because of the coursework I got to do. Some highlights included learning about information design, interactive design, neuroscience and art, and marketing! Both my information and interaction design courses have impacted my professional goals because I could see myself enjoying either in the future. The course that stood out as my favorite, though, was my course titled From Neurons to Picasso: How and why the brain makes art. It was an honors seminar led by Dr. Kristopher Holland and Dr. Ilya Vilinksy that explored the connections between neuroscience and art. We explored how and why we see and perceive objects, colors, light and shade, along with a history of drawing and creativity in homo species.

This course was overall just intensely interesting to me as it was outside of my traditional coursework and a primarily discussion-based course. I love courses like that. It feels wonderful to be surrounded by so many people who think differently than you do, it really opens up the floor for a lot of discussion and insight and that interdisciplinary connection is something I highly value; which leads me beautifully into the experience that impacted my life the most.

In late January I was invited to apply for a scholarship program at UC called the NEXT Innovation Scholars (NIS) program. It was a highly competitive and selective process which took three rounds of review and differing levels of preparation. NIS is a scholarship program that focuses on innovative thinking and values interdisciplinary collaboration. I’m extremely interested in innovation and collaborative thinking, so I applied! I was accepted into the program in late April of 2022 and I have 16 other students in my cohort. This acceptance has been one of the biggest things I have accomplished in my time at UC and I am so beyond excited to begin working with my cohort and innovating change in and around Cincinnati. This program is something that I know can turn my world upside-down and realign my professional goals, and I am so excited to grow within this program and further determine what I value professionally, personally, and interpersonally. NIS will provide me a wide range of experiences and opportunities to explore new things and collaborate with my peers, and I just cannot wait to get started. Special thanks to Aaron Bradley for the invitation and being a wonderful leader of the NIS program!

This honors experience was an honors seminar, From Neurons to Picasso: How and why the brain makes art. Led by Dr. Kris Holland and Dr. Ilya Vilinsky, this course explored the connections between neuroscience and art. We explored how and why we see and perceive objects, colors, light and shade, along with a history of drawing and creativity in homo species. This course was overall just intensely interesting to me as it was outside of my traditional coursework and a primarily discussion-based course. The content we covered and the discussions we had have shifted my perspective on art and forced me to think more heavily about what the artist could’ve been seeing, feeling, and perceiving at the time of creation.

One thing that stood out to me most in this course was our brief discussion of Fluxus and performance-style art. That the simple act of doing something can be considered art is something I had never thought of. In one lab, we were split into small groups and my group was instructed to choose the most aesthetically pleasing cracker. The act of us discussing, making decisions, and the method we used were a Fluxus workshop that in itself was art. That has impacted me so much as I have begun to think of the method in which I do things and make it an artful process.

At the end of the course we were to produce a final project. I chose to take some content from a podcast we had listened to and create an infographic showcasing that content. The content of my poster is from the RadioLab podcast episodes on color.