Before school started, I was able to be a team leader for an orientation group. Along with the orientation leaders in my group, I led a group of first-time freshmen through their orientation activities. It was rewarding for me to be able to give back some of what I have learned in my time at Drury. Serving as a mentor for these freshmen was especially meaningful because many of those in my group were science majors which allowed me to answer their questions and give them tips for their classes which I had already taken. I was able to keep up with many of them throughout the semester and tutor them when they were struggling. I am excited to return as a team leader for the summer of 2018 and mentor more freshmen as they begin their Drury experience! Long nights at the science center and mornings that came too early were an everyday reality this school year, but I was able to spend much of this time with my friends preparing for our futures which made the work meaningful. During the Fall semester, I took Organic Chemistry and Physics at the same time and chose to train for a half marathon on top of my school commitments. Many days, I spent all day at the science center in class and studying only to come home still needing to complete the daily training for my half marathon. It was difficult to keep myself motivated to keep up with all of my commitments, but when I crossed the finish line of my half marathon and got my final grades back for the semester, all of my hard work had paid off. This experience taught me that even though college is busy, I can still make time to keep up with my hobbies and have time for myself. During the Spring semester, my hardest classes were still Advanced Organic Chemistry and Physics II, but my new challenge was Digital Foundations which was a class I took to fulfill the Fine Arts-Invention credit in the Drury Core curriculum. I was nervous to take this class because art has never been something I did well in. Initially, this class seemed to confirm my fears; I did not understand how to use the tools in the programs we were learning and my professor did not like my projects. However, I persevered, started asking my professor more questions during the projects, and learned how to use the tools to make my projects look the way I wanted them to. I became proud of the work I was doing and viewed this class as a time where I got to think about something completely different from my major. Through this class, I gained a greater appreciation for Fine Arts and learned how nerve-wracking it can be to show one's creative work to other people.