Transcripts of Mariah

 By the way, I can totally edit this, so you can just say anything. I'll understand. So why don't you introduce yourself? Hi name is Mariah Bowens, and I'm going to be an incoming Freshman from Columbus Ohio, and I'm going to be studying exploration. This is my daughter Maliah. She's 11 months old, and she'll be at the daycare all day, while mommy goes and studies. So you're going to be starting off in exploration. Is there a major you want to eventually move towards? Probably Business. Why do you want to study business? It just seems like the... I haven't looked into it anymore but it just seems like the kind of thing that I should be doing. Like working with people and managing things. So what is it going to be like starting school with your daughter? Well hopefully I can make it as easy as possible. I mean, in my time to study I'll have to still take care of her, so hopefully we can just make this transition, all the way through. Are you taking a first year writing, first year composition? Yeah. Did you take English classes in High School? Yeah. Did you enjoy those classes? Yeah I did. Can you tell us a story about one of those classes? And like some ways that you thought the teacher was doing a good job and some ways that you think could have been improved? Well, I had my English teacher in 11th grade, her name was Ms. Strother, and I thought she was an all around good teacher, because she was able to teach but she also made everything, when she taught she told stories about her life so it was easier for the whole class to incorporate. And she was also very funny, so it was just really nice for her to be a teacher instead of just standing there and having us read out of a book the whole class. Not talking to the teacher and having to just read. And then answering questions, we just did everything together. So that's the way I like to learn. Could you, what other classes did you take in High School? Math and Psychology, let's see, Chemistry, Biology. Did you have a favorite class? My favorite class... My favorite class was probably Chemistry. I actually liked it, so, I always liked Science. When you were growing up, your parents emphasized things like one subject over another? Did they say, you know, you should study Science or Business or English? What did they care about? Really they cared about math because that was a hard subject for me, so really they pushed, we tried to study math all the time. But everything else was really pretty much easy for me. What kinds of reading materials were around the house? Did your parents have books about math, or fiction or non-fiction? Really well, since my dad does carpentry he had things like that. It wasn't really anything that I would pick up, pick up and read it or anything. I had chapter books and just regular childrens books, and the ones that dad would bring home from school, but... Could you tell us a story about the kinds of books you enjoyed reading, or like learning when you were growing up? Like what books helped you the most? Is that a good question? No, really growing up, the books that I liked were the ones with pictures in them. (Laughing) Always the ones with pictures. I mean they still had writing in them but mostly I liked the books that had pictures in them. I mean, but now, when I read books, whenever I read them I try to picture what's going on in my head, because it makes the book more interesting. When you are reading to your daughter, what is somethings that you're thinking about that you want to teach her, about reading? Is there anything you want to emphasize for education? Really I just want to... Like my mom she didn't sit down and read with me everyday when I was younger. So I think that if I sit down and read with my daughter everyday, and try to read everything, to teach her letters and colors and all that early. She might, she can catch on to things more when she's older. It'll be easier for her to learn in school if we try to incorporate reading in her day, every day.  Is there anything that comes to mind that you could tell us a story about? In your education career? That has been formative, that has been very much something that helped you along the way helped you get to OSU? Really what helped me get to OSU was being able to still stay in school after my daughter. I thought that since I had the baby and everything, everything was going to go downhill. Because it was my Junior year in High School when I found out that I was pregnant. And I didn't have her til my Senior year. But I was able to leave the school that I was at and actually have an in-home tutor for the six weeks. And I was able to come back to school. But really what I did, I went to the virtual high school, where I was cross enrolled at my high school and the virtual high school. And whatever I didn't complete at the High School, you could just go to there and complete it on the computer. So basically I made it through when I applied to OSU I still had my good Grade Point Average. And I was able to, in my application, write in the hardships that I went through with having my daughter and still being able to finish school and wanting to go on to college still. I think I've done really good in getting into school still with the baby, because it's hard, sometimes. Can you tell us a story about what that program was like? Doing the, having the tutor? Like what were some things the tutor did that really helped you? Really, the tutor, what we really did, is this teacher at my High School would assign assignments for me and the tutor to do together. And really the tutor didn't really help me. You really have to help yourself. Because all we did together was open the textbook, read the chapter and answer the questions at the end of the chapter. So really I don't, really I wasn't doing what everybody was doing at school, because they were doing projects and writing essays and everything when I was just reading and answering questions. So, it was really different from being at school. Because I liked to be around people, and work with people, and really I was just by myself with the baby. Because the baby was able, she was in the house she was there while I was tutoring but she would sleep most of the time. I don't know, what else do you want to talk about? We talked about like your early literacy at home, your early literacy at school. Literacy in High School, I mean... Is there something you want to talk about with your daughter?  I don't think she's going to settle down, I'm sorry. Don't worry, it's totally fine.