Welcome to my UC Honors Learning Portfolio! My name is Sophie Shemas, and I am a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. On April 30th, 2016, I received my B.S. in Environmental Studies with minors in Anthropology and Biology. Before coming to UC, I lived in Dublin, Ohio, which is a suburb outside of Columbus, home to the Memorial Golf Tournament and a field of giant corn statues made of concrete (for those who are intrigued or, more likely, confused by this, you can read about it here).
As someone who was largely unsure of what I wanted to do with my life before coming to college, my experiences over the past four years have been pivotal in shaping my career path and helping me grow as an individual. I've discovered my passion for social sustainability and a love for environmental policy. But not only have I developed within my field, I've undergone a tremendous amount of personal growth as well. I've had my leadership tested, my personal beliefs molded, and I've learned more about myself that I could have ever imagined I would. The past four years have made me better not only as a student, but as a person, and I look forward to taking what I've learned into my career after I graduate.
After college, I have a few different, yet related, career paths that I'm interested in pursuing. I would love to explore corporate social responsibility, international development, and environmental policy. The primary reason I became an environmental studies major was to help improve global water access sustainably, but I've also found that I love working mainly on the human side of sustainability. Unexpectedly, I found myself much more drawn to the communication piece of my field as opposed to research. I want to help people better understand sustainability issues and develop holistically sustainable solutions to environmental problems. Hopefully, after gaining a few years of experience, I will return to school to pursue a Master's degree in international development. Though for now I'm unsure of what life after graduation looks like for me exactly, I am excited by the possibilities, and I know that the lessons I've taken from my experiences at UC will serve me well in the future.
I am so lucky to have been afforded many phenomenal opportunities to explore my passions here at UC, specifically through the University Honors Program. I have been able to travel abroad, work with others to improve the greater Cincinnati community through honors seminars, discover an amazing group of friends, and even get my hands dirty doing scientific research on cockroaches. All of these experiences have been documented on my portfolio in some form, so I hope you'll check them out!
Some sort of interesting facts about me:
I have physiological anisocoria, which is just a fancy term for the fact that my pupils are naturally different sizes (think David Bowie)
I'm half Lebanese, and I have always appreciated and practiced pieces of Middle Eastern culture throughout my life, especially in regards to food and family
I'm very passionate about music and singing, and I take a lot of pride in the diversity of the music that I listen to
I listen to a lot of music in different languages too, and I'm actually trying to learn bits and pieces of those languages through music
I would say I'm semi-fluent in Spanish (for the sake of not overestimating my skills...), and one of my goals is to become at least conversational in a few more languages
I'm a major bibliophile, and I love collecting books. When I get older, I want to have my own mini library
I have what my friends refer to as "old lady hobbies" which include knitting, baking, and doing jigsaw puzzles
Despite the fact that I really want to travel, I'm slightly terrified of airports and flying
If it's not fall or spring, I will more than likely be complaining about the Ohio weather even though I've lived here my entire life and really should be used to it by now
Feel free to use the buttons in the top right of the page to shoot me an email or contact me on Facebook (though I should note that don't use mine often anymore).