Olivia Cobb

My passion for learning burgeoned my junior year of high school. I always loved reading and school, but things had faded to the background as I picked up new hobbies, learned to drive, and yearned to explore the world. As a Junior I took a class called the American Experience Academy, which included an American History credit, a Field Biology Credit, and an eleventh grade English Credit. The class focused on 1790s ohio; how the society developed, their values, and lifestyle. Learning was hands on, intensive, and philosophical. We engaged in Lincoln Douglas debates, monitored the Cuyahoga river with the Ohio EPA, created dichotomous keys for Portage county, hand sewed a complete, historically accurate, 1790s ensemble, built a log cabin, and reenacted a pioneer settlement. The Academy, as it was affectionately called, swept me away. I unearthed the power of knowledge when it combines with action. I discovered in myself a desire to understand the world and improve it. I began deasperately pursuing things like A.P. classes, books by Gabriel Garcia Marques and Emily Bronte, and philosophical disscusions. These activities led me to a string of adult friends, a bad book habit, and in the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University. I haven't stopped learning since.

As I see it, the three most important things to do in this world are to think, to learn, and to do. One is no good without the other.