Shanvanth Rayal Arnipalli is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in environmental science with a specialization in molecular science on the pre-medicine pathway and is a student leader in the Office of International Affairs' English Conversation Program.  

What has been your favorite moments or memories from your time at Ohio State?

One of my favorite memories from my time at the Ohio State University would have to be my first collegiate fencing competition during my freshmen year. It is a memory that I treasure to this day because I have never seen such a sense of community and camaraderie in this sport. Competing and representing Ohio State in competitions like this reminds me why I do what I do. Opportunities like this one are not easy to come by and keep up with. Fencing in college is something that has made my transition to college much easier and more fruitful. I am very thankful for this sport, my team and my coaches. I feel grateful for such an amazing support system and it is a true pleasure to be a student-athlete for the Ohio State University. 

Do you have a faculty mentor you look up to? Why?

A faculty mentor that I look up to is my biomedical nutrition lab advisor, Dr. Ouliana Ziouzenkova. I joined Dr. Ziouzenkova’s lab back in April this year and it has been quite the learning curve since. Her lab's focus is mostly outside of what I learn in my major and adapting to thinking outside the box for my work in this lab was not easy. There was a struggle at the beginning, as is with any new experience, however, I admired her patience and all time and effort she invested into my understanding and learning to succeed in this lab. She is able to cultivate a very effective learning environment for her students to explore new ideas and have the best experiences possible when it comes to building our collegiate careers. Moreover, no matter how small or big the task was she would give me feedback and cheer me on to make progress in my work both in and out of the lab.  She taught to me appreciate the little victories in academia and to understand the value of sharing what you know with your peers. I continue to look up to her and learn from her every day because not only is she a great teacher, but she also helped me see the potential I have. Mentors, like Dr. Ziouzenkova, are not easy to come by and I am truly thankful to have someone like her in my life.

What are your proudest achievements?

I am currently working in two different research labs in the department of human sciences, a biomedical nutrition lab, and a developmental psychology lab. The research in the biomedical nutrition lab focuses on fundamental pathways regulating metabolic responses and examines their relevance for the development of the metabolic syndrome. Whereas my work in the developmental psychology lab focuses on the role of familial context and parental characteristics, in young children’s socioemotional development, more specifically, socialization of children’s emotion regulation. Through my work in the biomedical nutrition lab, I co-authored two publications, one regarding the consequence of antibiotics and the other discussing the osmotic and hemostatic collapses in the human body due to COVID-19.

I recently submitted my research proposal to the 2021 EHE Research Forum to hopefully be gifted with the opportunity to present about the implications for COVID-19 pathogenesis provoked by SARS-Co-V-2 manifestation. I am also currently working on writing my undergraduate thesis with the help of my advisors from the developmental psychology lab. In my thesis, I plan to examine the correlation between parental methods associated with socioeconomic status data amongst American mothers and Beijing mothers. During my fourth year, I plan to present my thesis, and other research works in future forums both at OSU and hopefully at international conferences. My research work is something that I am very proud of because of how beneficial it is to my learning and career exploration.

What is your favorite aspect of being a Buckeye?

My favorite aspect of being a Buckeye is the number of opportunities we are given. To anyone incoming students and current students, I would strongly encourage them to take advantage to explore anything and everything as much as possible outside of class. Class is just one of many things that happen every day. We are all in a period of our life to make mistakes, and as cliché as that sounds it is very true. We are given the space to grow, learn, and find areas where can not only survive but thrive. This comes at a cost, and that is putting in the work to finding non-traditional avenues for exploration for non-traditional learning. Stepping outside of my comfort zone introduced me to new friends, mentors and phenomenal non-academic programs that I have come to cherish. Every day at the Ohio State University is what we choose to make of it. Because of the freedom and all the support given to us by the university, we are in control of how we shape our collegiate journey.