Student Organizations
Buckeyes First Student Organization
The Buckeyes First student organization is a student organization designed to create community for first-generation college students. We meet regularly throughout the year, discussing topics that support the academic and social transition of first-generation students. We connect with faculty, staff, and community members to help students develop a social network of support. Buckeyes First hosts a variety of awareness events to acknowledge the intersecting identities and interests in our community to foster a sense of belonging. Buckeyes First's mission is to support, serve, and provide a community for first-generation college students at Ohio State.
Alpha Alpha Alpha First-Generation Honor Society
Alpha Alpha Alpha is a National Honor Society for First-Generation College Students. The purpose of the Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Tri-Alpha at The Ohio State University is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, promote leadership, recognize the academic achievements and resilience of first-generation college students, and provide community and professional networks within and across college chapters. We host professional development, social, and service events for aspiring and inducted members, all with the goal of providing first-generation students with the opportunities and community needed to make the most of their time at Ohio State. To apply to become an official member, students must be of first-generation student status, have completed a minimum 30 college credit hours, and have a minimum GPA of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale. Visit our website at org.osu.edu/trialpha/ and fill out our interest form to be added to our email list and be notified of our upcoming events!
First-Generation Pre-Physician Assistant Platform
Representation matters, and while it is desirable by most to strive to be a flawless Pre-Physician Assistant (PA) undergraduate student and applicant to Physician Assistant school, it is extremely difficult, especially for those students who are first-generation—a term that is used to describe a person who is the first in their family to break barriers such as finishing high school, attending college, or applying to PA school. Motivated to establish a platform for those who do not have immediate access to a Physician Assistant mentor and those exclusive resources, the “First-Generation Pre-Physician Assistant Platform” is an Instagram, Youtube, and Spotify Podcast platform that acts as a 24/7 mentorship service for pre-PA students from Ohio State University and beyond. Answered by well-known, resilient, empathetic, and experienced first-generation certified Physician Assistants, PA students, and PA mentors, this platform will reveal the resources and answers to our most common pre-PA fears, which are usually not posted publicly, as we start our pre-PA journeys. This platform’s hope to assure the spiraling worries of the first-generation pre-PA students and to provide them constant access to pre-PA mentorship podcasts, videos, and other forms of resources that will always alleviate their anxieties throughout their journeys. Creating these collections of resources for these pre-PA communities, this platform will increase the access to the resources and treat the necessity of first-generation pre-PA students having a mentor and community to confide in. There, truly, is no greater feeling–community support is a necessity. So within these platforms, we encourage vulnerable conversation from Pre-PA students, PA-S's, and PA-C’s on their personal, non-traditional, first-generation journeys into the Physician Assistant profession. This 24/7 mentorship platform is dedicated to bringing attention to these resources in order to increase the number of underrepresented students interested in medicine. By acknowledging the disparities and setbacks that being first-generation has on collegiate students, this organization has proven that what once seemed impossible, is now becoming reality for first-generation students everywhere.