There are numerous opportunities for Latin@ students to move beyond the classroom experience and become engaged in the greater Ohio State community. In most cases, there are countless prospects within your field of interest. Though majors and specialties vary from student to student, the impetus each individual student feels to excel in their field is an important factor to their success; and to succeed one must get active outside the classroom. Catalina Lizarralde, a Columbian student raised in Ecuador, is a good example of how utilizing mentorship and university resources can result in success. Catalina gained her experience beyond the classroom by participating in an internship program through The Dow Chemical Company. By recounting her journey, we hope to inform OSU students on how they too may reap the benefits of internship programs, while simultaneously providing tips that will save valuable time for those interested in pursuing a career in business.
Catalina knew she wanted to study logistics and supply chain when she realized she needed a career that would allow her to balance tools and planning with people skills. Described as dynamic and outgoing, Catalina enjoyed problem solving and manipulating data to streamline processes and improve the quality of life for everyday workers. Identifying her interests was pivotal in the process of finding an internship. Catalina believed that studying Logistics as a major would open the door of employment in any industry in any nation. She recalls, “I believe it is the backbone of any company’s competency.” With this awareness of what she desired, crucial for any person’s success, Catalina proceeded to transform her philosophy into a workable blueprint for achievement.
Her first step was to dedicate herself to the study of logistics, and she accomplished this by focusing her efforts on the Fisher Honors Cohort program, a program within the Fisher School of Business that applies academic education through service-learning volunteer activities. During the second week of school, she learned about this program in her Business 100 survey class and set herself the goal of getting into the program the following fall. Catalina remembers, “Once you determine the program is a fit for you, it’s easier to give a little extra in everything you do because you want it so much.” With a minimum 3.5 GPA requirement, Catalina realized that she had to remain fully committed, follow a planned course schedule for the rest of her undergraduate career, and demonstrate leadership qualities among her peers and professors. Central to this program are both leadership and communication skills, which a student must display through volunteer activities. The result of her experience through the Fisher Honors Cohort was the prestigious internship at The Dow Chemical Company in Houston, Texas.
Every day Catalina realizes there is much she still needs to learn, but she has discovered there is only so much a textbook can teach and that grades are not everything. She has learned that proving yourself in the classroom is only the first step; knowing how to deal with people and networking with them will open more doors once you have proven yourself academically.
Calalina’s ultimate goal is to make a difference in the community and she is determined to maintain her empathy for those in need. She desires to succeed as an Alumnae, employee, daughter, sister, girlfriend, friend, mom, and woman, and to continue inspiring those around her through hard work and decisiveness. Above all, she wants to become an approachable mentor that is recognized for fostering positive change. An interesting observation made by Catalina Lizarralde about her experience at Ohio State is that there were not many Latin@s participating in the program at Fisher, especially considering that OSU is largest university in the United States. To those not involved, Catalina stresses that anyone can have success if they apply themselves and seek guidance throughout their college career, especially from professors. By sharing her story, Catalina hopes to take the first steps toward confronting the problem of underrepresentation in programs such as these.
In keeping with her concerns for the Latin@ community, Catalina has never lost sight of the importance of her own identity as a Latina within the business community. “As a Latina, or any minority, you have a unique asset that separates you from the average; moreover you do come with a unique background that can be enriched with your experiences at Ohio State and your interactions with others. As a Latina, I am determined to work hard to carry all of our flags up high, setting a good example and changing many wrong stereotypes,” Catalina explained. “I am encouraged to work even harder to keep on enriching and building myself to become a professional and a leader that is capable of exploiting every positive outcome of any situation I might encounter.”
This year, Catalina will graduate with a double-major in Logistics and Operations Management from the Fisher College of Business. Throughout her experiences, Catalina has continued to keep her family as a central part of her life; in the midst of her success, her parents remain her role models for success at work and home. With a passion for traveling, Catalina has been exposed to everyday-life situations in foreign countries having spent a year after graduating from high school living in Salzburg-Austria then traveling around Europe for five months. With her future success seemingly inevitable, Catalina will no doubt have the opportunity to travel quite a bit more in the future.
| 
