Month: November 2017

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Student Spotlight: Worship Leader at Grove City College

Grace DeMember playing guitar and singing

Many students who attend Grove City College are musically gifted. This unique campus trend was something I noticed very early on in my time at the College. Because of the wide variety of organizations and events, there are many opportunities for students to engage in worship. Students who wish to take a leadership position often hope to take a role as a worship leader. The College’s worship leaders are students who excel musically, and have a strong desire to spiritually support others.

I have been close friends with Grace DeMember since the beginning of my time here. She has been leading worship since her freshman year, when she was part of a chapel worship team. As a senior, Grace is now a worship leader on a handful of teams including chapel worship, Young Life and Warriors. Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down and hearing about her experience as a worship leader at Grove City College. Grace is obviously very passionate about leading worship and it was humbling to hear her perspective. I hope that if you are interested participating in worship at Grove City College, her responses will be beneficial and applicable to you.

How did you first get involved in leading worship?

My parents both led worship at the church we went to when I was little and I grew up pretty immersed in worship music. We had band practice at our house, and my brothers and I loved listening to them play. They often practiced right after we went to bed (they had a full band, so I’m not sure how my parents expected us to actually go to sleep) and one of my brothers and I used to sneak downstairs and watch during their practice. Sometimes they would catch us and let us come mess around on the instruments. It was so much fun. Some of my favorite people were in that worship band and I looked up to them from a very young age.

I grew up seeing so many people I loved and admired leading worship onstage, and I wanted to learn guitar so that I could play and sing at church. When I was in 7th grade, my dad started teaching guitar to a couple people in our youth group with the intent of preparing us to lead worship for our peers. There were a couple of leaders in my youth group who saw a lot of potential in me and encouraged me to really pursue leading worship. They gave me opportunities to play and sing with the youth band pretty early on (they had a much better high school student playing with me so I could learn from her) and I learned pretty quickly. For a period of time, I alternated between singing and playing guitar, but eventually I was able to do them both together. I had a piano background as well and started playing keys and singing some weeks.

What skills are necessary to lead worship?

First of all, you have to have a personal relationship with Jesus and want to serve Him; your heart needs to be in it. Secondly, you have to be musically solid enough to actually worship and lead others into that experience. If you’re too caught up in what chords you’re playing, you won’t be able to enter into that sacred time with the Lord. Also, if you’re making a lot of mistakes, it’s incredibly distracting to people who are really trying to worship. It also helps to have experience being in charge of a group of people. You have to be confident in what you’re doing for people to really respect you and buy into what you’re doing.

What challenges do you face as a worship leader?

Pride – wanting the glory of singing/playing in front of hundreds of people for myself instead of giving it to God.

Having to hold “auditions” – it’s hard to tell someone that they’re not the right fit for a group of people who are serving God.

Getting so caught up in “performing” well that I forget about the reason I’m singing/playing.

How have you seen yourself grow or change because of your experience as a worship leader?

I have grown so much in my relationship with the Lord through leading worship. It has been so cool to have such a practical and tangible way to use my gifts and talents to both glorify God and serve others. I have also learned so much about putting my identity solely in Him and not in what others think of me, or even in what I think of myself. Leading worship has also given me so many opportunities to grow as a leader of people, and I am so appreciative for that.

Does your role change based on what organization or team you lead for?

Honestly, the heart and purpose of it isn’t all that different from group to group. As a worship leader, my job is to provide an opportunity for people to encounter the Lord through music, and that purpose is the same for every team I have led. The size of the congregation/group, skill level of the team, sound of the team (acoustic vs. full band), and age of the team obviously changes from group to group, but my role mostly stays the same. There are times when my job is more to mentor and help younger worship leaders as opposed to leading a team myself, my even then, my job is to lead them into a time of encountering the Lord.

What suggestions do you have for students who aspire to lead worship in any manner at Grove City College?

I would say to simply look for opportunities to get involved. Freshman chapel worship is how I got started with the Grove City community, and once other people knew that I had experience leading worship, I got asked to lead for other groups as well. I would also introduce yourself to current members of a team you might want to be on because people are always graduating and moving on and teams are often looking to replace people.

What is your favorite part of being a worship leader?

I love music, and I love that leading worship is an opportunity to glorify God with the gifts He has given me. I especially love getting the opportunity to enable lots of people to have an intimate experience with God. Corporate singing is so powerful, and it always amazes me that God would choose me to be a leader of something that significant.

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Engineering: Senior Design Projects

Every spring, seniors in the engineering department are required to showcase what they have learned through a Senior Design Project. The projects are chosen by both professors and students. Some projects are completed for fun, a club, or even for a customer. I spoke with Mr. Jaillet in the Electrical Engineering department to get some details on what is in-store for this year’s upcoming projects.

Design goals are set by the student themselves and must meet certain course requirements. There is a lot of writing reports that goes along with the project, more writing than most people realize, according to Mr. Jaillet, “a lot of guys feel like they’ve been in a communications class when they’re done.”

This year, there are seven electrical engineering teams. The fall semester focuses mostly on designing and testing, while the spring semester focuses on construction. Teams meet to work on projects in the Senior Design Lab which is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a lot of work put in at the library as well, writing the reports.

There are some very interesting projects this year. The first is a robot submarine, which is a club project. There will be a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) competition where the robot will have to complete underwater tasks. Another project is a mobile greenhouse. The original model needs to be redesigned to cover current needs.  Students at the France campus are working on a tunnel oven sensor package which is used to monitor conditions inside the oven in order to optimize the conditions for maximum efficiency. Another project Mr. Jaillet mentioned is creating a power system in Zimbabwe. The goal is to use solar power to run sewing machines.

I will be following some of the design teams and interviewing them on their projects. There will be more blogs to come covering the Senior Design Projects. I am excited to see what these teams will accomplish!

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Reel Life at Grove City College: A Chat with Drew

 

In this episode of Reel Life, I wanted to give you a look into the life of a specific student. Meet Drew. He is a junior communications major and a super cool dude. Drew reached out to me asking if he could interview me for a class, and I thought, “Wow, this is perfect–you can interview me for your project, and I can interview your for Reel Life at the same time!” To my delight, he agreed that yes, that was something we could do.

I wanted to post this interview because I think it is essential that you hear a focused spotlight on a current Grove City College student. A lot of prospective students do not have a current student they feel comfortable reaching out to about how student life is going for them. Many do not even have a current student they know. So consider Drew your one-on-one look at life in Grove City College. As I mentioned, he is a top-notch communications major. He also has a passion for film, co-runs an on-campus Bible study group, is on the leadership team for the Intervarsity group here at Grove City, and is currently starting his own podcast. Plus, he is an awesome friend.

I loved the answers he gave to the questions I asked him. I want you to hear them, because I think they are a fantastic representation of the student experience here at the College. I hope after watching this you will get a better idea of the community we have here on campus and even gain some insight on how we are being prepared for the real world.

Lastly, I want to give a special thank-you to Drew for helping me make this video. Enjoy!

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It’s a Suite Life: Community vs Suite-Style Bathrooms

I am a senior at Grove City College and over the past four years I have lived in three of our five main female residence halls. Freshman year I lived in Mary Anderson Pew (MAP) North, as most freshman women do. Sophomore and junior years I lived in MAP South, and this year I am living in MAP West. South and West are both suite-style residence halls, meaning that most of the rooms in these buildings are attached to one other room with a bathroom in the middle. North has community style bathrooms.

I have loved my experiences in both of my suite-style rooms as well as with community bathrooms. I have no clear-cut preference between the two, as they have both been very different and yet great experiences.

Pros of Suite Bathrooms:

  1. Convenience

There is no getting around it, suite-style bathrooms are convenient. Midnight bathroom trips are easy and I am back in bed before I am even fully awake, and being able to carry on a conversation with my roommate while I do dishes or fill our water pitcher is awesome.

2. Privacy

This one is kind of tricky. Yes, there is slightly more privacy in suite bathrooms, but I am still sharing with 2-5 other people, so it is not uncommon that more than one person will be in the bathroom at one time. Grove City College suite bathrooms are unique and nice in the respect that the toilets are still enclosed in stalls, so someone can be in the stall while someone else is in the shower with no problem whatsoever.

3. Bonus Friends

Suite-mates are your bonus roommates. You will likely see them more often than many other people on the hall, since you are sharing a bathroom, and brushing your teeth at the same time everyday allows a certain kind of bond to develop. Suite-mate relationships come in many different forms – some people become best friends, and some people remain friendly acquaintances, but there is always a unique relationship between suite-mates.

Pros of Community Bathrooms

  1. Bonus Friends

Similar to suite bathrooms, the people who you meet in your community bathrooms can become your best friends. Community bathrooms present the unique opportunity to chat with people who you otherwise would never even meet and develop close friendships while you are performing your normal bathroom routines. Before college I never would have thought of the bathroom as a social place, but since leaving the community bathrooms I have really missed meeting new people while doing makeup or doing dishes.

2. No Clashing Schedules

In community bathrooms you don’t have to coordinate with suite-mates and roommates for who is going to shower when. In an entire year of living on a community bathroom hall I only had to wait for a shower once, and that was after a particularly sweaty FitWell (physical education) ended for the day. You can blow dry your hair before your 8 a.m. class without angering a roommate who’s still sleeping, and flushing the toilet at 2:30 a.m. is not going to wake anybody up.

3. Cleaned for You

Community bathrooms are cleaned by the housekeeping staff here at the college throughout the week. I never quite figured out their cleaning schedule, but they did some form of light cleaning in our community bathrooms nearly every day of the week and did a deep clean one or two times a week. I never felt like the bathroom was dirty, and I didn’t have to schedule in time to clean it myself.

Cons of Suite Bathrooms

  1. Cleaning

This is only a minor con. Students in suite-style rooms that have only two rooms attached to a bathroom (so mostly only the women’s suite-style rooms) are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms. The school provides all of the cleaning supplies that we need for us, so we just need to worry about actually using them. There are many ways to work out a cleaning schedule with suite-mates and roommates, but this year my suite decided that each room would take turns cleaning the bathroom once a week, and it has been working well for us.

2. Schedule Conflicts

My roommate, suite-mates, and myself all have similar nighttime and morning schedules. This is a large part of what makes my roommate and me, in particular, able to share a room. This generally means, however, that several of us are using the bathroom at similar times, which is no big deal when it comes to brushing teeth or washing faces, since there are two sinks in our bathroom, but it is not unusual that we all take showers back to back and would probably take showers at the same time in a community bathroom. The proximity of the bathroom to our sleeping quarters also can be an issue when one of us is getting ready for a morning class while the others are still sleeping – it usually means avoiding having to blow-dry our hair before 8 a.m. and being very careful of not shining light in our roommates’ eyes when entering and exiting the bathroom.

3. Less Spontaneity

I love talking to people and I love spending time with the women on my hall. This is significantly easier to do in halls with community bathrooms for obvious reasons. People have to be much more intentional about opening their doors or interacting with the people they live around in suite-style halls than they would in community halls.

Cons of Community Bathrooms

  1. Less Privacy

You are rarely alone in a community bathroom, which can be fun from a social aspect, but there are definitely times when you just do not want to interact with anyone and community bathrooms can make that a difficult thing to do. Community bathrooms do have double curtains in front of the showers, which means that walking around in nothing but a towel is not a necessity (though, our single-gender residence halls make that an option for those who prefer that).

2. Hand soap

This could just as easily be a pro of community bathrooms. Hand soap is provided for you in community bathrooms (paper towels are provided for both community and suite bathrooms). While this is certainly more convenient, I personally get really excited about seasonally scented hand soaps and have loved getting to choose my own for my suite bathroom. Sometimes people will put fun soaps in community bathrooms, but it gets used a lot faster than it otherwise would.

3. Bring Your Towel

(I am kind of grasping at straws at this point…I love community style bathrooms!)

In community bathrooms you have to remember to bring your towel from your room to the bathroom. You actually do not necessarily have to carry your toiletries to the bathroom, because the residence hall bathrooms at Grove City College all have shelves for students to leave their shower caddies in the bathroom, which is very convenient.

So there you have it!  Both community bathrooms and suite-style bathrooms have their pros and their cons, but you are able to have a great experience in either one!  If given the option, I would recommend living in a place with community bathrooms for your first year at college in order to have more opportunities to meet people and to avoid unnecessary conflicts with roommates and suite-mates about the bathroom, and then consider living in a suite-style bathroom in your later years of college if you so desire.

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You Were Made for This: Get Involved with Young Life!

When I arrived at Grove City College as a freshman, I was shocked at the abundance of organizations and activities available for students. From what I expected to be offered at a small liberal arts college in Western Pennsylvania, walking into the Org Fair (an event at the beginning of the semester that allows students to be introduced to the various organizations and groups on campus) was a humbling (and honestly overwhelming!) experience. The room was loud, filled with excited voices, eager to share stories of experience and involvement. As I spent time navigating the tables, I signed up with my email to hear more information about a few organizations.

Fast forward. After a semester of trying to find where I wanted to become involved on campus, I was still very much unsure where I wished to invest my time. I attended many informational meetings. I met with many students who were very passionate about organizations on campus, but when I thought critically about the prospect of my involvement, I was simply not as passionate. I wanted to be sure  an organization I joined aligned with my interests and what I wished my college experience would look like. Some of my best friends introduced me to Young Life as they were in the midst of training to become volunteer leaders. The more I learned about the vision of Young Life and the role of being a Young Life leader, I knew it was an organization I wanted to be a part of. Young Life is an international organization whose mission is defined as “introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.” The ministry of Young Life hopes to do this by building on what are called the four C’s: Contact Work, Club, Campaigners, and Camp. What really struck me was how Young Life was focused on relational ministry. Young Life leaders go where kids are, this is called contact work. Leaders are present in school hallways chatting with kids, at sporting events helping coach a team, supporting kids at plays and concerts, and simply living life with kids to the best of their abilities. I loved that this ministry model was clearly based on Jesus’ life. Young Life leaders do not wait for kids to come to them. They travel to where kids are and show them an unconditional love that can only come from Jesus.

It is typical for a freshman interested in Young Life to be trained during their entire first semester at Grove City College. The thought is, this is a new time full of challenges and changes. Adding an intensive spiritual training may do more harm than good, and could ultimately leave a student feeling burnt out. Also, as Young Life is a relational ministry, it is important to make sure students are ready to be part of kids’ lives for the next few years. For many kids, becoming close to a Young Life leader and then losing this friend is a devastating experience. Taking a semester to train allows students to think critically about whether they could realistically be part of Young Life. During the first semester, interested students meet once a week on Sunday nights to engage in fellowship, listen to messages about the Gospel, and learn what it truly means to be a Young Life leader by going through a handbook. However, students who feel called to the ministry may also be trained at any point during their time at the college. I know many dedicated, passionate leaders who became involved during their sophomore, junior, or even senior years. (I went through an accelerated training second semester my freshman year).

I am now a senior. I can honestly say that my choice to do Young Life has challenged and shaped me more than any other choice I have made in my college career. The friends I have made at Mercer Middle School (where I lead) and on campus (with a community of 55 other college students who are Young Life leaders) have taught me important lessons and provided me with a great community. My faith has grown exponentially throughout these past three years. Young Life has provided me with many spiritual challenges. With each one, I am constantly reminded of the greatness of God and His providence and grace. Young Life is not for everybody, but I would urge you to get involved if you are interested. As Christians, we are called to fulfill the Great Commission. So why not spend your college years to serving in a fun, humbling, and rewarding way?

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Lydia Sutton- Experience at BEST Robotics Competition

The BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) competition presented by Elliott Group was hosted by Grove City College on October 13-14.  The BEST competition is a “middle and high school robotics competition whose mission is to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields” (bestinc.org). The teams worked for the past six weeks to create a functioning robotic machine that can complete certain tasks in three minutes. This year, 22 teams and approximately 400 students competed at the Arena in the Physical Learning Center at Grove City College.

Lydia Sutton, a junior Elementary Education major talks about her experience in the BEST challenge when she was in high school.

Lydia at the BEST competition Mall Day, where students take their robots for a mock competition before the final competition.
Lydia at the BEST competition Mall Day, where students take their robots for a mock competition before the final competition.

What school did you participate with?

I participated in BEST with Christian Life Academy in Seneca, PA. I was a senior in high school when CLA started BEST Robotics.

Did you participate in the BEST challenge at Grove City (or had you heard of Grove City before)?

I did participate in the BEST challenge hosted at Grove City. I had also heard of Grove City before. I had been on a  tour prior to BEST, and a couple of my co-workers at a camp I worked at were Grovers. Additionally, I live less than an hour away, so I’d heard of it because it is so close to where I live. However, BEST gave me a chance to get more familiar with campus, which I wouldn’t have had if not for BEST.

What made you decide to participate in the BEST robotics challenge?

During my senior year, I was playing around with the idea of pursuing the field of engineering, and I thought that BEST robotics would be a great way to see if I would be interested in a STEM field. Additionally, my uncle is an engineer, and he actually started the program at CLA. So, I had some family obligations to fulfill.

Would you encourage other high school students to participate? Why?

I would DEFINITELY encourage other high school students to participate in BEST!!! Even though I ended up not becoming an engineer, I really enjoyed the program. It actually helped me see that my strengths didn’t lie in STEM, but in leadership. I was the CEO of our company, meaning that I oversaw all the “departments:” marketing presentations, building of the robot, fundraising, designing of the booth, writing of the engineering notebook, etc. I would encourage all students to get involved, and you don’t necessarily need to be inclined towards STEM. There are so many ways for students to demonstrate their talents and gifts through the various “departments” that I mentioned earlier. The program provides opportunities for students to get a taste of real-world work: You need to work together to create and market a successful product. I personally really enjoyed the team-building that took place. Especially since it was CLA’s first year when I participated, there was A LOT of problem solving and teamwork that happened! Additionally, it was a great way for me to spend some time with my cousins who were in the program, my aunt and uncle who headed the program, and underclassmen who I wouldn’t have necessarily gotten to know outside of robotics. Don’t get me wrong- it was REALLY hard work. But it was totally worth it, and I’m so proud to say that I was a part of BEST robotics!

Did participating in the competition help you make a decision on whether or not to attend Grove City College (if you competed at Grove City)?

Participating in this competition definitely gave me a chance to fall more in love with this campus. As I mentioned, this experience more helped me figure out what major not to pick than what to pick, but I definitely enjoyed becoming more familiar with campus. I also thought it was really cool that a college would provide such a rich opportunity like BEST to high school students. While I don’t know that I could say that BEST directly influenced me to come to GCC, it definitely got me interested to learn more about GCC.

To find out more about the BEST competition visit: www.bestinc.org