Month: October 2018

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Alumni Colleen Castle Shares Advertising Career Experience with Business Students

Dr. Powell’s advertising class recently had the opportunity to Skype with alumna Colleen Castle, an Account Director at advertising company Ogilvy.

Castle is a 2009 graduate of Grove City who majored in Marketing and Communications. She was eager to share her career path experience with the class, detailing all the jobs she has had since coming to her current position, including an internship in distribution, budget organizer at L’Oreal Paris, working for Avon and Ikea. She explained that being an assistant media planner in NY with L’Oreal Paris was a good stepping stone for her. While she knew that the math-based job that required working with spreadsheets was not a permanent career path for her, it was a way to build her network and to determine where she wanted to go. She then transferred to the creative industry which involves creating advertisements.

Castle shared that one perk of this job is that she “knows a little about a lot of subjects.” She explained that working on account teams is like having a small business within a much bigger business. One of her favorite parts of the job is going on shoots and seeing the strategy and creative development come to life through film and the workings of the crew.

Castle also shared the learning process that she experienced in her jobs to the current juniors and seniors in the class. She said the onboarding process at her job consisted of learning the history of the brand, their campaign, and their plan for the next five years. She spoke on how it is important to earn trust and respect early on with both with clients and coworkers and how this might require long hours of work.

Castle dove into the subject of bringing faith in the workplace. She reminded students to not have idols in their career and how you have to be focused on people. If your goals are going to hurt others, then it is not Christ-like. She said that people often assume advertising and faith do not mix, but she believes it can when you chose to work with brands that help the world and perpetuate good values. As an alumnus, she said Grove City prepared her to bring her faith into her career. Her recommendation for current students is to find a mentor who is further down their career path and slowly build their network.

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Alumni Spotlight: Larry Thompson

Larry Thompson graduated from Grove City College in 2017 with a major in Accounting and Finance. As the first in his family to graduate from a four-year college, he is now successfully working on his future Certified Public Accountant title. Larry currently lives in Charlotte, NC working for the accounting firm RSM U.S. LLP audit, tax, and consulting services. While enjoying his life down in North Carolina, Larry is also benefiting from the perks of his company. A major perk he has in mind is traveling. In the past eight months he has been able to travel to Dallas, Texas; Charleston, SC; New York City; Atlanta, Ga.; and Greenville, SC. Larry looks forward to traveling more in his future.

When asked about the CPA exams Larry replied, “I worked on studying every day. I woke up and went to the public library to free myself from any distractions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.” He then stated that he had three out of four exams already completed before he started working for RSM U.S. Being put into his job during busy season, Larry could not really focus on passing the fourth exam; he had to work hard and study even harder in order to prepare himself for the final module of the CPA exam. Soon after the busy season, he ended up passing his fourth and final exam. His next move in his career is to work for RSM U.S. for a year, but in order for him to obtain his CPA title, he must pass all four modules and work for an entire year to become officially “certified”.

A motivational part of Larry’s experience with the exams is the way he went about taking them. Larry stated, “I took the exams in order from hardest to easiest [in his own opinion].” He believed that if he could pass the hardest exam, then the rest would be easy. His motivation to pass in this order kept him dedicated to studying and keeping on top of things in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a CPA.

Ideally, Larry plans to work for RSM U.S. for two to three years and then reevaluate his options after being certified. He wants to end up in Wealth Management or become a stay-at-home father who does technical stock analysis trading. His dedication and commitment to becoming a CPA has already and will furthermore open up doors in his future.

Larry finished the interview by stating a word of advice: the Career Services Office is extremely helpful. He acknowledges that they want the best for students here at Grove City College. Career Services should be taken advantage of more often to set up a student’s future and career. “Make friends with them, and do not ignore them,” Larry stressed. He believes they have truly helped him further himself earlier in finding jobs and even more so now during work.

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Just a Fortnite Ago

The incredibly popular video game Fortnite was released during 2017. Coincidentally, I became a freshman at Grove City College just a few weeks before this craze hit the campus. If you are unfamiliar with how to play Fortnite, the name of the game is survival. You and up to four friends can cooperatively battle with other online players in an attempt to be the last ones standing on a gradually shrinking map.

My Resident Assistant (RA) was the first person to introduce the game to our freshmen hall, and right from the very beginning I knew that it could greatly alter the dynamic of my freshman year. In the beginning, most of our hall would simply laugh off his invitations. Why would any of us just want to watch him play some video game? However, one by one it seemed that my hall-mates were beginning to get sucked in and began to play the game. In my first several weeks of school, I was met with many invitations to play Spikeball or football out in the grass in front of Memorial Hall. My experience began to change, and was now frequented with the Fortnite loading music and invitations to join my hall-mates in the online battle. This severely interrupted the community that we had been building on our hall. This was a bit concerning because it seemed like most people around me had become more involved in this online world than in the real one that was all around them. However, I soon found that my concerns were not warranted. This new game, that seemed to be separating us, had actually begun to unite us. For hours, there were rooms filled to the brim with eager players who would help others strategize if they themselves were not playing. The Fortnite craze was really getting into full swing just as we could no longer enjoy the outdoors because of the cooler temperatures. My freshman hall-mates embraced the new game and, before the end of the year, almost everyone in my dorm was an active participant.

The RA of the hall opposite of my own had a program for the entire building that included several TV’s set up in one lobby while a few played, and many observed. This was by far one of the most popular programs that any RA had all year long. I was quite nervous about this new game taking over the community of my freshman dorm, but ultimately it became a uniting force that helped bond and shape our freshman hall for the rest of the year.

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Big Man on Campus 2018

Big Man on Campus is an event that has been happening at Grove City College every fall for the last 27 years!  Big Man is a male pageant show that raises money for the American Cancer Society.  One of Grove City College’s sororities, Sigma Theta Chi (Sig Thets), has been spearheading this fundraiser since it started.  The Sig Thets also work with the American Cancer Society in the spring semester by putting on Grove City College’s Relay for Life.  Both of these events raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society and the Grove City College community.

This year, I am the Chair and main representative for Big Man on Campus.  This fall, the event will be held on Friday, November 2nd from 7 to 10 p.m. in Crawford Auditorium.  Ten to 15 male student volunteers, usually ranging from sophomores to seniors, participate in the pageant show.  Every girl in the sorority is responsible for reaching out to friends and spreading the word that the Sig Thets are looking for guys to participate.  We try to recruit guys that are upperclassmen and in a Greek group on campus.  They attract larger crowds to the event like their own fraternity brothers or housing groups.

The event encompasses multiple portions throughout the night.  There is a formal wear, swimwear, talent, and question portion that each contestant goes through during the competition.  The talent and question portion come after intermission.  The ‘Big Men’ usually have to be pretty confident for these segments of the show.  Talents have ranged from playing musical instruments, singing, building a tent, to coloring a picture.  The audience usually prefers the more humorous talents (like coloring a picture).  Every year we have three to four faculty members here on campus judge the ‘Big Men’.  Once every boy has gone through all of the portions of the show, a Sig Thets collects the judges’ sheets and tallies up the points each boy earned.  The audience also gets one ticket when they come to Big Man and can use this ticket at the end of the show to vote for their favorite Big Man participant.

The winner receives a sash, crown, the title of “Big Man on Campus”, and a $50 Sheetz gift card.  All of the proceeds from the pre-sale and the ticket money we collect the day of the show go directly to the American Cancer Society.  Speaking on behalf of the Sigma Theta Chi sorority, we love doing this fundraiser every year.  It is good publicity for the sorority and the second biggest fundraiser on Grove City College’s campus (Relay for Life being the first).  For the freshmen, it is a great event to attend.  It gives students something to do on a Friday night and exposes them to upperclassmen and members of fraternities on campus.  We always hope for a large crowd to come out, watch the fun event, and participate in supporting the American Cancer Society and the Sigma Theta Chi sorority.

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What are you looking for in your Dream College? l Career Services

College is expensive; I am just being honest. Also, college is a lot of work. It is a lot of work in the stage that you are in, searching for “your dream college.” While you are at college having loads of work, essays, and exams and even after college while you are working to pay off the cost of attending an institution of higher education, it is a lot of work. This college search, or any part of college that is, is no easy process. This is why, if you are anything like me, while carrying out your college search and determining which colleges to visit or apply to, you have made yourself a list of things that are important to you.

Drawing from my own personal experience my list included things such as a nice campus, big dorm rooms, nice amenities, great food, tons of on-campus activities, and a community around the school that is busy and has a lot of activities for students. Looking back at this list I created as a junior in high school, I have come to realize that, first off, I confused college and my dream vacation spot and, secondly, that sure these things are nice but, in reality, I am going to college to get an education and with the hope that upon graduation I will be able to find a job. This may not be the most popular or exciting realization that you should at some point in your search come to, but it is true. Everyone eventually needs to get a job. This being noted, I would encourage all of you in search of a future education to begin looking into the career services department at the various institutions in which you are interested. At the least this can be a point of separation between institutions you are considering and can ultimately lead to your final decision on where you want to spend the next two to eight years of your life.

College is a big and quite expensive choice and you only get to make it once. I would encourage you to use all of the resources available to you (i.e. this blog) to make the most educated decision possible. All of this being noted, this blog is not suggesting to forget your old list; these are things that matter to you and deserve to be taken into consideration and should hold significant weight in your college decision. I just urge you, as a senior in college, as you perform this search, to remember why you are going to college and what your specific end goal is. Best of luck in your search!

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Foundations and Filmmaking

The Kelly Barnes Dam broke loose and Greg Bandy’s life shook. The whelming flood took 39 lives on the morning of Nov. 6, 1977. As most people would after witnessing such a horrific event, Bandy asked the question “Why am I still alive?”

The scene sounds like a movie. And maybe one day it will be. Professor Greg Bandy specializes in teaching multimedia. He joined the Grove City College faculty this fall, previously working at Asbury University, where he received his undergrad in Secondary Education.

While at Asbury, he co-founded the Highbridge Film Festival in 2005 with Jeff Day. They were both professors in the Media Communications department at the college.

Before Bandy found his passion of filmmaking and screenwriting, he practiced journalism on a smaller scale. While writing a local newspaper, he developed a skill set which can be beneficial in business, non-profits, education, research and many other fields. “At the heart of solid creation is journalism skills,” Bandy said. But journalism is not bound simply to newspapers. Instead, journalism includes design, writing, production and multimedia. “Journalism today is content creation,” Bandy said.

“It starts with knowing how to write a story,” Bandy said. Therefore, he teaches his classes building up from the basics. First, his students will learn how to write a story. They may acquire six or so new skills. Then the next class they take they will add six more skills. The progression continues until students are fluent in the language of multimedia.

“We are not swimming in content, we are drowning, but liberal arts education is the key to that,” Bandy said. Learning about science, math, writing and language all aid in writing good stories. Though science may be difficult to fully grasp, it is an avenue for new writing. It is a new network for content creation. The liberal arts education at Grove City is one reason Bandy accepted a position here.

He currently teaches Journalism, Video Production, and Documentary Film. “The school has invested nicely in the production tools in the TLC,” Bandy said. These tools assist students in creating their own documentary films by the end of the semester. “Production is different,” he said. “It includes technology, people, art, writing, problem-solving, and creative, narrative production.”

He looks forward to building upon the Communication and Visual Arts department and driving it in a new direction. He hopes to create an intersession course in which students produce a film from screenwriting to the finished cut. Bandy loves story-telling and hopes his Rhodesian Ridgeback dog will join him in Grove City soon.

Check out Bandy’s Instagram at profbandy. He also has his films on Vimeo of his first and most well-known films is on C.S. Lewis. Find the film and others here: https://vimeo.com/16791969

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An RA’s Perspective: Katherine Nichols

Katherine Nichols, RA of MAP West

Katherine Nichols, a senior at Grove City College, balances a busy schedule between a major in Biology, a minor in French, and being a Resident Assistant (RA) for those living in Mary Anderson Pew (MAP) West. Living with primarily freshmen ladies, Katherine can offer advice from the perspective of not only a senior, but also a third-year RA.

She explains that since her first year as a sophomore RA, she has seen a few changes in the Student Life & Learning department. For example, a few Resident Directors (men and women who oversee a particular dorm) have come and gone while some have changed buildings. In her opinion, the changes that most directly affected the RAs, were amendments to Open Hours. Initially called ‘Intervisitation Hours,’ these policies govern how men and women may visit dorms for the opposite gender. When Katherine was a freshman, the guest was required both to be escorted through the building by their host and to register to the host’s room. Now, a visitor may go directly to the host’s room, but is still required to sign in – to the floor, not to the specific room. Katherine explains, “This change has given the students privacy and responsibility.”

Life as an RA comes with many unique challenges. Being assigned to a floor of residents, Katherine says, means that as many as 30 or 40 students “go to you as their first point person.” She has helped with stress and roommate conflict, offered prayer and tutoring, and has even smashed “that weird looking bug on the ceiling” in the line of duty. However, these issues are just a part of the job description. Katherine explains that the real challenge lies in finding a balance between fulfilling RA responsibilities, while also dedicating time to academic and other responsibilities. In her words, “I want to be able to take my residents out for coffee and shopping on a whim every day, and just live college like it’s camp, but I am pretty sure I would fail out of Grove City College if I did.”

While RA life comes with challenges, it also comes with unexpected blessings. Katherine says that “it’s the little things like notes, a hug, or chocolate that keeps you going.” These are reminders that the sacrifices, like staying up until 3 a.m. or hours devoted to a fun program, are worth it. In addition, it is a blessing to “represent the school well, to foster community, and to minister to your peers.” She loves the opportunity to develop relationships with 40 ladies that otherwise she might not have met. As a new student at Grove City College, the prospect of making new friends can seem overwhelming, but having a familiar, friendly face on your hall makes the transition easier.

Though part of her job is to enforce the rules, Katherine explains that the stereotype of a strict, overbearing RA is a misconception. She says, “RA’s are not out to get you. Our job is just to help make sure that Grove City is a safe, functioning, and loving community.” After helping to foster a loving community for three years, she has excellent advice to offer freshman students. For her, patience was the biggest factor in gracious dorm life, as well as the ability to “walk in the other person’s shoes.” Being able to empathize with the other person, and to understand the personalities and experiences in play, makes it much easier to effectively address any problem in dorm life. She urges new students to “get to know your roommate, suitemate, or hall-mate as best as you can – it’ll make a world of difference.”

 

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Not Playing Sports in College, A New Way of Life

Grove City Women’s Tennis Fall 2015. Photo courtesy of Alyssa Jackson

During my last tennis match at Grove City, my strings broke and I used my coach’s racquet. The heavy feeling of a new object threw me off. I lost the exhibition match, ending my career in a let down.

Let me just say, this is no bashing of playing college sports. Playing varsity tennis taught me much. I learned time management, team development, and how to lead a team to play for the glory of God. I learned self-discipline both physically and mentally. And I learned that sports will always play a role in my life. I proudly look forward to future days as a soccer mom.

For 14 years straight I played team sports including soccer, basketball and tennis. When I made the decision to quit varsity tennis at Grove City, I stepped into unknown waters. What was life without daily practices, working out with the motivation of adding to my team, and proudly wearing my uniform to class on match days?

So, why did I leave behind these experiences? A shoulder injury definitely played a part. I tore my labrum and needed surgery, which I had the spring of my junior year. Talk about going from an athlete to a couch potato.

Time can only be used in so many ways before it is gone. Two to three hours a day of practice and two- to seven-hour matches during the week and on weekends filled my waking hours. Homework and some time with friends filled the rest. I realized that though I loved my team, competing and being in shape, I wanted to use my college experience to pursue other opportunities. One of my passions is writing, and after quitting tennis, I devoted much more time to improving my skills.

I am avidly pursuing a career in journalism. I accepted a job with the college newspaper and am now the managing editor until I graduate in December. As I move on from college, I have an internship with World Magazine, an answer to prayer and I am so excited.

Though I miss the accountability of being on a team, I know I made the best decision. Not only could I spend time interviewing and writing people’s stories, but I learned to enjoy assignments, freely attend evening lectures, and simply enjoy being surrounded by friends on this beautiful campus.

If you are a high school student deciding whether or not to play a varsity college sport, let me help you – There is no wrong answer. I split my college career of playing sports and not, and I am glad I got to dip my toes into two very different worlds. Though there is no wrong option, some are better than others. Keep in mind the time you spend at college cannot be duplicated.

Also know that our intramural (IM) sports program here at Grove City is nothing to joke about. IM soccer, volleyball, badminton, tennis, basketball, ping pong, and even flag football have all filled my four years. Though varsity sports may not be for you, alternatives abound. Do not fear when you no longer devote each moment to bettering your body and your team. Life after college is filled with marriage, jobs, travel – but the chance to play on a varsity team may not carry over. However, each of those other activities can be bettered during the formative four years of college.

Make time to enjoy God’s creation, watch a movie with your roommate, listen to a talk from a renowned guest speaker, play some IM sports and maybe go for a run. Each human consists of mind, body and soul. Each can be nourished by the choices we make. And no matter which choice you make about varsity sports in college, you will find your place.

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Why You Should Fight Senioritis

Back in the spring semester of my senior year in high school, I thought I had the whole “school” thing figured out. I had gotten mostly A’s and B’s in all my classes, I was heavily involved in after-school activities, and I had just gotten accepted into the college of my choice, Grove City College. I was feeling really confident about myself and my time management skills. High school had been a breeze.

Then I started to feel the draw of Senioritis. I would define Senioritis as simply not wanting to do any school work because, “It doesn’t even matter anymore.” I am sure most seniors in high school can relate to this feeling; not wanting to take notes, study for tests, or even show up to class. I was never worried about my grades because I was already accepted into college! They were not going to “un-accept” me because I got a D on a calculus exam, so what did it matter? I would tell myself, “When I get to college, then I’ll start working hard.” With this mindset, my work ethic started to fall along with my GPA.

Let me warn anyone feeling the temptation of Senioritis: Fight the urge to give in! When I got to Grove City College, I was expecting the work to be just as easy as it was in high school. I was planning on putting the same amount of time and energy into my academics as I had in the past. I hardly read any of the assigned readings, I did the bare minimum on my homework, and I took sloppy notes. For some reason I thought that I would still receive the same, above-average, GPA.

At the end of my first semester here, I realized that Grove City was expecting more from me. My GPA was not what I hoped it would be and I was disappointed in myself. From then on, I had to start working hard to change my study habits to become a more successful student. Now, after a couple of semesters focusing on improving my work ethic, I have gotten into the groove of things and do not feel so strained when it comes to getting schoolwork done. It took some time and self-reflection, but the reward was worth it. My only regret is not focusing on academics sooner.

So, my advice? Study for that calculus exam. Take good notes. Read what you are asked to read for class. Senior year of high school is a true test of integrity. It is extremely important that you work as hard as you can, because college will only be more challenging. If you take the time to build the foundation of a great work ethic now, you will feel more confident and proud of yourself when you get to college.