Author: Tobin Goss

Tobin is a Senior Accounting Major who is an active member of the Sigma Phi Omicron housing group. He enjoys playing intramural sports, fishing, going on camping trips, and just hanging out with friends and family.
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How Homecoming Helped Me Get an Internship

Imagine this:

You are a junior looking for an internship and Homecoming weekend is quickly approaching. You have just gone through one of the most stressful months of your life, where you had a multitude of tests, had to update and re-write your resume and cover letter, and spent hours on end networking and interviewing both at your college’s career fair and in on and off-campus interviews. After going through a month of this, only one thing could make everything feel worth it. No, this one thing is not a fine dinner at Hicks dining hall, it is an internship offer!

In approaching the weeks following the stressful month before, I wondered what else I could do, or where else I could apply for internships. It was during these following weeks that Grove City College held its annual Homecoming, which was a time for students to relax and alumni to come back and visit the college. It was during this time of relaxation for me that I, by chance, ran into a past member of the Crons (the housing group, which I am part of on campus). Upon discussing with him the current state of the group, I later found that he worked in the field of accounting, and not only did he work in the field of accounting, but he was a shareholder for a firm and they were looking for interns for the summer. Throughout our discussion we exchanged information, which later allowed me to not just contact him, but set up an interview at his firm’s office, which later led to an offer from the firm for a summer internship position.

Who would have thought, that after one of the most stressful months of my life that I would, in my “relaxing week” of Homecoming, randomly run into someone and that our discussions would turn into a later job offer? Is it not funny how God works? As you find yourself in a similar situation as I in the upcoming years, I urge you to remember my story and to have faith in God, because he is always doing works in your life, even when you think it is time to relax.

23 The Lord makes firm the steps
of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

Psalms 37-23-24 (NIV)

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Homecoming is Not Just for Alumni

As a first-generation Grover, Homecoming weekend seems somewhat unappealing. As the weekend approached, I imagined a campus full of students and their parents and grandparents celebrating and having fun while I was alone. Now, I am not the type of person to get lonely, but seeing other students with their parents would have been a depressing sight. These were my thoughts about Homecoming freshman year prior to receiving a phone call from my mom, which changed Homecoming for me as I had thought I knew it. During this phone call, my mother informed me that she had signed up herself, my father, and my sisters to come visit me for the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. In hearing this from my mom I was ecstatic, as not only would I not have to fear being alone on Homecoming weekend, but I also was going to get to spend time with my family on campus surrounded by a community of past, present and future Grovers.

This joyful phone conversation I shared with my mother led to not just a visit from my parents, but a joy-filled day in which I could catch up with my family, watch sports, and show them around the campus I was growing to love. This phone call also led to the start of a family tradition, because not only did my parents visit me on Homecoming weekend my freshman year, but also my sophomore, junior and senior years. Thus, all of this proving to me that my original thoughts of what Homecoming at Grove City College looked like developed into a family tradition built from the investigation of a non-alumni mother (If I’m being honest I would not even have known that my family could come to Homecoming if it was not for my mom looking into it) and the love and excitement of a first year Grover’s family to see their son/brother and to want to be involved with him on campus. This tradition, although not significant to most, became a highlight of my fall semesters as the College came together and provided my family and I an opportunity to step back, relax, and get together. Feel free to steal my family’s tradition as a first-generation Grover.

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September: The Month of Cold Weather, Rain, and Careers

September. This is the month in the year where people like me begin to get sad that warm weather and sunny days are on their way out and the cold and rainy days are on their way in. This is also the month that people like my friend Ben look forward to, as it acts as his glimpse into the upcoming cold months. Weather (hehe, puns) you are like Ben or like myself, September also acts as an active time in pursuing jobs and careers.

The month of September for the average Grover is a time where school is beginning to really kick into gear and a time in which the College’s Career Services Office makes their biggest push of the year to help students find jobs. During this month there are loads of events going on and loads of opportunity for students of all ages at the College. From the kick-off party to the College’s large Career Fair, this month is packed full of opportunity and promise.

My personal account of my experience with Career Services and the various events and opportunities they supply, sadly, due to my own neglect, did not take place until my junior year at the College. It was September of last year that I entered the Career Services Office for the first time. At this point in my college career, and life, I had come to the realization that, firstly, I need to get a job at some point and, secondly, that since I am going to college I should probably get a job in my field. With this realization, I then set the goal of obtaining an internship for my junior year summer, which are highly common for Grove City College students. The only problem at this point, though, was that I had no idea where to start. Aimlessly lost, I decided to approach the Career Services Office on campus and in our first meeting they assisted me in setting up an account on the colleges new, at that point, job website and set up another meeting with me where we could go over my resume and get it ready for an on-campus mock interview they encouraged me to sign up for. So, just like that, I went from lost to found and was on track to my end goal. A few days after the initial meeting I went into the Career Services Office to look over my resume, which was accomplished by the end of the meeting. After leaving this meeting I had some work to do to my resume but was on track and ready for my on-campus mock interview. About a week later the mock interview arrived and I showed up with my new and improved resume and dressed to impress. After a 30-minute interview with the head of Human Resources at one of the companies I was planning on applying at, I was able to receive some constructive criticism. It was this mock interview that prepared me for the slew of interviews I was about to undertake.

As I applied for as many interviews as possible via the College’s job website, the response began flooding in. Instantly I was signed up for multiple first-round interviews with various types of companies. This feat alone was a huge accomplishment from where I was a short month ago. I found as I went through my first round of interviews that as I progressed I seemed to get better and more comfortable. Thus, allowing my second round of interviews to progress and become better than the first. After first, second, and even third rounds of interviews with some companies I had finally done it… I had received that elusive internship offer.

Needless to say, if you find yourself in a similar scenario as I did, do not fret. The Career Services Office is there to help. Your career needs are never too far gone!

 

 

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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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Having Fun with Your Electives: SOCI 251

SOCI 251 (Courtship and Marriage) is a class that I am currently taking this semester. It is a class that does not pertain to my major, but I took it expecting it to be an easy three credit elective where I had potential to gain some useful knowledge. The class brings up a multitude of things that I would have never thought about otherwise. The course’s main topic of discussion is communication and how it is so vital to not only marriage relationships, but relationships with your friends, family, and other loved ones as well. It teaches how to be a good communicator, how to really listen, and how to set your future marriage up for success.

I have never taken a sociology course before, so this class has been very different to me, but a good different. It has brought a lot of things to my attention that I would have never thought of before. Some of these things include the effect that facial expressions and other nonverbal cues have on a person, and also the way that your family shapes you into who you are. I went to a small, public high school where no course remotely similar to this was offered. With everything in the media, you sometimes get this false image of what a relationship is or what it should be like. Often times, the image that we perceive due to all of these things mentioned falls short of what a Christian relationship should really be. This being said, with being a Christian in the world we live in today, I saw this class as the opportunity to branch out from my major of accounting and learn not only what these quality aspects of a successful marriage include but also logic and information in the field of sociology that has helped me to understand myself and my being.

Although this course has not taught me any skills I will need specifically for accounting, I feel as though it will have a big effect on the relationships I have now, the relationships I will create, and how well I maintain those relationships. Even though it does not pertain to my major, I am going to have relationships with people in my future career and due to this course, I will be able to better communicate with those people. This class is one of the many courses that are an option to you as a prospective student that will not only preparing you for marriage but also your career and help you to grow both mentally and spiritually in this thought provoking course. Something not all majors may be accustomed to.

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Myth Busted: If You Switch Majors You Will Not Graduate on Time, Chapter 2

Grove City College Chapel

It was not long into my second semester of college that I realized that I was again in a weird position. What is business management and why am I majoring in it? It was a good thing that at this point I was taking Principles of Management to find out. This only led me more astray though. I was again in the situation of, “What is this major and why am I in it if I do not know what I can do with it or if I even want to be a manager?” So, again I went in search of my calling. This second semester of college I took various types of business and economics classes trying to find my place in this big crazy world. Nothing “did it” (whatever “it” is) for me. I was forced to stay on this business track until I found what I wanted to do.

It was the first semester of my sophomore year that I found “it.” I was in Principles of Accounting with Professor Stone and I was not sure what it was but I was convinced that this “it” was in fact the “it.” At the end of that semester I decided to drop the business management major and pick up accounting (if you have not kept count until this point, this was my third different major). I continued on second semester of sophomore year as an accounting major and then into my junior year. I grew to appreciate the field and enjoy it more and more. That appreciation has led me to now, my second semester of my junior year, and I am still an accounting major.

Along this winding journey of major changes and confusion it was important for me to keep in mind my current position and what classes I needed to take to graduate on time, but this was the easy part. All three of my past and current advisors made this part of switching majors easy for me. They told me my current state and what I needed to take to graduate on time and even gave me pointers of how to spread the course load to minimize stress and maximize the value. I cannot stress enough that this was the easy part. You will figure it out, you will fit the classes that you need in. I am currently attempting to get a degree in accounting but to also acquire as close to 150 credits (128 credits is all that is required to graduate) as possible so that I can sit for my Certified Public Accountancy Exam (CPA Exam). I have made the classes fit, and so can you. No matter who you are, whether you switch majors six times or you do not switch majors at all, if you commit to finishing in four years (or five or six, whatever pace is most ideal to you) you can do it. In my journey to achieve 150 credits I have mapped out my schedule so that I will graduate with 146 credits. If I can do it, the kid who did not know what he wanted to do with his life and switched majors twice, then you can do it too!

Moral of the story is to have faith and meet with your advisors. It is funny how things come full circle. Did you notice how faith was one of the first things to come up when looking at how most people do not know what they want to do with their lives? This is because this faith is what allowed me and allows us as Christians to be joyful in times where we freak out because we have no idea of what we could do with our major and in times where we do not think that we can graduate on time. Faith is the overlapping factor. As Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” This walk, and this mindset of trusting in God that he will lead us to where we need to be has led me to being a junior accounting major, somewhere I would have never thought I would be as a senior in high school. So, have faith and God will lead you. We, as humans, do not know what we want to do with our lives because our lives here on Earth are in hindsight not for us, they are for a bigger purpose which we may one day fulfill in Heaven.

If you are interested in hearing more about my story or simply want to just personally contact me about any of your specific worries feel free to at gosstd1@gcc.edu. I would be glad to help a worried younger high school me build up the courage to do things that I never did and to help you succeed to your fullest potential! God bless!

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Having Fun with Your Electives: ART 104

Most majors at Grove City College leave some room for electives hours, and if you are lucky enough to be in one of those fields of study, I would first and foremost suggest you to take courses that interest you. But I would also encourage you to branch out and try new things. That is what I did when I took ART 104 the first semester of my junior year. ART 104, also known as beginning wheel throwing, was definitely not one of those courses that is related to my major and applicable, or so I thought.

Beginning wheel throwing is a pottery class where you build things such as bowls, vases, and mugs using a ball of clay and a wheel that spins. Now, most people in hearing about this class would think that it is applicable for anyone in the arts, or even sciences, in that it works on and demonstrates hand-eye coordination, imagination, and, through the medium of clay, artistic ability. For an accounting major like myself I thought, “Is it really a great applicable elective to take?” Some may say no, but I would disagree. Though I did not learn anything about debits or credits, I did learn a lot about myself and this course supplied me with the opportunity to get into something I would have never thought I would have when I was a junior or senior in high school. This class changed my outlook on the field of arts and supplied me the opportunity to use the ideas and themes of the required Humanities course known as Civ. Arts to practice and create art as an accounting major. This course provided me and my fellow classmates the opportunity to not just follow the various rules and laws of our future fields of study but to create new exciting things.

This class supplied me personally with a form of art that made me feel as if there was some artistic ability in my body. Allowing me to discover things about myself that I may not have discovered without the combination of the both this course and Civ. Arts. So, Beginning wheel throwing may not be for everyone but do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. That is part of the liberal arts experience that Grove City College provides.

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Myth Busted: If You Switch Majors You Will Not Graduate on Time, Chapter 1

Grove City College Chapel

What do seniors in high school and a junior accounting major from Grove City College have in common? Well yes, neither is going to have to take the annoying and stressful ACT /SAT tests again… But besides that, I was thinking more along the lines that neither really knows what they want to do with their future. I can say this speaking from self-experience and observing others. It may sound cliché, but no one knows what they truly want to do with their future, and if you do not believe me ask your parents. My father has worked at the same location for the past 27 years and he comes home most days saying he does not know what he wants to do with his life. So how did we go from having a title about switching majors to this tangent about how most people do not know what they want to do with their lives? I choose to take this route because this is my current position and this lack of knowing has not only inspired me to try new things throughout my time here at Grove City College but to also have faith, so let me elaborate.

My freshman year of college I came in as a chemistry major. Seems like a good idea right? For some people this may be the perfect fit for them but for me… not so much. In choosing to go to college I had no idea what I wanted to be and in a somewhat hap hazardous way decided that since I took a year of chemistry in high school and liked it that I would go to college and become a… who knows. Throughout my first semester I was pushed and stretched mentally and the 16 credits of chemistry, physics, calculus, biblical revelations, and fitness and wellness really threw me for a loop. I was constantly working to keep up and knew that I was a chemistry major but had absolutely no clue why. A major shifting point for me was when I attended the Grove City College annual Career Fair and immediately became aware that I had no desire to do any of the jobs that an individual with a chemistry major would be equipped to do. I still remember that day vividly. I left the Career Fair freaking out wondering what I had gotten myself into. I was working harder and studying more than I had ever studied before and had no desire to be doing anything in the field of chemistry. So, I ran (literally) to my room from the Career Fair and called my parents, on the verge of tears, telling them I was ruined. I had made the biggest mistake of my life, but what I didn’t know was that this was just part of a bigger plan.

After the long phone call with my parents I decided that chemistry was not the major for me and no matter the implications of changing majors I was going to switch, but to what? I had people suggest various majors to me but what I felt in that moment drawn to (see this common trend of me making these big “in the moment” decisions to decide my future) business management. I felt that this was the “career” for me. So, I finished out my first semester as a chemistry major and in the final weeks dropped the chemistry major and added business management.

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How to Survive at College When You Are a Picky Eater

I am pretty sure that my first year here at Grove City College I ate pizza almost every single day. And when it was not pizza, it was most likely chicken tenders (with the occasional cheeseburger). I have always been a very picky eater and when I came to college I became exposed to a variety of different foods that I had never even heard of, let alone seen before. Being able to get creative with your food here, and probably at the majority of colleges, is important. I have learned of many different foods that you can make with what is usually provided. For example, there is a panini press at certain food stations and you can grab a tortilla shell and fill it with cheese. If it is a day that we also have grilled chicken, which is most days, you can add it in. Put it in the panini press and you have a quesadilla. If you want a dessert other than the usual cookies and ice cream already provided, you can make your own version of a Rice Krispie treat. Take a bowl with peanut butter, marshmallows, and chocolate and warm it up in the microwave. Just add some cereal and you are all set.

Also, do not judge a book by its cover. Sometimes seeing a food that you have never seen before can sway you away and even make you a bit questionable toward it, but I have learned that even though a food may appear to be unappetizing, it could actually end up being decent. I have become much less of a picky eater just by trying new things here and being adventurous with the different foods that are provided. You will never know what you may end up liking if you never give new foods a chance.

If you ever get really sick of the food on campus, there are a majority of off campus (and priced for college students) places that will deliver to the college. Coffaro’s Pizza has a special where you can get a pizza and four drinks for under 10 dollars. If you want a break from studying, there are also many places you can go and sit down with your friends to enjoy a good meal. Rachel’s Roadhouse is a popular place that students like to go to on Thursday nights to get 35 cent wings.

It is all about being open-minded, trying new things, and being creative. Coming in as a freshman who was an incredibly picky eater, I never would have thought I would try some of the foods I have or be survive with the options they provided. So, if I can survive with the food here, you can too.

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Housing Groups: What They Are and My Experience

If you open up a new internet tab and Google “Housing Groups” you will quickly become confused about what a Housing Group is and if it is what Google says it is (which it must be, Google is never wrong) then I am sure you are wondering why I am currently writing a blog about them as a student at Grove City College. To clear the air, no I am not writing about either a) any of the various companies that came up in your Google search with the words “Housing Groups” in their name or b) Housing associations (which if you were wondering are private, non-profit organizations in Ireland and the United Kingdom that provide low-cost “social housing,” according to Wikipedia).

So, if these Housing Groups that I write of are neither a nor b, then what are they and how are they relevant to Grove City College? Housing Groups here at Grove City College are campus recognized groups which provide the males on campus a way to serve both students and the community and also allow them the opportunity of fellowship and brotherhood. A bit more simplified way of saying this is that Housing Groups are similar to fraternities in that they are a group whom live together on campus, but they differ in that they are both less expensive, generally, and they do not require their rushes to go through Greek Unity Week.

I, myself, am in the Housing Group known as Sigma Phi Omicron. On campus we are known as the Crons. In being a member of the Cron Housing Group, I have participated in putting on multiple Omicron Lawns (a tailgate event that we put on before a Grove City College football game every year), Grove City College Family Feuds (a campus wide Family Feud-like event where people can come and watch or participate as part of a group), and have helped set up and run at least a half dozen blood drives on campus.

In being a member I have spent the past two and a half years with the group. Aside from the events and service we have done as a group, we also are highly involved in one another’s personal lives. We do the small things from getting meals together and Thursday wing nights at Rachel’s Roadhouse to planned group events like weekly Bible studies and Cron worship. Other perks of Housing Groups that I have observed include connections. A personal experience that I have is while at the most recent Grove City College career fair I spoke with an alumnus from the Sigma Phi Omicron Housing Group which led to further interviews and in turn supplied me with an internship offer.

All of this said, being part of a Housing Group has helped me grow as an individual both spiritually and physically and has supplied me with the opportunity to form lasting and growing relationships. In joining a Housing Group or any group on campus, you are able to find your place on campus. The Sigma Phi Omicron Housing Group just happened to be my place, but as a perspective student and a possible future student I encourage you to explore your options and to find yourself!