Author: Erica Kolson
Women’s Rugby Team
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to the members of the Grove City College Women’s Rugby Team. The team is considered a club team. This means that they compete against other colleges but are not an official varsity sport. The girls on the team come from a variety of years and majors, but all say they have grown really close throughout their season last fall and continual conditioning to prepare for the future seasons. While several of the players take part in other sports at Grove City or have in the past, many of the players had not tried rugby before joining this group. They were enthusiastic to talk about their unique sport and successful games.
Being an Undeclared Major – Katelyn Bartley
Sophomore Katelyn Bartley talks about coming to Grove City College without having a declared major. She says she decided to be undeclared because she was not confident in what she wanted to do for a career. Katelyn also felt that as a home-schooled student she had not explored all the options of possible career paths well enough to make an informed decision. She says she knew that she enjoyed some subjects she had learned about in high school, like English and History, but did not think that she wanted to pick a major based on that.
Katelyn says that as an undeclared major she was able to take different classes and learn more about her options for majors. She was able to avoid falling behind by taking a lot of required classes. One of these core classes was sociology and, from there, she developed an interest in social work. After taking more social work classes her second semester, she declared her major as Social Work.
Katelyn says she does not regret coming to college as an undeclared major. She says the decision was very helpful because she did not take classes she did not need by coming in as another major and then having to switch later on. She had the opportunity to take general classes that would apply to any major while exploring a few classes that sparked her interest. She credits this decision to not putting her behind in her major requirements now.
When asked if she has any advice for rising freshmen that are facing the same decisions, she says they should come in undeclared if they have a couple options and are unsure of one specific major. Katelyn points out that the professors are really helpful with students that want to explore options or have questions. She also says that student advisors are helpful in transferring from being undeclared to finding a major. She says that career services also personally aided her in her decision.
“There are always people here to give you advice and help you figure it out,” says Katelyn.
Being an Undeclared Major: Lilly Klein
Sophomore student Lilly Klein knows what it is like to come into college without being set on a major. Although being undeclared can be stressful, Lilly says she does not regret the decision.
Finding a Church Home Away from Home Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlycklqOb8I
Grove City College students come from a variety of denominational backgrounds. Looking for a church for the first time away from home and family can pose interesting challenges and opportunities. Many students find it interesting to explore denominations and churches that differ from those they grew up in. Other students find comfort in finding churches similar to those they grew up in. Student Andrew McDevitt attends the Beloved Disciple Catholic Church. He grew up with the Catholic tradition, attending a Catholic high school. While he explored other denominations in the first few weeks, he felt the need to stay true to the traditionalist values he grew up with. McDevitt reflects on the Beloved Disciple in saying, “I found a strong sense of community that was lacking at some of the other Catholic churches I’ve been to.”
Sophomore Elsie Becker regularly attends Wayside Community Church. A member of the church picks her up every Sunday for service, and she is the only Grove City student that attends. The church has a very elderly population. She comments that this aspect of the church appealed to her because as a college student she does not often get the chance to interact with an elderly generation. Becker comments that she likes to see “how God worked in their lives for a very extended period of time. They are much older so they really have a unique perspective on their faith.” She reflects on hearing a story from a member that donated the money for the pews when the church was being built. He did not have the money at the time but felt called to donate. Soon after, his boss gave him a bonus check for the exact amount without knowing about his donation. Elsie thinks that these stories help her have a better understanding and perspective on God.
Like Elsie and Andrew, many Grove City students find the churches around the College as great places to strengthen their faith and get involved in the community.
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.