Author: shirkjw19

Coming to college can be a very intimidating prospect. You are moving to a new place with new people. But, despite how scary it might seem, it is a truly amazing experience. In this post I will give you the rundown on what your first weeks on campus will look like, so that your transition to college life can be as smooth as possible. 

The first week on campus is most often called OB Week. OB refers to Orientation Board. OB is a team of upperclassmen that volunteer to help orient all the incoming freshmen. They organize events, put on shows, and guide students through everything they need to know about campus life. One of their other primary duties is to lead connection groups. Connection groups consist of 10 to 20 students with three OB leaders. Usually these OB leaders will create a group chat for your group. This connection group provides great opportunities to make friends. I met some of my closest friends on campus through my connection group.

Early on in OB week, you will have a meeting with the faculty that make up the department of your chosen major. This meeting is a great opportunity to meet some of your professors ahead of time and start getting to know them. This meeting is usually where you meet your academic advisor. It can also be a great way to ease any concerns you might have going into these classes. For me personally, I was terrified of writing coming into college. I had a writing for the media class with Dr. Miller that semester and was very worried I would not do well. I used this meeting as an opportunity to ask her questions about the class and she was very happy to help. It ended up being my favorite class. This exchange is a great example of one of the things that make the Grove special: the professors. I have yet to encounter a professor who is not willing to sit down and help students understand the material outside of class. Do not worry about how good your grades are the first few weeks. The transition to college from high school is difficult, and professors understand this. They genuinely care about their students and if you are struggling, they are always willing to help.

Your first week of classes will be your easiest. Most professors use the first class session to go over the syllabus and familiarize students with the class structure. Some professors do assign some homework for this session, but it is most often very light and aimed at letting you know what to expect moving forward. Another thing to keep in mind this first week is that “drop-add” is still in play. You can drop classes and add others with no penalty to your GPA. This first week is a great time to sit in on classes that might interest you and decide whether you want to add them or swap them out for one of your other classes. If you have questions or concerns about your classes, talk to your academic advisor. They are a great resource in figuring out what you want to do and what classes to take to fill your needs.

I hope this has given you some idea of what to expect coming into Grove City College. This school presents a truly amazing and unique experience to all its students. I hope you will enjoy your time here as much as I have. 

On March 16, 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order. Up until this point, Grove City College was one of the few schools remaining open. Sadly, with this order, the Grove was finally forced to close its doors and move to online classes. But some students were not able to return home. The 30 or so of us stuck on campus nicknamed ourselves: The Remnant. During my time with The Remnant, I journaled about my life on campus. 

 

April 1, 2020

I apologize for the lack of updates over the past few days. I’ve been quite busy with schoolwork and spending time with The Remnant so I haven’t found the opportunity to write. We haven’t done much out of the ordinary the past few days. I’ve hit it off very well with one member of The Remnant in particular. She took an interest in my balisong skills, so I’ve been teaching her some tricks. I’ve quite enjoyed our time together as we have very similar senses of humor and tastes in music. Speaking of balisongs, I’m close to mastering a trick that has eluded me for several years due to lack of time for flipping. Now that I have the time, I’ve been able to learn the Behind the Eight Ball. It’s a fairly advanced maneuver, and I’d recommend you look it up on YouTube. My new trainer has proved very useful in learning new tricks. I’ve also become the de facto tech guy, not just for my professors, but now for the students on campus. It’s been fun helping people solve problems and helps distract me from the fact that we’re effectively trapped on campus. This evening we had a meeting with one of the RDs in which he told us that we are not allowed to leave campus unless there is something truly essential that we need. On the plus side however, he also wants to try and keep some kind of social activity going. We’ve already been doing so, but now that we have an RD we have a little more power at our disposal which means being able to possibly use the large lecture halls for movie nights. Since he’s also backed by the campus, he has some money he can use on events which means snacks for movie nights. I’m oddly looking forward to the coming weeks and what they have to offer. I hope this extra long post has made up for my absence. Until next time. -Jacob

 

This hopeful outlook marked my final journal entry. Due to increased workload from school and the time I was spending with The Remnant, I opted to stop writing. We had a few more adventures, but for the most part we fell into a steady rhythm of school and game nights. I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed putting it together! It was a very unique experience and I am glad to have shared it with the world. Thank you for reading!

 

 

 

Grove City College is home to many different buildings, some old, some new. But something they all share is lore. Grove City has had students living within its walls for well over a century. Every building, old or new, has its fair share of stories and legends passed down through generations of students. Today I would like to share a couple of my personal favorite stories, along with an explanation about the buildings where they took place.

 

The SAC Tunnels

The centerpiece of upper campus is the Breen Student Union, more commonly called the SAC. SAC refers to the building’s old name – “Student Activity Center.” It is built in the same style as most of the other buildings on campus, with red brick and grand gables. Inside, it is home to the GeDunk café, the campus bookstore, the offices of Student Life and Learning, and the mailroom. It is a bustling hub of student activity both day and night. But, below the SAC, lie the fabled SAC tunnels. While in reality they are simply storage for the GeDunk and used for transporting mail, there are rumors of students that broke into the tunnels and explored them. The tales tell us that the tunnels are not just below the SAC, but that there is also an abandoned section extending all the way to lower campus. While these rumors hold little truth, they still are spread to freshmen by mischievous upperclassmen. As with any tall tale, they get more absurd with every retelling.

 

The Great Escape from STEM 

The newest and fanciest building on campus is the STEM (“Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math”) building. As the name suggests, this building is home to many of the Grove’s STEM programs. But even this building has seen some shenanigans. One of the events that takes place on campus each semester is Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ). It is effectively a campus-wide, 24/7, week-long game of infection tag with Nerf blasters. The zombies try to “turn” all the humans by tagging them, while the humans try to defend themselves by stunning the zombies with their Nerf blasters. Participants play the game even while on their way to and from class, giving zombies opportunities to ambush humans. One such ambush took place towards the end of HvZ week one year. One of the last surviving humans had snuck into STEM. Shortly thereafter, zombies surrounded the building waiting for him to come outside. Due to concerns of safety and privacy, there are certain safe-zones for the humans – one of these is STEM. He was safe inside, but could not leave for fear of being tagged. However, one of the professors noticed his predicament. The professor had seen what was going on, and after the game was explained to him by the student, he hatched a plan. He helped the student climb into a large box that had been used to carry some equipment inside the building. He then loaded it onto a dolly and wheeled it outside. Despite the game, the zombies saw the professor wheeling the seemingly heavy box and offered to help him. He told them it needed to be taken to the dorm building where the student lived. The zombies, none the wiser, wheeled their cargo up to the student’s dorm where they left it. They returned to lie in wait for their target, who unbeknownst to them, was now safely situated in his room. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this little peak into some of the stories of the Grove. Perhaps you’ll create some stories of your own during your time here. 

 

On March 16, 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order. Up until this point, the Grove was one of the few schools to remain open. But sadly, this order forced the college to close its doors and move to online classes. Almost all students were forced to leave. Some students however, could not leave. Those of us that remained on campus nicknamed ourselves “The Remnant.” For one reason or another, none of us could go home. During my time with The Remnant, I journaled about what life was like on campus. 

 

March 29th, 2020

Classes today went as smoothly as can be expected. It’s still clunky but I suppose that’s to be expected. This evening most of The Remnant met up and did another game night. It was great fun teaching everyone the absurd version of spoons known to the Shirk household. When questioned about my chaotic version of the game, I take great joy in responding: “What’s the name of the game? Spoons or cards?” At one point we ordered pizza, and a guy named Samuel brought some homemade wings. They were quite possibly the best wings I’ve ever had and I wish he had brought more. After playing several games, I fell asleep on one of the couches and slept for around an hour. When I woke up, most people were leaving. I headed back to my room and crashed. I won’t be posting on Saturday as it’s typically my rest day, and as such, I don’t do much other than play video games and nap. My new balisong trainer arrived early on Saturday, but sadly I can’t pick it up until Monday as the mail room is closed on the weekend. All the reviews for it were excellent so I’m excited to try it. -Jacob

 

The Remnant game nights became a staple of our group. It was a great time for all of us to socialize and blow off steam. Other than spoons, we played everything from Texas Hold ‘Em to Settlers of Catan. These game nights were definitely the highlights of my time with The Remnant. Other than game nights, we also had movie nights and regular meals. 

 

As I mentioned, I take Saturdays as my rest days. On Saturday, I force myself not to do any work, no exceptions. I believe it is very important to have a Sabbath day every week. The day of pure rest is very important for maintaining sanity and preventing burnout. If I had to give one piece of advice to an incoming freshman, it would be to make sure you set up your schedule to have one dedicated rest day. 

 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

 

On March 16, 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Up until this point, the Grove was one of the last schools to remain open. But with this order, it was finally forced to close its doors and move to online classes. However, some students could not go home. Whether it be due to travel restrictions, high-risk family members, or simply living in a time zone too distant from Grove City to make online classes possible, these students remained. The 30 or so of us stuck on campus nicknamed ourselves “The Remnant.” During my time with The Remnant, I journaled about what life was like.

 

When we last left off in this series, I had been battling with the habit of procrastination. 

 

March 26th, 2020

In the spirit of breaking procrastination, I’m writing this directly after the previous entry. Hopefully I can channel this energy into other fields than just my recreational writing. Today was great. I slept in once again (a growing theme for Tuesdays and Thursdays). I went to lunch with my Resident Director and some guys from my hall. It’s been fun getting to know the three of us still in my dorm. I headed back to my dorm around 12:30 to get ready for class. Because of how behind everyone else is with their projects, professor Bandy gave us today’s class period to work on projects. However, because Matt and I are so far ahead, we didn’t have much to do. We ended up making some very small adjustments for the purpose of preparing for the next edit. After class, I headed down to lower campus to play volleyball. Despite my obvious lack of skill, we still had a great time. I found myself abusing my height advantage to the best of my ability. At one point, our ball rolled into the river and myself and another guy went on an adventure to retrieve it. I have re-learned the pains of walking bare-foot across gravel. After volleyball, I came back to my room and took a nap. It was a lovely nap, but one that was sadly cut short in its prime as I had another class at seven. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that McNulty curved our grades up by a fairly large margin because he had made the test harder than he meant to. I had done fine on the test even before the curve, but it was still nice. -Jacob  

 

The spirit of camaraderie that developed between everyone during this time was great. A shared burden like that of our isolation from the rest of the world did much in the way of bringing us together. I have remained close friends with several of The Remnant to this day. We will occasionally have game nights or grab lunch to stay in touch. I always try to find the silver linings in things, and in the case of COVID-19, that silver lining was definitely the friends I made in The Remnant.

 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

On March 16, 2020, a state-wide stay at home order was issued by the governor of Pennsylvania. This was due to increasing concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19. Up until this point, Grove City College had remained open, but sadly, this order finally forced the Grove to shut its doors and move to online classes. However, some students could not go home for one reason or another. The 30 or so of us that remained on campus nicknamed ourselves The Remnant. Our numbers hailed from all over the world, from Australia to Jamaica, and in my case, Hawaii. During my time with The Remnant, I journaled about what my life was like on campus.

 

When we last left off, I was far ahead of schedule on a big project, and therefore had little homework for the week. 

 

March 25, 2020

I’m technically writing this on the 26th but that has no bearing on the fact that today with one exception was entirely uneventful. I got up, did class, got lunch, did class again. The one exception was for dinner. Myself and several of The Remnant got food to go and had a picnic on one of the patios next to the quad. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out. We used our time at dinner to lay plans for playing volleyball tomorrow (technically today given my procrastination). It’ll be nice to have a reason to get outside in the beautiful weather again tomorrow. Because I’m so far ahead in video production I didn’t need to do any homework for tomorrow. Naturally, I blew all this free time on video games rather than my upcoming paper. I saw a very interesting YouTube video once describing the thought process of a procrastinator. It illustrated two primary companions to the mind of the procrastinator, the instant gratification monkey, and the panic monster. Clearly one of these companions is still in hiding. -Jacob

 

A common demon faced by many college students is that of procrastination. It is something nearly everyone has to deal with and overcome, but it seems to target me in particular. However, I have learned to develop a workflow around it. I have managed to time the arrival of my panic monster such that I have not needed to pull any all-nighters thus far in my college career. However I am still working on scheduling myself in such a way as to not deal with the panic monster at all. Either way, I recommend that any incoming student to the Grove get their instant gratification monkey in check before arriving, as it will make your transition to college life much smoother than it might otherwise be.

 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

On March 16, 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order due to increasing concerns regarding COVID-19. Up until this point, Grove City College was one of the last schools still open. But with this order, the Grove was forced to shut down and move to online classes. However, there were some of us that could not go home for one reason or another. The 30 or so of us that stayed behind nicknamed ourselves The Remnant. During the time I spent marooned on campus, I journaled about what life was like.

 

When we last left off, I had survived the first day of online classes. I had also discovered that I would be putting my computer skills to great use helping my professors with the transition to online classes.

 

March 24, 2020

I slept in today, and it was lovely. Probably wasn’t a good idea in the long run as I did nothing productive throughout the morning but it was still nice. I’ve begun to develop a hobo beard. It looks the opposite of good but as I see very few people nowadays I don’t have the motivation to shave. And thus I am left in this bearded limbo of sorts. As I’ve spent more time improving with my balisong I’ve begun to notice the extremely poor quality of my current trainer. I had around twenty dollars worth of Amazon gift card balance so I decided to order a new one. I haven’t been this excited for a package in some time. At one o’clock I logged onto Teams for my video production class. My partner and I for our current project thought that the deadline for the first edit was due today, so we had effectively finished it. Much to our surprise, most of the rest of the class hadn’t even shot all their footage, much less edited it. Both Matt and I were very excited to hear this as it means we don’t really need to do anything for that class until the end of next week. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some readings and working through some Spanish homework. -Jacob

 

It is a great feeling to be ahead of schedule on a project. Because of our happy little accident, we did not have to do any more work for that class for the rest of the week. Sadly, I do not usually have the motivation to work ahead like this. This is something I think I can stand to work on. Working ahead is a great habit to get into, especially in college. It gives you much more freedom to spend time with friends, relax, and work on hobbies. It is also a great safeguard against forgetting assignments.

 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

On March 16, 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order. At this time, Grove City College was one of the few schools that remained open despite COVID-19. Sadly, this order finally forced the Grove to send its students home and move to online classes. But some students could not go home. We became “The Remnant,” the last bastion of students on campus. We could not go home for a variety of reasons. Personally, I live in Hawaii, which had heavy travel restrictions at the time. The other factor was a six-hour time difference between Grove City and Hawaii, meaning I would have been getting up at two in the morning for Spanish class. On the other hand, one member lived nearby, but chose to stay on-campus because one of his family members was in a high-risk group for COVID.

During my time on campus, I began journaling about what it was like to be one of 30 or so remaining students. My last installation of “The Remnant” left off on the Sunday before online classes began. 

 

March 23, 2020

My first day of online classes is officially out of the way. The test this morning went surprisingly smooth. I felt like I had an answer for everything and that my hours of studying had paid off. Time will tell whether my grade reflects this confidence. Most professors, while disgruntled, seem to be adjusting well. I’ve had several opportunities to put my tech-savviness to use helping other students and even some professors get a handle on things. After classes I put some of the finishing touches on the assembly edit of Matt and my interview project. I’m really happy with how it’s looking at this stage. I can’t wait to see how it turns out once we get all the graphics implemented. 

In order to keep myself active I’ve been doing sprints up and down my hall periodically. It feels really good to be moving around but my thighs have become increasingly sore. I must admit I’m getting tired of ramen. However, it’s cold out, and I’d rather not walk all the way to Hicks. -Jacob 

 

I had the misfortune of my first online class period being a test, but I made the most of it. My mention of using my technological skills to help some students and professors was merely a preview of what was to come. While there were many downsides to online classes, they gave me a unique outlet to put my skills to use helping others, which was a great feeling. I have found that obstacles we come across in life are usually God-given opportunities. While it may sometimes be difficult to recognize such opportunities, God will often reward us for following through on them. If you ever find yourself in such an inconvenient situation, I encourage you to find such an outlet to serve others. 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

On March 16 2020, the governor of Pennsylvania issued a state-wide stay at home order in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Up until this point, most businesses had closed. The Grove was one of the last schools still open. Sadly, with this order from the governor, the school was finally forced to close and move to online classes. However, there were those of us that could not go home for one reason or another. The 30 or so of us still on campus nicknamed ourselves “The Remnant.” During my time with The Remnant, I journaled about what it was like for me on campus. 

In my last journal entry, The Remnant had our first game night. It was an absolute blast, despite how much I got crushed playing ping-pong with some seniors. It is now Sunday, the last day before online classes begin.

 

March 22, 2020

Today I woke up around eight o’clock with visions of great productivity and study time. However, while my mind loved this prospect, my body had other ideas. For the past few days, despite getting plenty of sleep I’ve been feeling tired and draggy throughout the late morning and afternoon. I took short naps here and there but they didn’t seem to help. Today at around 10 I decided to lay down for a nap and just see how long I would sleep. I ended up sleeping all the way until 2pm. Apparently 13 hours of sleep was the solution to my dragginess. Throughout the rest of today I felt energetic and motivated. At one point I got up from my desk, did 20 jumping jacks, sprinted up and down the length of my building around five times, did 20 push ups, and ran up and down several flights of stairs. It felt good to get moving and blow off some steam. From two until three I knocked out almost all of the test practice sheets. At three thirty I joined my church back home for a virtual service via live stream. After the service, I finished up the worksheets and studied for another few hours. Once I felt I had studied enough I played games with some friends and went to bed. Overall a great day and I’m feeling confident about my test tomorrow morning. -Jacob

 

It is not often that I feel as motivated as I was that afternoon. I am inclined to believe that the abundance of sleep and the panic of a test the next morning combined to make the perfect adrenaline rush. This also marked the first time I sprinted around my building. I lived in Memorial Hall at the time, which is a giant L shape with very long hallways. Given that I was the only one on my floor, I effectively had my own personal indoor track. Any time I needed to burn off steam or re-energize myself, I simply took off sprinting up and down the halls. While I do not necessarily recommend doing this in the dorms while they are occupied, getting outside and getting some activity can help settle your mind and makes for an excellent study break. 

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!

During the spring semester of 2020, Grove City College was shut down. All classes were moved online in order to comply with a state-wide stay at home order from the governor. However, several students were unable to return home. I was among them. I could not go home due to travel restrictions to and from Hawaii. My friend Janna is from Singapore, whose borders were closed completely at the time. But not all were limited by travel problems. One of us had a high-risk family member living at home. He opted to avoid any risk of infecting them, even though his home was only a few minutes up the road. 

During my time with “The Remnant,” of students remaining on-campus, I journaled about what it was like on campus. We pick back up the day after I met The Remnant. Two days remained until online classes started.

 

March 21st, 2020

As I had hoped, I was much more productive today than I have been previously. Granted, that’s not a very high bar, but I at least got a fair bit of studying done. I attended an optional online study session for Spanish. I already went to an in-person session before the quarantine and she used the same materials, but it was still helpful to make sure I had a handle on the software. I plan to spend a lot of time tomorrow making sure I have all my vocabulary and grammar down for the test on Monday. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my guitar playing ability. With all the free time I have I’ve been doing various drills and I’ve started learning new songs. My balisong tricks are also getting better but I have a long way to go in that department. I’ve almost run out of breakfast sandwiches so I’ll have to start leaving my room for breakfast soon. Suffice to say I’m not thrilled with that prospect. While the main dining hall has remained open during the shutdown, the quality of the food is less than ideal, and they’ve closed off most of the sections so that the selection is also significantly marred. This evening we had the first Remnant game night. We all got dinner together then headed to ketrec and played just about everything from ping-pong to cards against humanity. It was a great time getting to know everyone and sharing some laughs. Overall today was a great day. -Jacob

 

This entry touched on the other factor besides friends that got me through the worst of quarantine: hobbies. I play guitar and video games, and I learn tricks with a special type of knife called a balisong. Having a variety of hobbies to keep you occupied is great in all of college life, not just quarantine. If I could share one thing I have learned so far in college, it would be that having hobbies is important. It is good to have something you enjoy that you can come back to.

Stay tuned for further installments of The Remnant!