Author: Brooks Thomas

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Campus Organization Spotlight: The Management Association

When prospective students think about college, many times their minds are drawn to big things like classes, professors, sports, fraternities or sororities, and dining. However, many times the most memorable and fulfilling moments of college happen within the many small organizations and clubs offered on campus.

The Grove City Management Association (or just Management Association for short) is a medium-sized organization, which is attempting a major comeback. This organization had faded into extinction in recent years, but a group of officers and faculty have brought it back to life. With around 40 current members, the Management Association is looking to continue to maintain a standard of excellence for years to come.

The purpose of the Management Association is to “provide the students of Grove City College of any major with opportunities to develop their practical management and business skills” explained current Management Association VP Liam Von Berg. “We do this by hosting guest speakers and putting together events for professional development, such as last year’s Ethics Panel where five alumni from Grove City came and spoke about ethics in the workplace and their various stories of ethical dilemmas,” he added.

Von Berg recalled one story told at the Ethics Panel that particularly stuck with him. “One guy spoke about his time as a car rental sales rep and how he wouldn’t rent a car to a woman because she didn’t meet [the] criteria. His boss told the lady she could have the car anyway, despite not meeting company standards, and she ended up stealing the car and burning down an ex boyfriends house!” Not all of the stories were so dramatic, Von Berg added, “But there was a good amount of talk regarding the gray areas that we face in everyday work.”

Other events put on by the Management Association include a fall party, booths at organization fairs, and smaller club meetings. At these meetings, they sometimes have business owners (for example, Kory Kay, a Chick-fil-A operator) come in to tell their story and give advice to the members. In addition, one of the most exciting events that they have planned is a tour of a FedEx plant.

The Management Association also has big plans to put on a “Women in the Workplace” event, hosting some of Grove City’s own female faculty to discuss various scenarios that they faced in the workplace and how they handled them.

One unique aspect about this organization is that membership is not exclusively reserved for “Business” or “Management” majors. Any student who is looking to develop their business or management knowledge is welcome to join.

Membership is pretty simple, as they are always looking for new members to grow the organization. All prospective students interested in any field of business or management are encouraged to check out the Management Association upon arrival at Grove City.

 

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Campus Organization Spotlight: The Student Athletic Advisory Committee

When prospective students think about college, many times their minds are drawn to big things like classes, professors, sports, fraternities or sororities, and dining. However, many times the most memorable and fulfilling moments of college happen within the many small organizations and clubs offered on campus.

The Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) is made up of student athletes who act as a voice in Division III athletics for the 20 varsity athletic teams at Grove City. Each varsity team has two members on the committee, totaling 40 members. I am one of the varsity Men’s Soccer team’s committee representatives, and I also act as the SAAC treasurer.

The Student Athletic Advisory Committee is a national organization that stems across all three divisions of collegiate athletics. The committee is broken up into three levels: national, conference and campus. The national committee meets to discuss new legislation for collegiate athletics that our campus SAAC then gets to vote on. The conference committee addresses issues within their individual conference. The conference committee that Grove City is in, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC), consists of one representative from each school in the conference. Lastly, there is the campus committee, which consists of the two representatives from each varsity team.

The mission of the SAAC is “to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity, protecting student-athlete welfare and fostering positive student-athlete image.” The Grove City SAAC accomplishes this in a multitude of different avenues.

First, representatives get to offer their input and ultimately vote on rules, regulations and other policies that affect student athletes. Whether that be on the national, conference, or campus level, each representative acts as the spokesperson for their team when new legislation gets brought up.

SAAC representatives also put on events to raise support for athletic teams. Those events look different for different teams. These events include tailgates, swim parties, theme nights at games, and offering prizes for attendance.

Another task of the SAAC is to build a sense of community within the program of athletics at Grove City. One way they do this is by giving each athletic team a “buddy team” of the opposite gender. For example, Women’s Water Polo may be paired up with Men’s Basketball. That buddy team is supposed to support the team they are paired with as best as they can. Whether that be getting the whole Men’s Basketball team to go to water polo games with their chests painted, or simply writing them good luck notes before games, these pairs provide more intentional and personal support.

The SAAC also helps organize community service efforts. These efforts could be raising money for a family in need, Christmas caroling, or decorating cookies for a local nursing home, the SAAC is always looking to help better the community.

The Grove City SAAC has really had a great impact on me over the past two years. I have seen how much it means to a team when the SAAC helps get hundreds of students to one of their games. Being on the soccer team myself, there is no better feeling than having a packed house. Also, having a voice in national, conference and campus endeavors is a great feeling. It shows that Division III athletics really cares about the needs and opinions of their student athletes.

The SAAC meets monthly to discuss legislation, upcoming events and other news around the conference and campus. If you are looking to potentially be a student athlete at Grove City, you could represent your team with the SAAC one day!

 

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How a Grove City Student Started His Own Business to Help Pay for College

College is an investment. A student pays a sum of money for four years of an unforgettable experience, a rigorous education, and lifelong friends. However, many times that sum of money can seem daunting. Junior Business Management and Marketing double major Joshua Kirk found a creative way to not only pay for college, but also earn experience within his field of study.

The summer after his sophomore year of high school, Kirk worked a very labor-intensive hardscaping and landscaping job. Using that summer to learn the business, he realized that there was a lucrative niche in the hardscaping business on which he believed he could capitalize. At the end of that summer, with an investment from his grandparents, he started tackling his own projects. By the end of the following summer, Kirk decided to start his own business, which he called Kirk Bros Lawn and Hardscape Design LLC.

Managing a team of three people (Kirk’s brother, cousin, and best friend), Kirk has created his own business that operates solely in the summer months. Kirk Bros Lawn and Hardscape Design LLC is a full service hardscaping and landscaping company that specializes in designing, building, and installing patios and retaining walls. Operating out of the Cincinnati, Ohio area, Kirk Bros Lawn and Hardscape Design LLC grosses approximately $29,000 in monthly sales during the three summer months. It does not take a calculator to see how successful this company has become.

Kirk has continued growing the business into college, working hard to try to earn enough money to pay for college. He contributes a lot of his success to two particular classes he has taken at Grove City.

“The two most influential classes I’ve taken here that have helped with my landscape company would be my sales class with Professor Kocur,” commented Kirk, “where he really helped me hone my sales skills and really helped me move into projects and close sales quicker. The other class that has been very helpful has been Accounting with Dr. Russin, [teaching me to do] my financials at the end of each year and taxes.”

Having already had a wealth of business experience, Kirk has found his classes even more engaging. “Being able to take what professors are saying and immediately applying them to experiences that I’ve already had…” has been very helpful for Kirk.

I asked Kirk if he had any tips for anyone who wants to start their own business. His face lit up, and he immediately said, “To take it one step at a time. I think if you had asked me to start the same company right now I would be super overwhelmed, but I just took it incrementally. I slowly accumulated knowledge, and experience, and tools.”

“It didn’t all happen in one summer,” Kirk said. “A huge learning experience that I’ve had is any time you are trying to create a company, you have to know that it is long term, and really focus on creating incremental steps that you can achieve along the way.”

Kirk hopes to one day pass the business down to his younger brother.

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Campus Organization Spotlight: The Crimson Collegiate Investors

When prospective students think about college, many times their minds are drawn to big things like classes, professors, sports, fraternities or sororities, and dining. However, many times the most memorable and fulfilling moments of college happen within the many small organizations and clubs offered on campus.

The Crimson Collegiate Investors (CCI) is a group of roughly 15 students from all walks of life. They partake in fundamental equity analysis by studying stocks, and ultimately investing in those companies approved by the rest of the society. CCI manages roughly $100,000, most of which has been donated by friends of the College. They meet weekly to discuss investment pitches and to learn from one of the senior members of the group.

“We are divided into many sectors,” said CCI President Quinn Peebles, “…covering any conceivable area of business from diamond mining to microchip manufacturing to clothing designers. Each sector is headed by a lead analyst whose job is to make sure that everyone is learning and having a good time, as well as do some teaching themselves.”

The success that this group has had in their investing endeavors is extremely impressive. They have consistently yielded a 30% annualized return, something that cannot be said by many professional investors. However, continuing to grow their sum of investment money is not their main focus.

“Our primary goal is to educate students,” explained Peebles. “Everyone is expected to learn, not to arrive knowing everything already.”

People join the group for a number of different reasons. Some have a personal interest in stocks. Others utilize this group as a career building platform, whether that be by tapping into CCI’s alumni connections or using the time to hone their investing skills. Still others join out of pure curiosity, and end up finding a lifelong passion. However, what everyone ends up learning is that one can take their other passions and integrate them into their investing.

“Your interests outside of the investing world drive your interests in the investing world,” explained Peebles. “Know a lot about the gaming industry? There are tons of publicly traded companies out there just for you. Do you like gold? Perfect. Gold mines await you. The possibilities of the investing world are endless. If you can think of it, there is a way to trade it and to make money off of it. People often think of what we do as boring and uninteresting, but that is only because they have not grasped the scope of possibilities and the ability to be driven by what you already think is cool or interesting.”

The Crimson Collegiate Investors is a friendly, fun, and knowledgeable group that helps equip students with the right tools to become successful investors. They hope that in the years to come, more and more students will become educated on the ins-and-outs of investing, and that the $100,000 will continue to grow.

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Campus Organization Spotlight: Roundtable

When prospective students think about college, many times their minds are drawn to big things like classes, professors, sports, fraternities or sororities, and dining. However, many times the most memorable and fulfilling moments of college happen within the several small organizations and clubs offered on campus.

Roundtable is a sophomore men’s service honorary here at Grove City College. It is a group focused solely on helping serve the campus and local community. Each year, the group participates in different service projects in areas around the campus and community. Whenever and wherever members see a need, they meet to discuss how they can solve that need and then they get to work.

“So far this year,” said current Roundtable President David Hutchison, “we have done 10 different projects for faculty members, churches, and others in the community. This includes things like helping churches set up and tear down after conferences or big events, raking leaves, painting, and setting up a wheelchair ramp, among other things.”

One of the unique things about this organization is that every year the entirety of the group is comprised of new members, as this group consists of only sophomore men every year. With 23 current members serving this year, they will be replaced next year with current freshmen. Freshmen males maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or above are invited to interview toward the end of the spring semester.

Hutchison explained, “Roundtable always is focused on helping serve our campus and community, but each year the group takes on a different focus, depending on where God is leading us.”

Each year, the current Roundtable members develop their own mission statement. This year, the mission statement they have chosen is “…to serve the needs of our Grove City College professors and our local churches, while being open to wherever else help is needed.”

While participation in Roundtable is all about helping others, it can also have a big impact on the Roundtable members themselves.

“[Roundtable] has impacted who I am as a person. It helped get the focus off of myself. So often, we go through college, and life for that matter, thinking about what we need to get done, usually with only ourselves in mind. Doing service projects with these guys has really helped me step back and put things in perspective. It has been a humbling experience. Beyond this, it has made me very grateful for all the good things that I have been blessed with in my own life. It is easy to take so much for granted, but when you see the needs of others, it helps you to see the gracious gifts that God has bestowed upon us,” said Hutchison.

Roundtable is just one of the many organizations at Grove City College that is focused on serving others. However, prospective male students will have to wait until late in their freshman year to be eligible to join this honorary.