Category: Academics

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Interview Advice from Keystone Ridge Designs

The interview process can be a stressful time for anyone, especially when one is unsure of what to expect upon entering. Heather Starcher is Vice President of Keystone Ridge Designs, a company that manufacturers site furniture, and has been working in the business world for over 20 years. In her experience with interviewing, especially with students from Grove City College, she has focused on aspects that strongly affect an interview, positively or negatively. “Remember, they are hiring you to help their company. So they want to know what you bring to the table, how you can be an impact and help them succeed. They don’t want to hear from you ‘this is what I want’,” Heather said.

Followed by her few statements, employees Dave Starcher and Angela Maloney gave insight from their involvement with being both the interviewer and the interviewee.

Interview Advice from Director of Sales of Keystone Ridge Designs, Dave Starcher:

  1. Be prepared. Know the company and be prepared to ask questions that prove that you have done your research.
  2. Be yourself. Remember that you are interviewing the company just as much as they are interviewing you. Figure out if the company’s culture would be a fit for you. Ask what a typical day might look like or who are the team members with whom you would most often interact?
  3. Ask about the future. What could be worse than taking a job with a company that is about to fail?! Ask about their vision and how they foresee the future. What are they doing better than their competition to ensure success? Are there plans to spin-off other sister companies? How much are they growing?

Interview Advice from Director of Marketing of Keystone Ridge Designs, Angela Maloney:

  1. Take notes.
  2. Have good questions ready for whenever the interviewer says “What questions do you have for us?”
  3. Always ask for next steps at the end of the interview to show you are truly committed and want the job.
  4. Follow up. Thank you emails and notes help keep you top of mind and show your ability to follow through.
  5. Don’t ask about money in a first interview.
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My Summer Internship – Work Relationships

This previous summer I had the opportunity to work at my parents’ business, Keystone Ridge Designs, an expertise site furniture manufacturing company.  It was a comforting image to know that before I started my senior year at Grove City College, I had an internship to add to my resume.  I mainly looked at the internship as a “check off the list” of things to do before graduation.  Although, after a summer of a great deal of hard work, knowledge gained, some family tension, and strengthened relationships, I can say that working was so much more than just an internship.

Keystone Ridge Designs has been around ever since I was born, existing as a purely family business since around 1995.  My grandpa worked hard raising his family that would soon be raising me, along with building a company ever since his early 20s.  Since then, the business has excelled in terms of profitability, customer relationships, and building its brand.

The major concept I took away from my “job” was how important family businesses are and how they function in a world full of the idea of pure profit, no matter the ethics.  I appreciated the relationships between employees and their bosses, essentially my family members, except they were personal.  I watched as my family could ask their employees specific questions about their home lives because they genuinely cared to listen.  When meaningful work relationships are developed, work becomes easier.  It is more straightforward to work together, be efficient in the tasks they do, along with authenticity in the work completed.  The employees took responsibility for their actions, whether good or bad and were not purely focused on their individual career.  The collaborative atmosphere made for better problem solving and the generation of new product ideas to grow the business.  The selflessness that came from these work relationships goes to show that it is possible to profit in a business, while still caring about the needs of each employee.

Hearing about large corporations treat their employees like they are just another person working under them is something I personally could never work for, especially after seeing the relationships at Keystone Ridge Designs.  Similar to Grove City College’s ethics about faith and education, keeping them unseparated, my family’s business functioned to serve a greater purpose.  Working hard, helping others, extending generosity, and accomplishing business in a loving manner are simply four ideologies I want in any potential company I would work with.

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Grove City College Internship Opportunities – CCO

As a freshman at Grove City College, I never anticipated the opportunities that would come my way during my next four years here. During my sophomore year, I started networking with Grove City alumni. Networking for me meant talking to parents of my friends at school who either are alumni or know alumni of the College. The parents of my current roommate are both alumni and knew at the time I was interested in event planning. They helped me navigate the internship world and by March of my second semester sophomore year, I was offered an internship in the Development/Events Department with a company called Coalition for Christian Outreach, otherwise known as CCO.

My boss at CCO for that summer was Allyson Sveda, Grove City College alumna of ’88. Allyson was a Business and Communication Studies major during her time at college. To say Allyson was “involved” on Grove City College’s campus would be an understatement.  She was in the Alpha Beta Tau sorority, president of Student Government Association, president of Omicron Delta Kappa, president of Association of Women Students, while also involved in Orchesis, Campus Tour Guide, and Orientation Board.

Since May 2013, Allyson has served as the Development Director within CCO. She works with a team of six people to raise funds for CCO’s mission of “transforming college students to transform the world.” The Development team is responsible for raising money for the Next Generation Fund through direct fundraising efforts, planned giving, and annual events. As the CCO grows nationally, Allyson’s department looks for new donor bases across new regions to support the campus work in those areas.

Allyson and I have maintained a close relationship even after I completed my intern summer with CCO.  I recently spoke with her and asked why she hires Grove City College students as interns. Her response was extremely genuine and compassionate toward the campus community. “Personally, I like to give a fellow Grover the opportunity to learn new skills while they discover more about their personal strengths/weaknesses, build a more robust network, and gain solid experience that can leap frog them into their next position or future career. The CCO has a great relationship on many levels with Grove City. I will give Grove City College students first chance at any summer internship slots in our Development Office,” Allyson replied.

“Have you ever seen differences between Grove City students/alumni compared to students/alumni from other colleges? If so, please describe those differences,” I asked. “I have found the students here to be willing to dig in, be concerned with the importance of the details, creative, self-starters, great communicators, immediate contributors, motivated and willing to please! Other departments have commented on the solid nature of our Department interns. It’s no surprise to me,” Allyson said.

As my own career goals have shifted over the last couple of years, Allyson has continued to help by introducing me to other alumni of Grove City College. The Marketing and Sales internship I had after my junior year happened to be under one of Allyson’s sorority sisters! Allyson is just one prime example of all the Grove City College alumni that love to help out current students of the college. The close-knit community  happens to be a very giving and generous one. There are so many opportunities out there, even at a small school like Grove City College. Be confident, get to know more people, and keep your eyes and ears out for any possibilities that may come your way.

 

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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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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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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.

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Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Projects

Did you know that mechanical engineering is the most popular major offered at Grove City College? The program has long been recognized by U.S. News and World Report for providing an outstanding education. The Department of Mechanical Engineering prepares students to excel in careers such as engineering research, design, manufacturing, production, sales, and management as well as top graduate and professional programs. One of the practical methods the department uses to cultivate important engineering skills is the design projects that are worked on for the entirety of a student’s senior year.

Dr. Vern Ulrich oversees the senior design projects in addition to his professorial duties. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with him and discussing the senior design projects happening this year. For the 2017 – 2018 school year, there are 59 mechanical engineering seniors divided among nine projects. The specifics of the projects range from designing an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system for the chapel while maintaining the architecture of the building to designing and eventually constructing a small airplane.

Suggestions from students, professors, and outside companies in the industry are welcomed and combined to determine possibilities for design projects. Dr. Ulrich shared with me a list of criteria that he and other collaborating professors use to determine if a senior design project is viable. This list of selection priorities include (in no particular order):

  • Fosters good relationships with industrial employers and supporters
  • Outside money provided for the project
  • Opportunity to participate in intercollegiate competition
  • Benefit to department research interests
  • End product is useful to the mechanical engineering department or to other Grove City College departments
  • Advances the Gospel
  • Serves the greater good humanity
  • Patentable idea
  • Requires a cross-functional team
  • Opportunity to design and build
  • Interest on the part of the students
  • Provides students with a stepping stone toward dream job

Dr. Ulrich shared with me that ideally, he would love for a senior design project to be a stepping stone for someone’s dream career. This shines through as students’ interests are given a lot of consideration when determining senior projects and student teams. Dr. Ulrich reported that two projects were cut this year because there was simply not enough interest.

Although the senior design projects may seem daunting, there is much intentional thought and prayer throughout the process. The collaborating professors work with the students students in order to ensure success and the efficient completion of the project. Many students report that the senior design projects are their favorite component of the program, truly preparing them for a future in the field.

 

 

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On a Track to Change Lives

Hyejin (Grace) Choi is a junior Pre-K-4 Elementary Education major at Grove City College. She is a Teacher’s Assistant, Education Ambassador, and enjoys reading in her free time. I discovered Grace in a Cross-Cultural Psychology class and quickly learned of her outstanding linguistic abilities, surplus of cultural knowledge, and desire to become a teacher.

Grace is a polyglot who speaks English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and a little Spanish to top it off. She was born in Michigan but received the opportunity to develop these language abilities by living around the world. Because her father was a South Korean diplomat, she experienced life in China, India, Thailand and South Korea. After these travels, she ventured back to the United States on her own at to continue her education at age 16.

When it came time to select an academy, she chose Grove City College because of the great education program that is provided. She appreciates how field-oriented the department is and commented, “There are certain things that classroom lectures just can’t teach.” Looking back on the past three years there she noted, “I am not a very social person, but GCC helped me to increase my in-group pool. It made me learn humility too, and with this education, I am sure that my call was to Elementary Ed.”

With only one more year to go at Grove City College, Grace has gotten excited to see what the future has in store for her. She exclaimed, “I really enjoy teaching. I hope to be caring for each student and impact his/her life in a positive way!”

Proverbs 9:9
English: Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.
Korean: 지혜 있는 자에게 교훈을 더하라; 그가 더욱 지혜로워질 것이요. 의로운 사람을 가르치라; 그의 학식이 더하리라.
Chinese: 教 导 智 慧 人 ， 他 就 越 发 有 智 慧 。 指 示 义 人 ， 他 就 增 长 学 问 。
Japanese: 知恵のある人を教えなさい。その人は、ますます賢くなります。正しい人を教えなさい。その人は、さらに多くのことがわかるようになります。
Spanish: Instruye al sabio, y se hará más sabio; enseña al justo, y aumentará su saber.

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Professor Spotlight: Dr. Anderson

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is home to a wide range of personalities and stories. One professor with an interesting background and field of expertise is Dr. Erik Anderson. Graduating from Gordon College with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Biology, he went on to pursue a Master’s in Biology and eventually a Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Anderson has spent years researching bio-mechanics (or marine organism propulsion), how marine organisms move in the ocean.

This field has many fascinating engineering implications. Dr. Anderson stressed to me that his research is not necessarily focused on searching for answers. Rather, he is studying marine creatures’ movement in order to hopefully lend insight to engineering breakthroughs, similarly to how Velcro was developed. For example, a home ceiling fan was created to mimic the movement of a jellyfish, in order to cool down a room more efficiently. Other applications of bio-mechanics include marine resource management. In studying how much energy a fish needs to survive, the amount of food to keep the animals alive can be calculated. Once this is is discovered, scientists can discover how many fish an ecosystem can effectively sustain.

Dr. Anderson is very passionate about his work. He explained to me that he has always enjoyed fluid mechanics and mathematics, and began fishing at the age of four. Bio-mechanics is the perfect blend of these interests, for he even has the opportunity to fish on the ocean in order to obtain specimens to study. If you have any interest in this field, you should reach out to Dr. Anderson. He often allows students to work alongside him who have demonstrated strong skills, a desire to learn, and an interest in bio-mechanics. Abby Noll, a senior mechanical engineering major, has spent multiple summers working alongside Dr. Anderson at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Perhaps his research may be of interest to you!