Category: Academics

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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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Internship Opportunities: Engineer Edition

Are you a Mechanical Engineering major? Electrical Engineering major? Looking for a summer internship? There is hope for you, just talk to Shannon Stovar!

Shannon Stovar is a senior Mechanical Engineering major at Grove City College. She is from Butler, Pa. and the first person in her family to attend Grove City College.

Shannon was one of my three ‘random’ freshmen roommates and has stayed a close friend of mine throughout college. During our sophomore year, Shannon was looking for an engineering summer internship, and I knew just the person she should talk to. I immediately called my dad, Rich Bartek, who at the time was the vice president and COO of the manufacturing company, Oberg Industries. He worked there for about 14 years and loved to hire Grove City College students as interns and employees. Oberg is headquartered in Freeport, Pa., which is only about a 25-minute commute from Shannon’s hometown of Butler. My dad and I both knew Shannon was a hard worker and fast learner and he was more than happy to help her. Shortly after, Shannon applied for Oberg Industries’ mechanical engineering internship and got an offer for the summer!

Shannon excelled that summer at Oberg Industries and outshined the other interns. Oberg ended up offering her another internship for the following summer, after her junior year. She gladly accepted.

“I assisted the design engineers in a variety of tasks along with helping in other areas of the company like die maintenance and quality control. I developed 3D models and drawings for customer parts and tooling. I worked on quite a few independent projects where I was given a problem such as a component in a machine that had broken and had to come up with a solution to fix the issue,” Shannon explained to me when I asked about what she did both summers.

I followed up by asking Shannon if she liked her time with Oberg, “I really enjoyed the experience! I think one of the most important parts about a company is the people that you work with, and everyone I worked with was extremely helpful and kind. I formed close friendships with workers from all different areas of the company. I was able to work with some of the brightest engineers in the company and was really challenged by this. Oberg gave me a wide variety of tasks so that I wouldn’t get bored and they really trusted me to work independently on big projects.”

Shannon received a full-time job offer from the company this past August. Oberg was gracious and gave her roughly six months to decide if she would like to take the offer. She had obviously proven herself very worthy over the course of her two summers there. Shannon is giving herself some time to decide and taking other options into consideration as the halfway mark of her senior year quickly approaches.

Many Mechanical Engineer majors assume internships are only for business majors. “Companies like Oberg Industries are overjoyed when they receive a resume from a student coming from Grove City College,” my dad stated. “When Shannon applied we could not wait to work with her.”

This is just another example of how connections within the Grove City College community can give you great opportunities. Students need to continue to persevere and form relationships during their four years because you never know where they will land you.

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Event Review: Freedom Readers

Tuesday, Sept. 25 marked the first “Freedom Readers” event of the year sponsored by The Center for Vision and Values, Grove City College’s own conservative think tank. This month, Professor Richard Kocur (business department) spoke on the healthcare industry, specifically tackling the “Medicare for All” movement popularized most notably by Bernie Sanders.

Professor Kocur is not only personally interested in this subject matter, but he also focuses much of his independent research on this topic. Kocur started his lecture by reviewing the history of healthcare in the United States, then broke down the popular movement seen today and spoke on the implications of such a system in the United States. Kocur discussed how this would not work here due to myriad factors, and explained how those implications would affect the three major players in these scenarios: payers, providers, and patients. While some countries do have single payer systems, Kocur noted that the tax rates are significantly higher there to compensate for the costs, and as a result, certain parts of these nations’ economies and even their own healthcare systems suffer from such a large influx of participants that take part in the system.

Finally, Kocur went on to talk about market-based ideas that the United States could possibly explore to remedy the situation, citing direct patient contracts, health savings account expansion, and the ability to purchase healthcare across state lines as potential viable options.

The Center for Vision and Values is an organization on Grove City College’s campus that employs student fellows in the fields of research and marketing to help promote their events and to aid in producing scholarly content for the organization and their partners. If you would like to learn more about the Center, head over to http://www.visionandvalues.org/, or check out the student-run news site “Checkpoint” at https://www.checkpointnews.org/.

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Inside Grove City College: A Transfer Student’s Perspective

 

The process of selecting a college is stressful, with its seemingly endless applications and interviews and paperwork. For transfer students, the excitement of going to college for the first time has worn off, and going through this process twice can seem overwhelming. It can be intimidating to think about leaving a school, a friend group, and familiar studies to start fresh somewhere else. However, seeking advice and learning as much as possible about potential schools is crucial.

Hannah, Larisa, Gab, Julia, and Tara have stepped in to make your transfer process as easy as possible. These ladies, all first-year Grovers, have offered to give you a peek into what it was like for them to join the Grove City College community as a transfer student. Their advice is an insider’s perspective on things like how to make friends as a transfer, how they chose their roommates, and how to get involved on campus.

Larisa Steiner, a sophomore, transferred from Indiana Wesleyan University and enjoys studying Management with an HR concentration. Finding a school with this specific field of study and a reputable business program was key in her transfer search. Also a sophomore, Hannah Kaufmann, an English major, was interested in Grove City because it aligned with her Christian values. Tara Pierce, as a junior, finds herself in the rare position of being an upperclass transfer student. She previously studied at a local community college, and enjoys the new Social Work major at Grove City. Julia Helmich will graduate in 2021 as an Elementary/Special Education major. She enjoys the on-campus preschool, where Education students are able to get hands-on work experience. Gab Capaldo, a sophomore, studies Communication and edits for The Collegian, the campus newspaper, in her free time.

Though none of these ladies would say that being a transfer student anywhere is easy, they are adjusting to life as a Grover and getting involved on campus. Intramural sports, Greek life, and Orientation Board events are just some of what they mention as ways to find friends and make connections at Grove City College.

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Favorite Aspects of Grove City College – The Professors

It is normal to have professors you might not connect as well with, but when you find ones that you can really relate to, it can be extremely meaningful. I was lucky to know a few before starting college, since my parents are alumni, and create new relationships that developed further over the past four years.

Specifically, my advisor, Dr. Miller, has been a wonderful mentor, teacher, and friend to me. I do not allow myself to go to her office when I have homework to do because well, we end up talking about anything and everything for hours. I am thankful to have someone to relate to in terms of my major courses along with career aspirations; Dr. Miller knows specifically how to help me relate college classes into the real world. Her knowledge of professional and personal communication makes her the experienced, relatable professor she is to her students.  When I finished scheduling for my senior year, she said to me, “Taylor, you know that you already completed your major and do not have to take those two Communication classes in the spring with me, right?” I know that I did not “need” the classes, but I was more than happy to take them as electives since she would be my professor. She is that great.

I have appreciated professors that go out of their way to help me with classes, projects, personal issues, or future opportunities while considering my individual passions and hobbies. Professor Sweet is another example of someone that is always connecting students to different possibilities, like post-college careers or campus opportunities. His love for helping small businesses and others shows in his teaching, along with one-on-one relationships with students. Professor Sweet has helped me dive into new projects that I would have been uncomfortable with otherwise and increase my internet knowledge to advance my personal career path. I have also enjoyed having back-to-back classes with him, entertaining the class with embarrassing and funny jokes or stories that he somehow relates back to our specific class discussion.

Besides professors of classes I have, I love the overall kindness from any employee of the College. Women’s basketball coach Chelle Fuss was introduced to me from my mom’s years of involvement with the basketball team. Since then, Fuss has opened her life to me to be someone I can turn to in times of difficulty, need for advice, or to simply enjoy her company. Going to her office several times a week to talk and catch-up on each other’s activities has been such a positive addition to my time at school. Fuss also has helped me build my photography portfolio by incorporating me with the basketball team and photographing their weekly games.

With these being only a few of the awesome relationships I have formed at Grove City College, I could not be more thankful for the amazing people to educate, guide, and grow with me in my four years.

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The Beauty of Sleeping

First to go and last to catch up. This could describe how I feel in any running race ever, but I mean it here as a description of sleep while in college.

College kids — we party, stay up late, sleep in till noon and skip class all the time, right? Well, maybe not at Grove City. However, instead of filling late nights with crazy adventures (which does happen sometimes) Grovers get stuck in a groove of constantly putting school work first. It is easy to do with myriad assignments, tests and projects. Grove City is known for our rigorous academics, after all. Though we are at college to receive an education, we are still humans with daily needs.

On top of school work, it is easy to be overcome with opportunities on campus. Personally, I love playing intramural sports, I work for the Collegian, I am a member of Women of Faith, and I am an active member of Covenant Church in town. Though school work is a priority at college, this formative time incorporates many other learning experiences. Time escapes into writing articles, reading, talking for hours with a friend and necessary coffee breaks.

I value my morning routine greatly. Workout, shower, fix coffee, read my Bible, get dressed and ready and eat breakfast — then rush out the door to my first class. When I suffer a lack of sleep, my morning is off and I end up in a funk. My usual sleeping need is seven-and-a-half hours, but not everyone needs the same. Listen to your body and find the amount you need to function. When our bodies are tired, we are hungrier, more irritable, and way less productive.

As a senior, I have finally learned the necessity of getting enough sleep. Though the reality that handling sleep, work, and social life is quite the balancing act, it is possible to do. Dr. Joshua Mayo in his prayer before class today asked the Lord, “Give us the balance between caring and not caring about the grades of our work.” His point is that yes, we are to work with all our hearts for the glory of God, but we are not to idolize that work and the grades we get in school. Instead, we need to learn and enjoy the material before us, because that is how we can glorify God.

In the college setting, where mind and body and soul must be alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic, sleep cannot be lacking. Though it may seem like pulling an all-nighter to study for your mid-term is the best use of your time, it detriments your brain power when you get to the class. As an old high school teacher of mine recommends, put the books away and get a good night’s sleep. Your brain, body, and grade will thank you for it.

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Career Networking Mixer

Grove City College Career Fair, 9/26/18

After the Grove City College Career Fair on Sept. 26, the Business Department offered a career networking mixer and panel discussion. This event offered an insider’s perspective into the business world and insight on how to gain a competitive advantage in interviews. Students had an opportunity to mingle with business professionals over hors d’oeuvres before hearing from speakers at the panel session.

David Durfee ’13, returned to the Career Fair as a sales executive with Armstrong World Industries. His degree in Marketing prepared him for this career, but he said that the services offered to current students has improved since his college years. Durfee explained that the annual career fair – a school-wide event – attracts more marketing and management firms now, which provides more networking opportunities to business students. In addition, he has seen improved professor interaction during the fair; students can now find guidance from their professors on which firms to approach, how to start a career conversation, and how to increase self-marketability.

Grossman Yanak & Ford (GY&F), a Pittsburgh accounting firm, regularly sends representatives to recruit Grove City College students. Colleen Febbraro, HR Director at GY&F, says that the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm seeks Grovers because they have found that Grove City graduates are well-rounded compared to their peers. In addition, the graduates have been prepared by their education to work well on their own and in groups. She mentioned that GY&F has found Grovers to have “superb” communication skills and advanced technical training – attributes that are evidence of thorough preparation by trained faculty. Though GY&F has a familiarity with the quality of a Grove City College education, Febbraro said that Grove City’s exceptional Accounting program – which graduates students with a CPA passing rate at nearly 30% higher than the national average – is making a name for itself as ninth in the nation for CPA success rates.

Emily Miller, who graduated from Grove City College in 2015, now works with Grossman Yanak & Ford and returned to the Career Fair to help with recruitment. She says that Grove City College left her prepared to excel in the CPA exam and her future career. Though she was not expecting the volume of writing that her job demands, she says that the Grove City humanities core adequately prepared her to handle this challenge.

The business mixer representatives offer not only career placements, but also higher education opportunities. Alexander Lowry represented Gordon College as the executive director of its Financial Analytics program, explaining that this program would be ideal for Grove City students studying a variety of disciplines. For students interested in a career involving finance, statistics, or data analysis, the Boston school offers a Master of Science in Financial Analysis. Entering a fast-paced career after college can be intimidating to undergraduate students, but Gordon College offers insight into the Boston financial scene. Lowry, who has experience in executive management at JP Morgan, explains that students can expect networking and internship opportunities during the 12-class program – Gordon has long-standing ties with financial powerhouses like Liberty Mutual, Fidelity Investments, and Putnam Investments.

The question and answer panel, which featured several Grover alumni, consisted of several businessmen giving advice and feedback to the students about launching a career. After the event, there was a tangible atmosphere of excitement and anticipation about preparing for the future, with many students discussing what they liked about the panel. One student noted that it was encouraging to see Grove City College alumni in such high positions at their firms – evidence that a Grove City degree is highly marketable. Another observation was an appreciation that the speakers went very in-depth in giving advice on how to prepare for a full-time interview. Interviewing for a part-time job in high school, the student said, is very different from the process for a “real” career, and so he enjoyed the tips for interview preparation. Overall, the Business Mixer was a huge success, providing not only opportunities for students to network with prospective employers and fellow members of the Business department, but also opportunities for students to hear relevant advice for career preparation during the panel.

 

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Inside Married Life: Nate Sprunk’s Perspective

Nate Sprunk, an Exercise Science major and Psychology minor, is a quarter of the way through his senior year at Grove City College. He began his freshman year busy with his involvement on the lacrosse team and continued up until this year. His decision was primarily to focus more on school, along with his new wife, Priya.

Nate and Priya have known each other for about 10 years, meeting at middle school youth group at their church back in the day. Although, they did not start dating until the summer before Nate’s senior year of high school. They had always been great friends, but that summer they spent much more time together and grew extremely close.

“Going to school together gave us time to grow closer and build a stronger relational foundation to get married. Being at GCC was positive because it gave us a Christian environment to grow in,” Nate said. They started the conversation during Nate’s sophomore year of college, Priya’s junior year. With Priya being a year older, the decision to be married was difficult in terms of their current academic standings, but, with an abundance of advice and prayer, the couple decided to be married this previous summer.

This fall semester, with Priya as a Grove City College graduate, Nate has noticed changes in his life since the wedding. He feels that he has become more responsible and independent in his current college career and post-college plans. In living off-campus with his wife, he sees friends significantly less, which can cause strains in his relationships, but it just means working harder to maintain the ones that are truly important.

“It’s great to live together and have our own place. It’s also great to be able to support each other. However, it does make things weird with your relationships with other people because of change. My advice for people would be to make sure you’re truly ready for everything that comes with the commitment. We did marriage counseling prior to our wedding. I think that it helped us be more prepared for the transition and for what to expect,” Nate said.

Although only 21, Nate’s maturity and dedication to Priya has made their marriage fulfilled and exciting. His future plans include attending school for physical therapy to further his knowledge of subjects surrounding his college education.

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Injured and Schooling

Me with my six-week friend – my hefty sling.

The sling life.

For six weeks, my right arm sat idle on the foam piece around my waist secured by a sling. The Velcro attached stress ball stuck out from the foam bed. I named the ball Frank. Frank kept my fingers moving, even though my arm lie motionless.

For nearly a year, my shoulder suffered from a torn labrum due to multiple dislocations. On the last day of February in 2018, I finally underwent arthroscopic surgery. The surgery happened in the middle of my spring break from my junior year of college.

Optimistically, I hoped to go back to school by the end of spring break, but four days did not prove nearly long enough to move back to school. I stayed home for another week, and that is when I realized how great Grove City really is.

Professors sent notes for class, checked in on how I was doing, and gave me grace for deadlines. When I finally did get back to school, Mrs. Habbyshaw in the Disability Services Office scribed tests and papers for me to turn into my professors.

Coming back to school with only one functioning, non-dominant arm daunted me, but with the aid of friends, roommates, professors and people in my church, I finished out the weeks in the sling. I began physical therapy and slowly gained back everyday movement.

I missed working out and playing sports on campus. I missed simply doing my own laundry. I hated being so reliable on other people, but through that trial in my life, I saw, as the hymn says, “I am weak, but He is strong.” And yes, Jesus loves me. He showed me not only through the Bible, but through the generosity of teachers and care of my friends.

The sling on my arm started many conversations I would not have had otherwise. A worker in the Physical Learning Center asked what had happened to me and shared that he had a similar surgery. Students often asked how I was doing throughout the four weeks of being on campus in a sling. Though I was tired of the sling, I knew my body needed it to heal. When I started physical therapy, it amazed me to see what my body can do. God truly is the Master Creator. And He is indeed a loving Savior.

If you are expecting a surgery or experiencing and injury, know that at Grove City, you will be cared for. School is still possible. The semester of my injury was one of the highest GPAs I got while in school. Strange how that works.

Ten hours from home, I felt the love of other Christians on the campus of Grove City. Without it, I would not be healed as I am today.

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CCO’s Jubilee Conference 2019

Two summers ago, I interned with the company Coalition for Christian Outreach better known as CCO. CCO puts on Jubilee every winter which is a Christian conference held in Pittsburgh, where thousands of college students gather and learn how to worship God. The CCO has been putting on the Jubilee Conference for over 40 years now and every year it attracts more and more people. Jubilee’s main purpose is to “bring together college students to experience powerful worship, incredible speakers, and engaging topics that may impact our lives.”

Throughout the Jubilee weekend, students experience four large group gatherings that follow the Biblical narrative of the creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. For students, it is a good place to connect and meet people in their vocational field. Students can network to discover their next internship, learn how to continue their education and even plan for their future career. The CCO believes both faith and future are one in the same. This conference is unique in the fact that it is built around college students by trying to expose students to the Christian faith, but also help them plan for their futures in the post-college world. Jubilee gives students the opportunity to be part of a community, even if it is just for a weekend, which expands on the teachings of the Bible and our calling as Christians.

You can sign up for Jubilee online. Tickets went on sale Thursday, Oct. 4. The conference takes place on Feb. 22-24, 2019. Online, you can see the different deals that take place for students vs. non-students. You are able to purchase a conference pass, which is just for the events that take place, or a pass for four people and a hotel room for the weekend. The CCO blocks off rooms at a Pittsburgh hotel every year for anyone who is coming in from out of town or anyone who would like to be close to the conference for the weekend. It is a great offer and a great weekend for a group of friends or a family to join and learn more about God and what it means to be a Christian. I promise you, Jubilee will not let you down. Check out the link below to sign up and view promo videos of 2019’s Jubilee conference.

https://www.jubileeconference.com/