Category: Campus Events

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What are you looking for in your Dream College? l Career Services

College is expensive; I am just being honest. Also, college is a lot of work. It is a lot of work in the stage that you are in, searching for “your dream college.” While you are at college having loads of work, essays, and exams and even after college while you are working to pay off the cost of attending an institution of higher education, it is a lot of work. This college search, or any part of college that is, is no easy process. This is why, if you are anything like me, while carrying out your college search and determining which colleges to visit or apply to, you have made yourself a list of things that are important to you.

Drawing from my own personal experience my list included things such as a nice campus, big dorm rooms, nice amenities, great food, tons of on-campus activities, and a community around the school that is busy and has a lot of activities for students. Looking back at this list I created as a junior in high school, I have come to realize that, first off, I confused college and my dream vacation spot and, secondly, that sure these things are nice but, in reality, I am going to college to get an education and with the hope that upon graduation I will be able to find a job. This may not be the most popular or exciting realization that you should at some point in your search come to, but it is true. Everyone eventually needs to get a job. This being noted, I would encourage all of you in search of a future education to begin looking into the career services department at the various institutions in which you are interested. At the least this can be a point of separation between institutions you are considering and can ultimately lead to your final decision on where you want to spend the next two to eight years of your life.

College is a big and quite expensive choice and you only get to make it once. I would encourage you to use all of the resources available to you (i.e. this blog) to make the most educated decision possible. All of this being noted, this blog is not suggesting to forget your old list; these are things that matter to you and deserve to be taken into consideration and should hold significant weight in your college decision. I just urge you, as a senior in college, as you perform this search, to remember why you are going to college and what your specific end goal is. Best of luck in your search!

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Event Recap: Grover Feud

On Friday, March 9, the Gamma Sigma Phi sorority and Sigma Phi Omicron housing group hosted the 2nd annual Grover Feud in Crawford Auditorium. The event was based off the television game show, “Family Feud”, with a twist of questions based on Grove City College’s campus and student life. There were a maximum of 18 teams that registered with six members on each team. Teams ranged from groups of friends, sports teams, housing and Greek groups, and even a team of professors and faculty on campus! Grover Feud’s proceeds went to Young Life, a popular ministry on Grove City’s campus, in order to help send a high school student to camp in the summer. There were approximately 370 people who attended the event, which was over twice as many as the prior year.

All in attendance were able to enjoy the friendly competition between students and faculty, and get a good laugh from the jokes cracked by the student hosts, Kristen Bishop and Joe Colosimo. Those watching also had fun trying to figure out the answers to questions such as, “Name the funniest professor on campus.” As the teams battled their way through the single-elimination bracket, the final round came down to Nu Lambda Phi and Risky Business (the team of primarily business professors and faculty). In the end, Risky Business came out on top with a win. The members on the team included, Mr. and Mrs. Sweet, Dr. Carson, Dr. Baglia, Dr. Grimm, and Mandie McCreadie.

Team Alpha Omega

Gamma Sig senior, Elaina Kimpel, was the mastermind behind the event and came up with the idea to host it last year. Elaina’s thoughts on this year’s event concluded with, “Grover Feud was just an idea I came up with my sophomore year here at Grove City College that I thought would be a ‘cool event’ to put on. Two years later, that ‘cool event’ became one of the biggest fundraisers here at the school where it was able to bring over 400 students and faculty together for one night to do something fun as a college. That “cool event” would come to raise almost $1,000 over the past two years for organizations that help share the love of Jesus Christ to others in surrounding communities.”

All in all, Grover Feud was a huge hit on Grove City’s campus, and it was a great way for students to spend their Friday evening!

Winning Team: Risky Business
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Looking Forward to Junior Crimson Day

Calling all High School Juniors!

If you are a junior in high school, Grove City College would love to see you at Junior Crimson Day on April 21! The event will begin at 8 a.m. in the Physical Learning Center and will last until 2:30 in the afternoon. Up to 1,200 students and parents will be in attendance to get their first inside look at Grove City, and they will experience much of what the College has to offer.

After morning registration, optional sessions are provided to learn about financial aid and how to plan for college. Following these sessions, president of Grove City College, Paul J. McNulty (’80), will present a warm welcome to everyone. After listening to and learning from other respectable speakers, those attending will be able to explore the campus with various activities scheduled. Those activities include:

  • Major Interest Fair
    • Learn about the various majors at Grove City
  • Residence Hall Sneak Peek
    • A look inside freshmen halls and dorm rooms
  • Walking Tour
    • Escorted by student tour guides
  • Lunch
    • Provided by Grove City’s dining halls
  • Financial Aid and College Planning 101 Sessions
    • In case you missed the morning sessions!

Personal Experiences

After speaking with two current students about their experiences at Junior Crimson Day, I found that they were both impacted in a positive way. Attending this event helped guide them in their college decision, and it could do the same for you!

“Junior Crimson Day allowed me to see the school in a more realistic sense than I would have on a tour of the campus. I was able to spend two nights with students in their dorm rooms, exposing me to what life is like at Grove City College. The scheduled events gave my parents and I insight to what the College offers and values, along with the logistics of actually attending.”

-Gretchen Basham, Freshman

“Junior Crimson Day was the first time I had visited Grove City. I fell in love with the school by getting to see how the current students volunteered their time to be speakers, and even all the students who were working were helpful and relatable. After coming to Grove City, I decided I wanted to be able to impact incoming students the way I was impacted, so I joined the admissions team and have got to work at two Junior Crimson Days which has been a great experience”

-Victoria Graf, Senior

Registration

If you would like to register for Junior Crimson Day, you can sign up at http://www.gcc.edu/Info/Events-News/Admissions-Events/Open-Houses/Junior-Crimson-Day. The registration link is located at the bottom of the page.

Grove City College welcomes all who are available to come, and we hope to see you on April 21!

 

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What to Expect at Admitted Student Day

The Event

Grove City College will be hosting its annual Admitted Student Day on Saturday, April 7, 2018 from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. This event is a great opportunity for accepted high school seniors to experience an entire day on Grove City’s campus with a full schedule of sessions presented by various groups. These sessions will offer information about several resources on campus such as the Office of Career Services and the Office of Student Life & Learning. In addition, students will be able to connect with each other and meet their potential classmates during mock classes and the Grover Connect Mixer hosted by the Orientation Board (OB). Meanwhile, parents will get the chance to learn about their child’s future education through seminars hosted by the Academic Resource Center and the Office of Financial Aid.

Student Experiences

I had the chance to talk with two current Grove City College students about their personal experiences at Admitted Student Day, and how it helped them before arriving to campus in the fall.

“I was already committed when I went to Admitted Student Day, but being there helped me out in so many different ways. Coming from a small high school, it was really awesome to see so many potential classmates, and be given the opportunity to meet them and interact with them through different things that OB put on throughout the day. It also gave me a picture of what it would look like to be on campus with other people. … In general, it just got me really excited to be going there and to really get a feel for what being a Grove City student would look like.”

-Rebecca Cloyd, Freshman

“My biggest thing about Admitted Student Day was meeting other students who were admitted too. It got me excited about going college with these people, and I made some friends that day who are still my friends today. I loved the community and that’s what helped me decide to come to Grove City.”

-Maddison Reapsome, Junior

Register

If you would like to attend Admitted Student Day at Grove City College, the registration tab is located at the bottom of http://www.gcc.edu/Info/Events-News/Admissions-Events/Open-Houses/Admitted-Student-Day. The website also gives a detailed schedule of events for the day and what more to expect. All in attendance will be asked to report to the Physical Learning Center at the beginning of the day. Grove City hopes to see you there!

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Community Focus: Sweet Jeanie’s

Sweet Jeanie's, Grove City, PA

Grove City College has a special relationship with many of the local businesses, but Sweet Jeanie’s is one of the sweetest. Sweet Jeanie’s is a local ice cream shop that opened in the spring of 2015. It is owned by a local couple and they quickly became very involved with the College. I have personally worked with them twice now, and have heard about several other partnerships.

The first time I worked with Sweet Jeanie’s was in the spring of my sophomore year. For my Sales in the Startup class we were assigned a project in which we had to use our sales skills to raise money for a charity that we had worked with throughout the class. My group approached the owners of Sweet Jeanie’s and asked if they would be willing to work with us so that we could sell cups of ice cream to professors to gift to their classes during the last week of the semester. Sweet Jeanie’s sold us their homemade ice cream at their cost and gave us space to scoop the ice cream into plastic cups which they provided for us. They then stored the ice cream cups for us as we slowly delivered the cups over several days. On the evening that we scooped the ice cream into cups they were very hospitable, despite not making any profit from us, and their employees asked us several times throughout the evening if they could get us anything or could help us in any way.

The second time that I worked with Sweet Jeanie’s was to host a Residence Life event. I am an RA, and as such I have to plan and host several programs throughout the year. I partnered with the owner of Sweet Jeanie’s, Jeanie, and two local Lularoe consultants to discuss women in business. Sweet Jeanie’s provided us with an ice cream bar and again only charged us the cost of the food – they even brewed us an urn off coffee for free! Jeanie spoke at the program about her experience as an entrepreneur and let us use their space free of charge. Again, everyone was incredibly hospitable and offered to help us several times.

Sweet Jeanie’s is a great example of the College’s relationships with local businesses. While the environment at Grove City College is welcoming. loving, and all around Christian, so is the local environment. So often I hear about feuds between college students and local people in areas with other colleges, but this is not the case in Grove City. The College and the local community work together to make Grove City an all around great place to live.

Be sure to stop by and visit Sweet Jeanie’s next time you’re in Grove City!

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AEX-mas 2017: Recap on What Happened This Year

It’s Saturday of finals week. Some students are in the thick of taking exams and studying, while some are anxiously awaiting break and finals on Monday and Tuesday before leaving. Nevertheless, campus is full of very busy and stressed individuals.

Yet one event on campus gives students the opportunity to de-stress halfway through finals! The housing group Alpha Epsilon Chi (AEX) hosts the only event allowed to occur on campus during finals: AEX-mas. Here’s the inside scoop!

Preparation:

With it being finals, there is not a whole lot of time to prepare for the event. Some members of the group do not have finals that day, so they are responsible for the set up. This event takes place on the AEX hall, the second floor of Lincoln building, so it’s relatively close for the guys.

The lights get strung, and the rooms are decorated into various activity rooms (explained later on). The smell of Wassail fills the air and a cold breeze flows in from one of the rooms. It is for some when Christmas officially begins.

Event Time!

From 7-11 p.m., everyone is invited onto the hall to celebrate Christmas and relax. There are rooms with food and drinks, as well as a caroling room where hymnals get passed out and all join in with song. Beside the extra lounge rooms there’s also the North Pole, where one room lets their windows wide open and the cold air freezes the one room and chills the rest of the hall. There are even pictures with Santa and crafts to round out all the festivities.

All in all, this event in one that is unique for both its timing, and for its closeness that is created as a result. Friends come together and interact with others they might not normally see and share conversation, carols, and sit around the craft table together and share in the finals study break time.

This year in particular, a handful of students stuck around after the event was over and had an impromptu worship session with guitars and other various instruments. Both guys and girls, seniors to freshman. This even unifies the campus and prepares hearts and attitudes towards the Christmas spirit. I am very fortunate to have been a part of this event and a part of this housing group.

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Why Chapel?

Grove City College Chapel

You may know that there is a Chapel attendance requirement for students at Grove City College, but you may not know its purpose.

Full time students at Grove City College are required to attend a minimum of 16 Chapel events per semester. There are many opportunities to attend these events, but the most popular ones are on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9:25-9:50. There are no classes at this time. For more information on the basic requirements or to see the current Chapel schedule take a look at the Grove City College web page about the Chapel Program.

Why this requirement, though? Chapel is one of the things that makes Grove City College unique. It provides a consistent opportunity to come together as a school and worship Christ together. Students often attend more than their required 16 for the semester, because nobody wants to miss the great speakers and programs that are put on. The requirement ensures that all students experience the Christian community at Grove City in a formal way, because there is something to be gained from a formal Christian community in addition to the genuine Christian attitudes of faculty, staff, and other students.

New to the Chapel program this year is a themed schedule – this past fall semester Tuesday chapels all revolved around loving and knowing God and Thursday chapels revolved around loving our neighbor. These messages often created conversations that stemmed beyond the 25-minute chapel presentation and lasted for several weeks – they gave the campus community a shared lesson to learn about, grow from, and debate about.  They contribute to the well-rounded education we receive at Grove City College in and out of the classroom.

My favorite Chapel event of the year has always been All-Campus Worship at the beginning of the fall semester. During the first week of classes Orientation Board hosts a worship night on the quad, and there is always a huge turn out. It is a time to praise God and come together to start off the year right in worship of Him. This event has always showed me what it means to be part of a greater community, and though the weather at Grove City is known to be unpredictable it has been beautiful for this event in each year of my time here.

This year I was “on duty” in my residence hall during all campus worship (I am an RA, and being on duty means that I must remain in the building for the duration of the night to check for facility concerns and to maintain safety and community standards), so I watched from a second floor window in my residence hall. Watching the campus sing together on the quad was beautiful, and even from within my building I could feel God’s presence. I was reminded of why our Chapel program is put in place – to encourage us to worship and grow together.

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Opportunities at Grove City College

When I was a freshman at Grove City, I remember filling out an application for something and it asked me “How will your college be different because you have been there?” To be honest, this question completely stumped me. At the time, I had no idea how I (an average student from a tiny high school in the middle of nowhere) would be able to have any impact at all on Grove City College.

Now, two and a half years later, I can look back and see how that question has shaped my college experience thus far. It struck a chord somewhere within me and I began to search for opportunities to impact people and the college community during my four years here.

My search was far more fruitful than I could have imagined. For the sake of simplicity, I will summarize my results in three categories:

1. Opportunities for learning…outside the classroom

Grove City College hosts numerous guest lecturers and discussion events every semester. The topics range anywhere from Ronald Reagan to worldwide missions to “Wasting Time Well.” I have enjoyed events like the annual Reagan Lecture, Missions Conference, and tea time with Grove City women. There are also numerous Bible studies and smaller discussion groups. These types of opportunities have allowed me to learn from both my peers and renowned speakers, and attending them offers support to the College and the types of events that they will continue to hold in the future.

2. Opportunities for leadership

More often than not, this goes hand-in-hand with point number three. Here at Grove City, opportunities for leadership exist everywhere you look. Students have leadership opportunities in over 150 clubs and organizations. These range from Student Government to Greek groups to campus ministries to professional and academic organizations to intramural sports to academic honoraries, and the list could go on. Personally, these opportunities have helped me find my voice and built me into the person I am today.

3. Opportunities for service

Service opportunities abound on this lovely campus. Many, if not all, of the leadership opportunities mentioned above are fantastic ways to serve both your peers as well as the student body and community as a whole. Students have the opportunity to become Resident Assistants, to serve Christ on spring break Inner City Outreach (ICO) trips, and to take part in numerous campus and community ministries including Young Life, Project Okello, and a prison ministry. I have traveled to Ashland, Kentucky on an ICO trip every year over spring break, and those trips have been an excellent time of service, learning, growth, and blessing for me.

So Grove City College provides all of these magnificent opportunities, but what does that mean for students? It means that Grove City students have more opportunities to impact (and be impacted by) their peers and college community than you might realize. It means that Grove City College gives its students so much more than a four-year degree in their subject of choice – it offers them four years of personal growth and impact.

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Girl Scouts Come to Grove City College

Working on tangram puzzles.

This year, 13 girls from the Grove City Girl Scout Service Unit came to Grove City College to earn their robot badges. Girl Scouts has added some new badges this year. They include: showcasing robots, programming robots, and designing robots. The group contacted Grove City College for assistance in obtaining these badges.

Dr. Mohr, Professor of Electrical Engineering, said that the engineering department had some Lego Mindstorm robot kits that had been used previously for an Introduction to Engineering class. Since the kits were not being utilized, the College provided the kits to the Girl Scouts. The kits included wheels and motors, a computer brain called “the brick”, and an ultrasonic range sensor that measures distance.

Once a week for four weeks, the 4th grade girls came to Grove City College to work on designing, programming, and testing their robots. The goal was to be able to program the robot to stop before hitting a wall and then turn around and go another direction. The first week involved introductions and an overview. The second week was building the robot. The girls were split into four groups of three or four and came up with a design plan. The third week involved creating tangrams and writing instructions for others to solve the puzzle to practice programming. The final week was programming the robots on the computer using the software provided by the kit.

Programming the robot.
This robot features a “unicorn horn.”
The completed robot.

 

 

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Finals Week: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Finals Week

You have probably heard about finals week in general – probably in the form of some horror story including sleep deprivation, gallons of coffee, and impossible exams. Well, I am here to tell you that while those stories may be true for some people, it is definitely not the norm. In my opinion finals week is, dare I say it, actually kind of…fun!

I know what you are thinking – “This girl is a crazy nerd…or just plain crazy” – hear me out though. During the semester you have to balance so many things at once, going to classes, doing readings, writing papers, any extracurricular activities, taking care of yourself, and taking exams. It can get overwhelming, especially if your midterms line up at the same time like most tend to. Finals week is nothing like this. You have three things to balance: studying, taking exams, and self-care. When the entire campus (and even much of the surrounding community) is focused in on this one thing, it is a lot easier to knock finals week out of the park than typical horror stories lead you to believe.

Some basics about finals week at Grove City College before we jump in: Regular semester classes always run through Wednesday, with night classes taking their final during their typical class times during that week (night classes only run on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings).  Thursday is study day, meaning that there are no classes that day and that there are no final exams scheduled during that day. The first exam time is 7 p.m. on Thursday evening.  Starting with Friday there are three final slots a day on Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m. Final times are assigned by the Registrar based on what time classes meet during the semester.

The Good

As I just said, you only have three things to balance during finals week, which is a lot different than your typical week in any given semester. Along with this, the entire campus and even a lot of the surrounding community is all in your corner.

The first day of our official finals week is “Study Day.” Study Day is the last Thursday of the semester, and no classes or exams run on this day until the first final exam time slot at 7 p.m.  The entire campus community surrounds Grove City College students on this day with support – there are rooms open across campus for studying and several offices provide snacks and coffee free of charge throughout the day; several local churches open their doors to college students for a place to study and to relax, and some even provide a home cooked meal during this time. The library even brings in therapy dogs in the afternoon!

Our Student Government Association (SGA) sponsors a Moonlight Breakfast every semester which takes place at 9 p.m. – right after the first final exam slot. This is one of my favorite parts of finals week – there is almost an excited buzz in the dining hall as everyone comes together to share food and take a break from studying. This event brings the campus together and creates a sense of unity like nothing else.

For the rest of finals week you simply have to balance studying, taking exams, and packing to go home. There are no final exams scheduled on Sunday, so this is a great day to go to church, rest, relax, and spend time with friends before heading home.

The Bad

Finals week does not have its bad reputation for no reason, but it really is not as terrible as it sounds. A negative to finals week is that your finals schedule is pretty set in stone based on your class schedule – each class time is assigned a final exam time before the semester even starts. The only way to have an exam time changed is if you end up with three exams scheduled within a 24 hour period. This can cause frustrations for some people who want to leave campus earlier rather than later, but is not a huge problem if you look at your finals schedule when making travel plans.

At a certain point, generally later on in the week, you just want to take the exam and be done. Sometimes there is only so much studying you can do, and, unfortunately, even when you are done studying you may have to wait to take the exam. This can make for some times of boredom right before your exam. My suggestion to avoid this is to plan some study breaks throughout the week so that these pockets of time can be used as effective times to recharge, rather than an anxious waiting period right before your exam.

While the dining hall often starts finals week strong with nutritious meals and lots of comfort food, the end of the week can be a different story. As the campus empties out, so does the dining hall, and sometimes you need to get a bit creative with the different options to create a full meal – but it is possible.

The Ugly

Let’s face it, for most of the campus finals week is not a pretty time. Laundry gets put off and “stress mess” in dorm rooms is a real phenomenon.  This is not true of everyone, though – sometimes cleaning and presenting yourself well is a huge stress relief. If you are a messy stress kind of person, though, it is okay, you are in good company.

As long as we are talking about appearances with “the ugly” I should mention that our campus is actually beautiful during both finals weeks of the year. In December it is decorated for Christmas and there is often snow on the ground that makes for a beautiful winter scene and in May the quad is bright with green grass and the trees are full of leaves. There is not a point in the year where the campus scenery would fit into the category of “ugly”.

Finals Week: Overall

So you will survive finals week, and you may even enjoy it. It really is all about attitude during finals – take care of yourself, focus on the good, work hard, and it will all be okay.