Category: Careers

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Career Fair 2018

Grove City College hosts a Career Fair every year, which provides an awesome opportunity for students to network for potential jobs and for employers to find potential employees. It is a win-win situation for both sides in the business world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year, the college celebrated 20 years of a successful event. Last year, around 170 employers and graduate schools along with 1,200 students attended for an abundance of professional socialization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students of all years and majors attend the Career Fair. Even the freshmen who are not necessarily looking for a job; it is a great way to practice one’s elevator pitch, interview skills, and speaking ability with business people. For seniors, it can serve as the way to land a job for directly after graduation. With the event being around September every year, it can put senior students at ease for the rest of the academic year if they know they already have a job in place for post-graduation.  Even if a job is not found directly at the Career Fair, students can build relationships with business people to meet others down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students engage with businesses to understand their company goals, meanings, and morals. With a variety of businesses showcased at the Career Fair linked to specific majors, like Accounting, Finance, Engineering, Business, Biblical and Religious Studies, and more, students have the ability to meet their potential employer or network to eventually reach another company.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, the Career Fair is a wonderful way to look for jobs. Even if it does not specifically cater to a specific major or job interest, making connections with people can be the start of finding the perfect career. Many students can attest to the potential of Grove City College’s Career Fair with the ability to connect people and expand one’s professional circle into the real world after college.

 

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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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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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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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Myth Busted: If You Switch Majors You Will Not Graduate on Time, Chapter 2

Grove City College Chapel

It was not long into my second semester of college that I realized that I was again in a weird position. What is business management and why am I majoring in it? It was a good thing that at this point I was taking Principles of Management to find out. This only led me more astray though. I was again in the situation of, “What is this major and why am I in it if I do not know what I can do with it or if I even want to be a manager?” So, again I went in search of my calling. This second semester of college I took various types of business and economics classes trying to find my place in this big crazy world. Nothing “did it” (whatever “it” is) for me. I was forced to stay on this business track until I found what I wanted to do.

It was the first semester of my sophomore year that I found “it.” I was in Principles of Accounting with Professor Stone and I was not sure what it was but I was convinced that this “it” was in fact the “it.” At the end of that semester I decided to drop the business management major and pick up accounting (if you have not kept count until this point, this was my third different major). I continued on second semester of sophomore year as an accounting major and then into my junior year. I grew to appreciate the field and enjoy it more and more. That appreciation has led me to now, my second semester of my junior year, and I am still an accounting major.

Along this winding journey of major changes and confusion it was important for me to keep in mind my current position and what classes I needed to take to graduate on time, but this was the easy part. All three of my past and current advisors made this part of switching majors easy for me. They told me my current state and what I needed to take to graduate on time and even gave me pointers of how to spread the course load to minimize stress and maximize the value. I cannot stress enough that this was the easy part. You will figure it out, you will fit the classes that you need in. I am currently attempting to get a degree in accounting but to also acquire as close to 150 credits (128 credits is all that is required to graduate) as possible so that I can sit for my Certified Public Accountancy Exam (CPA Exam). I have made the classes fit, and so can you. No matter who you are, whether you switch majors six times or you do not switch majors at all, if you commit to finishing in four years (or five or six, whatever pace is most ideal to you) you can do it. In my journey to achieve 150 credits I have mapped out my schedule so that I will graduate with 146 credits. If I can do it, the kid who did not know what he wanted to do with his life and switched majors twice, then you can do it too!

Moral of the story is to have faith and meet with your advisors. It is funny how things come full circle. Did you notice how faith was one of the first things to come up when looking at how most people do not know what they want to do with their lives? This is because this faith is what allowed me and allows us as Christians to be joyful in times where we freak out because we have no idea of what we could do with our major and in times where we do not think that we can graduate on time. Faith is the overlapping factor. As Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” This walk, and this mindset of trusting in God that he will lead us to where we need to be has led me to being a junior accounting major, somewhere I would have never thought I would be as a senior in high school. So, have faith and God will lead you. We, as humans, do not know what we want to do with our lives because our lives here on Earth are in hindsight not for us, they are for a bigger purpose which we may one day fulfill in Heaven.

If you are interested in hearing more about my story or simply want to just personally contact me about any of your specific worries feel free to at gosstd1@gcc.edu. I would be glad to help a worried younger high school me build up the courage to do things that I never did and to help you succeed to your fullest potential! God bless!

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Graduate Early While Saving Money

Typically when you think about college, you think about it taking up four years of your life (or longer). Although I thoroughly enjoy college and all of the rigorous work, I constantly think about being done and having a “big girl” job. With that being said, when I heard someone mention “graduating early,” I had to look into it.

I went to my academic advisor and asked if graduating early was even possible for me. Shockingly, he said yes. Both of us looked into how many credits I would have to take each semester and the required classes needed for my major. My advisor told me he thought it was a great idea to try and graduate a semester early. He mentioned the benefits of starting the job search early and bringing joy to my bank account.

Every major at Grove City College has a Status Sheet which gives the required hours for each major and a suggested four-year course plan. Looking at mine (for Marketing Management), I noticed that some semesters only had 14 or 15 credit hours listed while others had the maximum of 17. If I tried to graduate a semester early, I realized that I would most likely need to have 17 credits each semester. Even then, I still would not have enough hours to graduate. I had to look at my options.

My options would be to take online classes, which the College offers, or take over 17 credit hours during some semesters. I decided to go with the online class option. I have taken two of them so far through Grove City College, and have been delighted with the payoff. Both of my online courses were over our winter breaks, which allowed me to spend time with family and friends as well as gain credit hours. And if you decide not to graduate early, online courses are a great way to lighten your regular semester course load.

Another way I added credit hours was by completing a summer internship. I worked in the Marketing and Operations departments of a bank. I was able to earn four credits toward my major requirements through this experience which made it all the more worth while. I highly recommend internships for the work experience, but it is also extremely beneficial to receive college credit for them as well. Also, just as a side note, employers highly consider prospective employees that have done an internship. More importantly, the internships done for college credit can be checked out by the company you worked for along with your faculty sponsor at the College: win, win.

With all of that being said, it is absolutely possible to graduate a semester early. With the help of your advisor and by planning out the remainder of your semesters, obtaining that degree a little sooner than normal means substantial monetary savings as well as a jump on the job market.

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Reel Life at Grove City College: A Chat with Mark, Founder of Té Amo

Mark is an Entrepreneurship major at Grove City College and the founder of Té Amo Organic Tea. This socially conscious venture donates a percentage of its proceeds to plant trees in Haiti. For every tea bottle sold, Té Amo promises to plant one tree.

On this episode of Reel Life at Grove City College, I sat down with Mark to ask him about his business, the professors who inspired him, and the classes that helped him along his journey. Mark’s college experience is an adventure filled with risk and reward. By listening to his story, I hope you get the sense that college students can take many paths toward success, even toward entrepeneurial success, while still attending classes in a four year program.

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Law School Applications: Constant Support

Law School Applications

As a senior at Grove City College I am preparing to graduate and am applying to law schools. At first this process seemed similar to applying to colleges, but I soon realized that I was wrong – when I was applying to colleges every teacher in my high school knew the process and was able to assist me, but not everyone knows how law school functions or how the application process works.

One day I was talking to one of my entrepreneurship professors about how I felt like I was floating along in this confusing process, and he offered to connect me with his son-in-law, a recent law school graduate and a Grove City College alum. He sent me his son-in-law’s contact information and I set up a time for a phone call. This was an incredibly helpful conversation that gave me direction in the application and decision process – I am still receiving advice from my professor’s son-in-law and am so thankful for this connection.

My professor also suggested I contact one of the professors who teaches law classes at Grove City College, as well as the president of our college, President Paul J. McNulty. I was hesitant to contact both of these men – they did not know me, and certainly they were very busy.  I did email both of them, though, and both of them responded with offers to meet with me to help me feel grounded and succeed in this process. The law professor was tremendously helpful in making me feel like I was capable of succeeding in this process and helped me to gain the confidence to continue on with my applications.

Meeting with President McNulty was a great experience. He is a very knowledgeable man and knows a lot about how the field of law works. At first I was intimidated to contact him because of his high position at the College, but then I thought about how many times I had seen him in the dining hall with students and how friendly he was in each of his interactions. I am so glad that I did email him, though, because he scheduled a meeting with me very quickly and offered great advice. Our meeting was informative and comfortable.

Several of my professors and supervisors at Grove City College have graciously written recommendation letters for me, as well, and though I am sure that none of them needed another thing on their to-do lists they all seemed to be excited for me and genuinely happy to support my applications.

These experiences have convinced me that Grove City College is truly a tremendous community and was the best decision I could have made for where to go to college. Each of the people I have spoken to have been very helpful and very willing to assist me – even the president of the college is accessible to students.