Category: College Advice

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Exercise Science Internship Opportunities in Pittsburgh

Nate Sprunk is a senior Exercise Science major with a minor in Psychology.  Nate is from Wexford, PA. He is currently treasurer of the Beta Sigma fraternity on campus. The summer after his junior year, he had an internship at Pittsburgh Veteran’s Administration Hospital located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Nate happens to be a good friend of mine. I roomed with his fiancé my junior year. Priya was a senior at the time and Nate was a junior. This past June, I was a bridesmaid at their wedding! The two of them had a busy summer working out their jobs, living arrangements, and adjusting to married life. I did not have the opportunity to keep in touch as much as I had hoped. This semester I have been able to catch up with Nate and hear more about his summer.

When I asked Nate about his role with the company and what he accomplished that summer he replied, “I was an undergraduate rehab intern. I assisted in the inpatient and outpatient clinics. I observed, cleaned equipment, escorted veterans back and forth from their rooms to the clinic, performed wheelchair follows, and I conducted an educational in-service project for the inpatient staff.”

I followed with, “Did you enjoy your experience?” Which he answered, “I did. I learned more about the field of physical therapy and how clinics operate. After my experience, I feel more comfortable working in a clinical setting.”

Nate did not receive a job offer from Pittsburgh Veteran’s Administration Hospital. He still has to attend graduate school to work as a Physical Therapist, but Nate could potentially complete one of his clinical rotations at the same VA clinic in the future. He plans on staying in the Pittsburgh area after graduation to live with Priya and stay close to their families.

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Inside Married Life: Priya Sprunk’s Perspective

Priya Sprunk was a Psychology major with a concentration in Exercise Science during her time at Grove City College. As a member of the 2017 graduating class, Priya still feels very connected with the students. She was a member of the Sigma Theta Chi sorority, and still holds close relationships with the current girls, along with alumni. About a month after graduation, Priya was married to her best friend, Nate Sprunk, who changed her formerly the last name of Graczyk. Since Nate is a current senior at The Grove, Priya was able to shed some light on their relationship while in different stages of their lives.

When asked what it is like with Nate still in school, Priya responded with:

“It is different for sure. It is a somewhat challenging dynamic when one person in a relationship works full time and one is a student full time. I sometimes wish I didn’t have to live in my college town because it makes me feel like I haven’t fully moved on from college. However, my job helps me feel like I’m making a difference, which helps. I work as an instructor for adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities who have graduated from high school, but still, need to develop independent living and employment skills before living on their own. I really enjoy it!”

Priya stressed how it has been hard to make time for other friends after working full time and then coming home to spend time with Nate.  However, she feels that marriage has helped both become more independent and hard-working, along with giving them the happiness of living together.

“We met about 10 years ago when I was in 7th grade and Nate was in 6th grade. We were part of the same youth group and were always close friends. I had a huge crush on him, but we didn’t start dating until the summer of 2014 before my freshman year at Grove City College. The college time together helped us grow together; I don’t even recognize the young and immature teenage couple we were four years ago. Living in a Christian environment helped me grow spiritually and make Christian friends who hold me accountable while encouraging me. Later we began to think about marriage as we started thinking about our future careers and what we wanted for our lives.  By the fall of my junior year after many discussions by ourselves, with both sets of parents, and with friends, we had decided we were ready to commit our lives to each other. We were engaged the following March,” Priya said.

Priya and Nate continue to enjoy each other’s company, build upon their relationship, and focus on God. By attending church, reading their Bibles, and praying together, their commitment to growing spiritually has shown in their actions toward others and each other. They lift one another up while practicing patience and empathy in the hard moments. Priya looks forward to their awesome future.

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Favorite Aspects of Grove City College – The Atmosphere

When looking at other colleges my senior year of high school, I thought I really liked the bigger city campuses like Pitt or Duquesne, but the more I considered walking to classes every day and the feeling of overall safety, I decided that those campuses were not for me. As much as I wanted to rebel against every aspect of Grove City College, it felt more like home with each visit, especially since a large portion of my family are alumni.

Over the past four years, I have loved the small campus. Yes, there are times that I wished I had an abundance of restaurant options or more places to visit, like Penn State, but it has challenged me to find excitement even when it seems lacking. With my love for photography, the open, quiet town and outskirts of Grove City have made for interesting subjects of my camera. Walking around the train tracks, down Pinchalong road, through the peaceful neighborhoods, over the beautiful campus, and in the quaint downtown have been a few of my favorite parts of attending this college.

With the small campus comes more personal relationships among the student body, professors, coaches, and administrative staff. In talking with students who attend larger colleges, they are always amazed that I go and sit with my advisor regularly to catch up on each other’s home life. I appreciate my relationships with everyone on this campus and how influential they will be even post-college. It is crazy to think that my freshman year roommates will be there for monumental moments in my future, as I will be with them. My faith has genuinely grown during my time here, from friends, teachers, the incorporation in classes, and the overall Christian values of the College.  Although graduation will be bittersweet, I know that the lessons and morals I have strengthened at Grove City College will always be with me.

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Rob Kunst – Balancing Football & School

Rob Kunst, a senior Finance major and Analytics minor, has played football all four years during his time at Grove City College. He began playing his junior year of high school, sparking his passion for the sport. Rob’s decision to play college football was inspired by his two uncles, alumni football players from Grove City. His dad also played football during his time at California University of Pennsylvania. “I knew playing football in college wasn’t going to be easy, and as crazy as it sounds, I think that’s why I did it. I wanted to be pushed, tested, and have an opportunity to learn lessons that can’t be taught in a classroom,” Rob explained. He specifically chose to come to Grove City College for the academic reputation, religious atmosphere, friendly culture, and strong alumni network.

Coach Chris Smith, the College’s head coach on the previous staff, recruited Rob four years ago, along with coaching his two uncles way back when. In high school, Rob played tight end and inside linebacker. He came to college as a tight end but has evolved into a tight end and wide receiver hybrid.

Rob discussed his football season schedule, as it is a year-round commitment. For pre-season, players receive an optional summer training book with detailed regimen regarding lifting, running, conditioning, and nutrition. With three years of past summer internships, Rob was challenged with fitting training into a structured 40-hour work week. He worked hard to start his days at 5:30 in the morning for training before work, a process that eventually came naturally in his day to day life.

After a rigorous routine of “eat-sleep-football” during August football camp, the season begins … but so does school. Football is six days per week, including games on Saturdays, until about mid-November. Balancing football and school is not easy, but Rob found a way to stay organized and use prioritization skills daily.

The post/off season begins with lifting after Thanksgiving, leading into the spring semester of school. After months of daily training, April brings Spring Ball, a time where the NCAA permits team practices on the field three days per week for five weeks. In addition to the training and practicing in the spring, there are also team meetings one night per week that include senior leadership training.

Head coach Andrew DiDonato has been a huge blessing for Rob; he has a positive mindset no matter the situation, takes responsibility for all of his actions, strives for a successful life, finds joy in helping others, and works effectively even with challenges. “One of the biggest lessons in faith has been that true, overflowing, and everlasting joy comes from a meaningful relationship with God. If that’s what fuels my fulfillment and happiness, then there’s nothing in this world that can take my joy away. Living this out has changed my life and strengthened my walk with Christ,” Rob said. Although Rob will not develop his football career after college, he plans to support coach DiDonato and the Grove City College football program in any way he can.

“I have already began to apply lessons to academics, my career, and relationships. I would say that the most significant impact has been on my early career. To provide some context, I came into Grove City’s football program in the pit of its 33-game losing streak. There’s nothing fun about being part of a losing streak, but the experience of working towards ending one is priceless. Living out this challenge was the closest simulation I had to turning around a failing company in the business world. With that in mind, the lessons preached by successful entrepreneurs and business influencers about building a prosperous business align closely with the lessons that we had to implement as a team to improve our success. Therefore, these skills have been highly applicable to a business setting and have already helped me to succeed in several different business/finance internships and secure a full-time position with an exceptional company in August of 2018 – before even stepping foot on Grove City’s campus as a senior. These lessons aren’t a secret, and they’re not ‘life hacks.’ They just require necessary discipline to live out and follow every day,” Rob said.

After graduation, Rob will be based in New York City and can help large companies solve complex business issues as a consultant at Protiviti, a global management consulting firm that helps its clients solve problems in areas like business process, analytics, internal audit, and technology. Rob’s goal to become a consultant stems from being a part of the transformation that is taking place within Grove City College’s football program. He wants to help companies, managers, and executives become better at what they do, along with reaching their goals. Rob is excited to have the opportunity to help and grow with Protiviti. He thanks his influential professors, coaches, internship colleagues, members of the Career Services Office, and quality friends for the constant support and compassion.

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Audit Internship Tips III: Three tips to Help You Succeed!

“An auditor’s job is to perform tests of a company’s financial statements and perform other various assurance acts to provide their clients and their client’s stakeholder’s confidence in the preparation of financial statements and confidence in the processes in place at a client’s location. ”

In having performed an audit internship, I would like to believe that I worded this brief description of an auditor’s duties in a way that not everyone would understand, and if you are one of those who does not understand, there is no need to fret. It will come to you. The vocabulary I used, which is hopefully what made my description harder to understand (if it was the way I write what do you expect? I am an accounting major, not an English major), leads to my first audit tip. When you arrive on the first day of your internship, take notes on the vocabulary and acronyms commonly used at the firm. In taking notes, it will provide you more confidence and make you more comfortable in day to day conversations with fellow employees of the firm and their clients. Also, by making it a point to learn this vocabulary and lingo, it will better prepare you to be successful in your internship and in your career as an auditor. One final note in applying this strategy of close observation and use of audit vocabulary is do not be afraid to ask what something means. Most firms love when incoming staff and interns ask questions, so stand out of the crowd and ask!

My second, and equally crucial tip is to refresh your Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF skills. This is crucial because most firms’ software simply uses these applications for documentation for their work papers. So, by keeping up to date with your knowledge of these applications and by continuously learning new formulas and ways to do tasks in these types of applications, your efficiency on the job will be increased and will surely impress your employer. Even if you refresh your skills and it turns out your firms’ software does not use these applications, these are applications that you will commonly use for tasks outside of the audit, so comprehending how to perform tasks quickly via these applications will make you more efficient and more effective in work and in life.

My third tip for a soon to be (or not soon to be) audit intern would be to not fall into the common college student mindset and think that what you learned in your first two to four years of college was a waste just because a lot of the skills used by an auditor on a daily basis do not seem to implement much of what you learned. When you find yourself in conversation with fellow engagement team members, this knowledge learned throughout your time in college should provide you insight on what is the correct way to account for a specific situation or what a general journal entry to record depreciation should look like. Although you may find yourself during the internship questioning what you learned throughout your time in college and its application to this potential job opportunity you are/will be working at, there will be glimpses of times where you find yourself in a discussion being able to contribute something to the conversation or being able to have some insight on the topic to help the team understand some entry or to catch a potential issue. It is these small things that can generally make or break an engagement and if you keep in mind what you have learned over the past few years, this will contribute to your success as an auditor.

These are three of my main tips I would give to anyone pursuing an internship in the field of audit. With this being said, there are many more resources out there for current and future auditors. So do not be afraid to search the web or even look into and keep up with the current Accounting Standard Updates (ASU). Also, if you are interested in reading about more tips in audit or college or any topic let us know! Feel free to comment on this blog or to contact the blog via the contact tab with your own questions. We would love to help!

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Audit Internship Tips II: You Are Not Alone

So, you just read a whole blog post and you have not learned anything? You are right where you were before the start of the blog and are still (A) confused what audit is and reading this for future reference or (B) waiting for some tips for that internship you start next month.

No matter which group you may fall into, you are probably a bit confused and slightly annoyed, but this is normal. This is all part of the process of being an audit intern. You start unsure, then get stressed with all of the pressure of interviews and networking, then you finally get an offer and you become dazed and confused about what you just got yourself into. That is what I am here for, though. In providing tips, I hope to not just give you the general speech telling you that there is no way to prepare for it (that I noted in the previous blog). Instead, I hope to supply you with some useful advice and necessary skills, which will supply you the opportunity to be successful in this internship you will receive (or have already received).

So, let us finally get started. You have this internship and you want to be prepared and ready to take it on and provide the employer your best effort, but how do you do that and what is audit? For those of you who do not know what audit is, the best place to start this journey is to first describe and discuss what an auditor does. An auditor’s job is to perform tests of a company’s financial statements and perform other various assurance acts to provide their clients and their client’s stakeholder’s confidence in the preparation of financial statements and confidence in the processes in place at a client’s location. It is with this definition that we can move on into the final blog of the series and really dig into both what this career path known as audit is and FINALLY hear the precious tips you have been waiting quite patiently for.

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Audit Internship Tips I: An Introduction to The Process

Are you an incoming freshman planning on majoring in accounting or a college student looking for an accounting internship? If so, you may find this blog a bit helpful and encouraging.

At some point over the next couple of years, when you decide to start looking for an internship (or if you already started looking), you are bound to come across a lot of audit internship opportunities. The reasoning for this is twofold. First, audit internships are usually the main internship opportunity that public accounting firms offer during the summer due to their year-round need. Secondly, because early in the school year (September/August and around the time of the Career Fair), is when the Big Four accounting firms (EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG) start hiring, this is also when regional firms begin looking. With this abundance of opportunities and the encouragement of your colleagues and friends, you will then (if you have not already started) go out and apply at these firms. In applying, your goal is to get an interview. In doing so, you will go through your first, second, and, yes, even third round of interviews at these various firms. Then, if you are one of the lucky ones, get an offer.

So, now that you have this offer (or offers), you will more likely than not find yourself in the place I once was a short six months ago. You have an internship at a public accounting firm in audit, but if you were asked to tell someone what an audit was you would not even know where to start. Even with your lack of knowledge of the field you accepted the offer anyway and act confident and cool, when deep inside you are having a mini-heart attack because you are not sure what auditing even is and everyone you talk to who has had an internship in audit before just tells you that, “Audit is different. Class can’t really prepare you for what you will be doing on a daily basis as an auditor,” which, if I’m being honest, is true to some extent but this is where I come in…

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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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I Spent a Week Without a Phone (and I Survived)

No calls. No texts. No alarms or reminders from an app. That was my life this past week here on campus.

Now, I am not the type of guy who needs to have my phone on me at all times, but as a student in business, I certainly use my phone for everyday things. For example, I always schedule out my day on my calendar app and I have reminders that tell me when I need to leave for class. Snapchat was even a productive tool for me because my friends and I would make our dinner plans through the chat function. So, when my phone broke and became unusable, my day-to-day processes were altered.

I could have just bought a new phone that day, but I decided I would take a week and try to do things the “old-fashioned” way. This includes (but is not limited to), writing down meetings in a planner, whistling to pass the time while waiting for a friend, and showing up at dinner with the hopes that I know someone in the cafeteria. I was worried that after a week like this I would feel out of the loop, but what I realized was that I actually started to feel more connected to people.

I found that when I spent time with others, I was more involved in our exchanges and I cared more about what was going on in their life. I appreciated hearing stories more. I felt less self-conscious about little things and was able to be more confident throughout the day. Also, I became more productive when I sat down to study – there was not a screen across the desk to distract me.

My phone-fast is coming to an end soon, I am planning on getting a new one within the next couple of days. I am not saying that going offline is the right option for everyone, but it may be worth a try if you are having a hard time focusing while studying or if you find yourself feeling blue after browsing through your Instagram feed. This past week taught me to place less value on my phone, and to invest more into my work and my friends here on campus.

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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.