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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.

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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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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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IM Leagues

Intramural Sports (IM Sports) are pretty huge at Grove City College…like, “one of the best programs” kind of huge. Most of the student body participates in some IM sport each year, and there are IM leagues for just about anything you could think of. Everything from IM Basketball to IM Settlers of Catan exist. All of them occur each year on campus.

Registering and signing up for IM sports in the past was a pretty cumbersome process. For sports, you had to fill out a release of liability form for each sport. When a student plays in several sports each year, this got pretty tiring. Plus, if your team had a conflict with one of your scheduled game times and wanted to request a time change, you primarily had to communicate via email with the other team’s captain, which took up too much time to accomplish a fairly easy task.

This year, Grove City College switched over to IM Leagues, an app that handles all aspects of IM sports, and things have been so much easier. Inside the app, a student can register for a sport, join a team, and sign off on their waiver form all digitally. Once part of a team, the schedules are then uploaded to the app, which provides alerts for when one has an upcoming game. There are tons of features that seem like they come right from fantasy football, like the ability to trade players and pick up “free agents” (those who do not have a team).

So far, the transition to the app has gone pretty smoothly, which has eliminated a lot of the common headaches that students have to deal with. It also has helped keep more teams accountable with showing up to games, which has allowed everyone to actually play instead of facing a last minute cancellation due to a communication error beforehand.

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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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Confessions of an Orientation Board Member

Orientation Board (OB), the group of overly excited upperclassmen clad in crusty white T-shirts. Whether it was a question brought to the info booth, the screaming madness of move-in day, or the connection group “parent,” every student has encountered the infamous OB member. It seems that the reactions to OB can be very polarized, some feeling energized themselves by these people while others do everything in their power to avoid this group.

So, what is this group and what is its mission? This is a group of around 100 students who apply to be a part of Orientation Week at Grove City College. This diverse group forms in the spring, where the members prepare and pray for the new students even before they commit to Grove City College. The mission statement of the group is as follows:

Our mission is to show Christ’s love to new students on campus through relationship, service, and prayer.

The mission of OB is simple and has Christ at the focus, which drew me to want to apply along with how fun loving and outgoing this group was. The first year I applied, I was so excited and nervous to find out if I would be accepted and which of the five committees I would be placed on. I was lucky enough to be selected, which was surprising to me because it was a selective group due to the numerous applications OB receives every year. I was placed on the Religious committee, which I was not expecting, but has turned out to be one of my biggest blessings.

Being a part of Orientation Board for the past three years was a huge part of my experience at Grove City College, but I will not pretend that it was always easy. As energetic and crazy as the OB members may be in the first two weeks, the down time we have is cherished greatly. Many members of Orientation Board are extroverted, but many are more introverted in their personalities. Either way, it is impossible for anyone to be on the top of their game when so much is asked of the OB members over the first two weeks of school. From planning, setting up, executing, and cleaning up each of the events, things can get hectic pretty easily. The amount of running around and planning that happens behind the scenes is typically underappreciated. As a member of Orientation Board, I can testify to the fact that this is a hard job, but it is also so rewarding.

As much as OB works to serve the incoming students, the way this group works, also, has been able to pour into the other members of OB. Within the five committees of the organization, there are many opportunities to meet and invest in the lives of people you may not have met before. It provides a way to work with people towards a common goal. You meet people who care about you and your well-being, and that is seen from the time the committees form through the rest of your time at Grove City College. While some of the work is tiresome, I would apply to be a part of this every year I would be able to. Orientation Board has been a valuable and integral part to many students at Grove City College, and that is my confession.

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Going to College With a Sibling

Sophomore Gretchen Basham and her brother Sam Basham ’18 (Photo courtesy of Gretchen Basham)

There is something unique you may notice within the student population at Grove City College. Almost every student here at Grove City has some family connection to the College. Whether it is that their great grandpa went here, or that their mom went here, or even that their sibling attends Grove City College with them, and that they get to share in the experience.

At other schools this might not be a normal occurrence, but here at Grove City, legacy seems to matter, because many generations seem to admire Grove City College so much. I know many students on this campus who have had several family members attend Grove City College in the past, and many students that attend college and do life side-by-side their siblings.

Sophomore Gretchen Basham had an older brother, Sam, attend Grove City at the same time as her last year. When Gretchen was just coming to Grove City as a freshman, she had her brother on campus as a senior. When talking to Gretchen about what college was like when she went here with her brother this is what she had to say, “Going to college with my brother Sam was a good experience for me. He made coming to a school where I didn’t know anyone more comfortable. He was always across the way if I needed anything, and he was instrumental in introducing me to his friends, which added to the familiar faces on campus and led to new friendships.”

According the Gretchen, having a sibling at Grove City made the College more attractive because she was hesitant to go somewhere so far from home, where she did not know anyone. She was able to hear from him about his experience at Grove City College. Sam loved being at Grove City College, which was very helpful to Gretchen.

Gretchen told me, “Now that Sam has graduated I have realized how much I enjoyed him being here. His steady presence allowed me to be able to get advice and insight from his experience. We grew closer during the year we were at school together and now that he has graduated that has become more obvious.”

Gretchen said she had an expectation of going to college with a sibling and that it was as if she would feel like they were keeping tabs on her or that she would be annoyed by seeing her sibling everywhere. She told me that she was pleasantly surprised by the way she grew closer with her brother at college and the freedom she was still able to maintain while at Grove City.

Gretchen has a younger sister, Meredith, who is a senior in high school. Gretchen encouraged Meredith to apply to Grove City, and hopes they will form a stronger relationship, and have the joy of knowing she has a sibling around campus to always talk to once Meredith arrives here.

Personally, I have a younger brother, Lukas Blizzard, who is a senior in high school and applying early decision to Grove City. I encouraged him to apply and was able to share different perspectives and campus experiences with him that made him excited about the College. I look forward to experiencing college life alongside him and helping to guide him along the way.