STUDENT STORY

“When I was in high school, I was extremely shy. I hated talking to people, and I set a goal on my first day at Saginaw Valley State University to meet people and step outside my comfort zone. This was a major turning point for me to break out of my shell, and it provided me with the opportunity to have mentors. These older students shared my major and provided advice, which helped a lot.

Coming to SVSU helped me become more confident in everything I do, and now it seems easy to talk to my professors anytime. They’ve written references for me, assisted in scholarship applications, and I feel like I always have their support in what I’m doing.

I’ve been involved in many things on campus. I was an RA for two years, I’ve been a tour guide for four years, and I’m in Delta Sigma Pi (DSP), which is a coed business fraternity. When I first joined DSP, it was pretty nerve wracking. I had to give a speech in front of the entire fraternity, and although I wasn’t good at public speaking before, I now feel more confident after being a part of DSP over the years. The organization also allows us to attend conferences, and I was able to go to Chicago to speak with business students from all over the world. I talked about DSP in job interviews, and it helped prepare me for my future job with the accounting firm Deloitte.

Once I got to SVSU, I was really surprised by how friendly people were. Everyone waves, opens doors for you and there’s just friendly people everywhere. I was also surprised by the dorms. They were better than my room at home! Not having a curfew and being able to study late without anyone bothering me was a surprise, because I never realized how much freedom I would have in college.

Financial aid was very helpful for me. My grades were decent enough to recieve scholarships here, and I applied to a lot of private scholarships as well. I applied to everything I could, and I ended up receiving two private scholarships, which subsidized my costs even more. That’s a huge reason why I went to SVSU, because I didn’t find many other colleges that had as many scholarship opportunities for me as this university.”

(Sean, Accounting, Saginaw Valley State University)