Management grad thankful for BGSU experience

“The moment I stepped foot on the BGSU campus, I knew it was where I wanted to be.”

This is how Christina Green describes the way she felt when she first visited BGSU. “It was the last college I visited,” she said, “but the campus was beautiful and everyone was just so friendly and welcoming, I knew I wanted to go to school here.”

Green had already decided to earn a business degree, and BGSU’s College of Business Administration (CBA) further impressed her. “I had studied business for four years in high school, and I was impressed by the national rankings that the CBA had earned. I also really liked the fact that freshmen get involved in business classes right away and that many of them were experiential learning driven, giving students ownership over projects right from the start.”

Despite all that, Green faced a tough choice: travel to Bowling Green to complete her education, or stay in Akron and attend one of the universities closer to home? “My parents really challenged me by saying that if I could make my first year at BGSU affordable, they would let me complete my degree here.”

Green said scholarships helped her bridge that gap. Without the generous support of scholarship donors, “I could not have done this.”

It might sound like Green’s plan was set once she fell in love with the campus and finalized her funding, but there was a lot more to it.

“Even though I knew I wanted to come to school here and I knew I wanted a business degree, within BGSU’s business program there are a lot of specializations,” she explained. “In high school I had explored a career path in business law and industrial/organizational psychology.”

In the end, BGSU’s management specialization won her over, and she backed that up with a psychology minor.

Her studies led her to co-op experiences at Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems in nearby Elyria, Ohio, which enabled her to develop valuable skills in the organization’s human resources department. She said she has enjoyed recruiting, working on career ladders and helping Bendix create a new manager orientation program.

As Green’s time at BGSU ends, she said she treasures the relationships she has built through her classes, on-campus positions, student organizations and community service projects. “I have loved connecting with people of so many different backgrounds and identities here and hearing their stories.”

After graduation, she heads to Murfreesboro, Tenn. to pursue her master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology — a natural progression of her management and psychology studies here.

Even as she moves nearly 500 miles away from Bowling Green, “I feel so much pride for BGSU, and I’m so thankful that I was able to earn my degree here,” Green said. “It’s made me who I am today.”