Hello! My name is Blake Rainey, and I am a junior Political Science major with a minor in Spanish. I know the college admissions process can be challenging, believe me, whether it be the applications, scholarships, or even just making a decision – it is an important thing that can have a lasting impact on the rest of your life.
For me, I applied to over 15 schools and got an acceptance from all but one. While this made me ecstatic, it also came with the additional stress of making the right choice. The reason I chose Kent State was due to many factors, some of which being location, financial aid, and the feeling of being wanted. Unlike some of the other schools, Kent State actively checked in and helped to make the entire college admissions process easy and as stress free as possible.
My College Decision
I am currently a junior, however, one of the amazing opportunities that Kent offers is something called the “3+3 Program”. The 3+3 Program allows students with a law interest to finish three years of undergraduate study and then attend law school at a partnered school after their third year. This program is something I capitalized on and I am proud to say that upon completing my third year at Kent, I will be attending Case Western Reserve School of Law.
This program has helped me tremendously as I do not have to pay for a fourth year of undergraduate study and have accelerated my career path by a year.
A Key Research Paper
Another opportunity I have been able to take advantage of at Kent State came in the form of research. As a freshman, I took Comparative Politics with graduate professor Liam O’Brien. One of our assignments was what is called a reaction paper, which I turned into a research paper.
Professor O’Brien thought my research paper was worthy to submit to a Political Science conference, and with his one-on-one help I was given the opportunity to travel with him to Chicago and present my research at the 80th Annual Midwestern Political Science Association (MPSA) conference. Additionally, because I worked together with Professor O’Brien on this research paper, I was able to have him write a strong recommendation letter on my behalf for my law school applications.
This is an opportunity that I received because of Kent State, and it has helped me grow as a professional and positively impacted my life.
My Greek Life Experience
In addition to my academic successes at Kent State, I am also part of the Greek Life here. Since my first semester, I have been a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. In high school I was very much an introvert and coming into college, Greek Life was something that I had not put any thought into. But I cannot imagine my life without it as I have met some of my best friends through the fraternity and have grown myself personally by learning to step outside of my comfort zone and practice being an extrovert.
An example of this was when I served as my chapter’s Vice President of Member Development in my sophomore year.
Despite the great social aspect of fraternities, I believe the most important part of Greek Life is the philanthropies that each chapter has.
I participated in Alpha Phi’s King of Hearts my sophomore year where I solved a Rubik’s cube with one hand as my act. Alpha Phi’s King of Hearts is essentially a talent show put on to raise money for the Alpha Phi foundation and promote women’s heart health.
In my fraternity, we have a philanthropy event called “egg an ep” that we do every year where we have people pay to throw eggs at us and our proceeds go to suicide prevention. This year, however, one of our brothers was diagnosed with cancer, and as such all proceeds from our philanthropy went toward him and his family. The entire Greek Life community came together and not only participated in our philanthropy but also donated to a GoFundMe that we started as well.
Early Internship Opportunity
One last opportunity I will share that I gained through Kent State was an internship at 1st Day School Supplies. During the spring semester of my freshman year, I received an email from the recruiter at 1st Day. In this email he said that they have had lots of success with previous interns from Kent State and after seeing my major and GPA, he believed I would be a perfect fit for their internship.
I am proud to say that not only did I intern at 1st Day the Summer after my freshman year, but I returned the summer after my sophomore year and will be returning for a third time the summer after my junior year.
Interning at 1st Day has taught me a lot about the real world outside of college and has readied me for law school as well as my future career by teaching work ethic, dependability, the ability to work in a group, and management experience.
All in all, I can safely and confidently say that attending Kent State University has changed my life for the better. I am beyond happy with my decision, and I know that it was not only the best decision I could have made, but the right one as well. Kent State has given me the keys to my dream career of becoming a lawyer through its 3+3 Program, outside of the classroom research opportunities, ability to work one-on-one with professors who are knowledgeable about what they teach and helping me to land an internship. I will look back fondly on my time at Kent and will owe my future to what I learned and accomplished during my time here.