While the dreaded senioritis begins to creep into graduating students’ minds and render them incapable of productivity, Sara Garska defies this common condition by remaining very much involved with Ashland University both inside and outside of the classroom until the last possible second.

Throughout her college career, Garksa has been involved with many academic-related groups, such as being an executive officer in Sigma Tau Delta. One commitment she has poured countless of hours, as well as staggering amounts of dedication, into is her internship for the Ashland Center for Nonviolence.

Gaska has gone above and beyond the typical responsibilities one would expect of an internship, not only because she goes into every task with 100 percent commitment, but because it pertains to one of her greatest passions: helping people.

Since she is responsible for drawing in students for the community-based ACN, Garska almost single-handedly is accountable for making the organization as large a campus presence as it is at AU. Garska’s ultimate goal is to make students as involved with the ACN as the members outside of the university and to create camaraderie among people with similar values.

“We’re taking the larger program and creating a more discussion-oriented, intimate atmosphere, which allows students to have a sense of community,” Garska said.

Events that Garska has organized through the ACN include a screening of the award-winning Children of War documentary as a part of Human Trafficking Awareness Week and also bringing George Latio, a former child soldier, to campus.

Although the events that took place throughout Human Trafficking Awareness Week, such as the child solider discussion, were co-sponsored by both the ACN and HTAG, Garska was responsible for hosting Latio and acquainting him with the campus before and after his presentation regarding his experiences in Sudan.

Such events, particularly the larger ones like bringing Latio to discuss his experiences, have been known to accrue considerable student interest and involvement.

“It’s very student-driven,” Garska said of the ACN. “I listen to a lot of feedback from students and we get a lot of ideas from the students and ask them what they want to learn about. It’s my job to go and create a discussion around that, or it might involve some service activity.”

Through her experience as the ACN intern, Garska has encountered several bumps along the way.

“One drawback that we have [is that] we didn’t have a strong beginning with freshmen because we didn’t market that heavily at the beginning of the year. We don’t have a lot of underclassmen that have been involved because a lot of the people who have been involved know me, so [they] know about the work that I do and the ACN,” Garska said.

Another issue Garska found working with the ACN is a little more difficult to tackle. She has noticed that in general, students tend to perceive the ACN as an excessively liberal, controversial group.

“When people think ‘nonviolence’ they think hippies…no, we’ve had programming with Human Trafficking, with Child Abuse Prevention. These things are not controversial, it’s about exploring these issues,” Garska said. “People don’t really know what we do…they might think we’re more controversial than what we are.”

Through providing the campus with consistently enlightening and informative events, Garska hopes to correct this misconception.

Despite the issues Garska contends with, she fully acknowledges the many ways her internship has benefited her.

“I’ve learned to grow into a sort of professionalism. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m able to field certain issues…I feel if I were just in classes, I wouldn’t be able to handle certain things,” Garska said.

Additionally, another skill Garska has acquired from her internship that she would not have attained simply through being in a classroom is her ability to effectively interact and network with people.

“I’ve met a lot of interesting people. When George Latio came to campus…I had the experience of hosting someone; you wouldn’t get that in just a class. It’s not just a set of skills, it’s a sort of mindset or coping ability to handle things in a more mature or intuitive way,” Garska said.

Another dominating part of Garska’s college experience that has taught her more than classes could is the actual writing of her thesis required of the Honors program. Although she is an English major, Garska opted against writing a literary-central thesis in favor of researching a topic that could be beneficial to others: grant writing.

“I really like literary criticism and literature…but I don’t think that’s going to be something that would help people. I wanted a thesis, that if I’m going to dedicate so much time and effort and energy, I have to be passionate about it,” Garska said.

As indicative of her involvement with the ACN and as a member of the HTAG, Garska is deeply interested in seeking ways to help others who are less fortunate or need assistance. It seemed focusing her topic on grant writing would be a natural choice, since its application could be profoundly useful to others.

Inspired by one of her high school teachers in her home school district, Garska decided to focus her energies on applying for a grant specifically for TV Production classes, which desperately needed funding.

Through undergoing the process of writing her first grant, Garska realized that she could take advantage of her trial-and-error experiences and morphing it into a thesis topic.

Garska noted that there is a crucial difference between “reading about grant writing in a book and actually writing one.” A book can attempt to explain how to write for grant money and how grants work, but it is difficult to reach an understanding unless the theories and concepts are applied.

“I got to the fourth or fifth chapter in this book and it just wasn’t useful…everything clicked when I prepared myself for this thesis through actually writing grants,” Garska said.

It was partly because of Garska’s struggle to wade through the overly-complicated jargon of the text book that propelled her to pursue her topic.

“I’m developing the materials I wish I had, so hopefully for other grant writers-for people who aren’t professional grant writers, for teachers, for people who are applying for fellowships- they can gain an understanding of foundations and who they fund and how you know that and what sort of relationships govern that. I’m trying to come up with conceptual models…and ‘visual metaphors’ that structurally made things click for me,” Garska said.

It is because of Garska’s intense drive to pursue her interests that she will hold off on attending graduate school until she at least acquires actual experience in her desired field of expertise.

In the meantime, Garska plans to apply for a Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, position in Ashland County to dabble in community-based mediation, or court cases on a smaller scale that involve personal conflicts seeking resolution through a neutral third party.

With the details of her future outside of AU mapped out, Garska will dive into her career more than prepared.

“I’ve been ready to graduate for a while,” Garska said. “I’m just excited to move outside of class work and into things that excite me, such as working for the ACN.”