Jake Dunlap, '17

B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Sociology, Minor in National Security Studies

How has your faith has been affected during your time at Grove City College? Have you seen a connection between faith and learning in your classrooms?
The academic rigorousness of Grove City College has played a pivotal role in strengthening my faith and personal relationship with God. When classes become stressful and the coursework feels overwhelming, I am forced to turn to the One who controls all things and knows all things for direction. I am forced to recognize how small I am compared to how great He is, and I have found a significant amount of comfort in that. After all, they say “there are no atheists in foxholes;” I believe one might also argue there are no atheists the night before a Dr. Stanton paper is due.

What is the relationship between professors and students like?
While the professors at Grove City College may be uniquely challenging, I have never had a professor that did not genuinely want every one of their students to succeed or was unwilling to help me outside of class. Because of this, I have grown to greatly admire even the most challenging professors as they are the ones that have continually taught me the most, stimulating my love for knowledge and motivating me to work hard. The professors at Grove City College expect you to survive, but they also equip you to thrive, teaching one that nothing worthwhile in life will ever come easy, grades included.

Share about an experience (working on a campaign, an internship, studying abroad) or an extra-curricular group or activity that impacted you while at Grove City College.
When my sister and I first founded the A-Team in 2012, the concept was rather simple. Candidates or third-party political organizations would contract us out to conduct surveys or distribute literature based on a list of micro-targeted households according to the organization’s desired demographic. During Mitt Romney’s presidential bid in 2012, we were attempting to hit all of our houses using only paper lists and outdated maps. This quickly proved to be a frustrating process in an overall inefficient system. In the numerous trips since, we have continually helped organizations like the Concerned Veterans of America in their development of software such as the i360 Walk app.

Now, every team member is equipped with an iPad pre-loaded with this application. The software allows each team member to see the houses that must be hit, the names of the people in the house, their location in relation to other team members in the area, and the questions they are expected to have answered at each location. After every trip, the A-Team leaders have a debriefing with the organization’s leaders and software representatives providing them with the data and feedback necessary to continuously update the application. The creation of such software has revolutionized the way many organizations are now conducting grass-roots campaigning and we are proud to have begun at the ground-level of this modernization.

Why did you study political science?
My family sparked my interest in politics at a young age. By the age of 15, I was working on several political campaigns during the 2010 elections and have continued to work on at least one campaign during every election cycle since. Admittedly, I have been involved for long enough to detest many aspects of our current political arena. In politics, the truth and lies are often blurred into a manifestation of pure manipulation. Good and evil are relative terms, used frequently by one party to either promote themselves or denounce the ideas of the other. This is why I believe the world of politics to be one of the most dangerous in existence, yet also the one most in need of transformation.

To avoid politics because of its current condition would be to reject our obligation to both ourselves and our country. To discard our political duties because of a seemingly hopeless situation would send the message to the world that our God is not powerful enough to renew and transform our government according to His will. I believe the political realm is in desperate need of good Christian men and women who will effect change on earth in such a way that will further the Kingdom of God from now and into eternity.

Learn more about Grove City College's B.A. in Political Science

Return to Directory