Innovision Fall 2018

FALL 2018 | 21 It was pretty cool. I met a lot of people there that I’ve played in our conference like this guy from Notre Dame college who was my roommate at the camp,” Jake said. The camp was four days long with three training days and one match day. During the summer of 2018, Jake had an internship with Cydcor in Los Angeles, California. “It was fun. I was doing finance and accounting,” Jake said. Cydcor offered Jake a job after he graduates, and plans to go back there for a year. Besides schoolwork and rugby, Jake holds a lot of experience in campus involvement. He was the treasurer for the international student organization, the marketing director for the Kutztown rugby executive board, a business chair for the Student Government Board and worked for mail services. Most recently, Jake joined the personal financial planning club. One of the hardest transitions he was faced with was learning to live independently. “​It was my first time living away from home. ​I had to adapt to living in a dorm, doing well in classes, staying focused and staying on top of my work,” said Jake. The classes Jake took in South Africa compared to the classes he has taken at KU were very different too. Jake said, “​The biggest thing in South Africa is that there are no Gen Eds. ​As a finance major in South Africa, I would be taking intro to finance and economic courses in my first year. My first year at KU, I was taking macroeconomics, music, geography and a bunch of other Gen Eds.” When asked where he saw himself after graduation, Jake said he wants to work for a year at Cydcor, but then come back to Kutztown to get his masters degree. Kutztown University brings together a wide variety of students from all walks of life, near and far. One such student is Finance major, Jake Glass. Jake is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Because he has family in the U.S., Jake is not foreign to American culture. Before choosing Kutztown, Jake did a year of college in South Africa on a rugby scholarship. Even though he was dedicated to his studies, he felt like his opportunities were limited for his future there. Jake first began thinking of attending college in the U.S. when he attended a wedding in America during the summer of 2015. “Two weeks before I came, I sent out my highlight reel to 25 universities, did some tours and then, I landed on Kutztown,” Jake said. Jake heard back from a lot of universities, but Kutztown’s response was the most personal. Jake said, “They let me know what I had to do and who I had to contact. They basically walked me through the process.” That close interaction between him and the university as well as the application process sold Jake on attending KU. Jake’s initial reason for coming to Kutztown was for rugby. In the fall of 2016, Jake’s goal was to play a really good rugby season. With this goal in mind and with a ton of hard work, Jake landed an invite to the All American Rugby Camp, a program where 100 of the nation’s top student-athletes are invited to a selection camp with the possibility of Major League Rugby opportunities. The camp allows the athletes to have interactions with professional and national team coaches throughout the experience. “The camp was during the winter break that year in South Africa. JAKE GLASS Jake Glass is a senior KU student from South Africa with a major in Finance. “It was my first time living away from home.”