From an associate’s degree in English to a career in communications, 1978 alumnus John Schorg found his Glen Oaks Community College education served him well. For the 1976 Sturgis High School graduate, Glen Oaks was an easy choice: close to home, convenient and cheap – $15 per credit hour.
He appreciated its small class sizes and the ability to develop good relationships with faculty and staff.
Ron Miazga, his English professor, was “the closest thing I had to a mentor,” he said. “He was tough on me, but fair, and helped me develop my skills as a writer.”
He also enjoyed interacting with Tom Soper, David and Marilyn Gosling, Lee Thornton and Phyllis Evans, and became fast friends with fellow student Bruce Gosling (now the chair of the Glen Oaks board).
“The Voice of the Viking,” a student paper, offered Schorg the opportunity to hone his journalism skills – first as sports editor and later as editor.
His admiration for the school was mutual: at graduation, he received the President’s Award.
With many of his basic classes now completed, Schorg made a smooth transition to Western Michigan University, from which he graduated in 1980 with a major in English and a minor in journalism and history.
Heading out to use his degree, he became the editor of a weekly paper in Greentown, Ind. From 1981-83 he worked in the Tipton Bureau for the Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune, and the next four years he spent in its main office covering politics and government, plus reviewing movies.
Following two more years at the Columbus (Ind.) Republic on the local and state government beat, he became the media relations director for the Indiana House Democrats.
Of his 30-year tenure in that role he says, “most of the first two-thirds, Democrats were in charge of the House or state government, and it was a lot of fun. The last few years were not as much fun.”
In December 2019 he determined it was time to move on, and since then he has been watching basketball and movies, reading and enjoying life in Indianapolis.
Near the close of his career, Schorg became involved with a film festival in Bloomington, Ind., through which he met some moviemakers from Los Angeles. These connections led to him executive producing two films: “Everything in the End,” filmed in Iceland in 2019, and “A Black Rift Begins to Yawn,” which he described as “a creepy Lovecraftian horror film.”
He anticipates another film being made in Maine in the next few months.
Schorg credits his time at Glen Oaks with refining his writing, creative thought, decision making, and independent thinking.
“It’s a tiny little college in the middle of nowhere in St. Joseph County, but I could never discount its importance in what I got to learn and what kind of person I am now,” he said.