Charli Gross, a recent graduate from the online MS in Human Resource Management program, was awarded USC’s Order of Arête for his significant contributions to the university and community at large.
The Order of Arête is the highest honor a graduate student can receive at USC. It’s an award given to students who have exemplified academic excellence, demonstrated outstanding leadership and contributed greatly to the USC community during their studies.
This year, the Order of Arête was bestowed upon six students from USC Bovard College, including recent online Master of Science in Human Resource Management (MSHRM) graduate Charli Gross.
HR was not the path Gross thought he would embark on, however, following his graduation from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s in communication.
“After graduating, I kind of hopped around to a variety of different roles. I started to notice that in all of my roles, I was involved in ‘extracurriculars,’ for lack of a better word, that were really focused on HR concepts. I would be on the diversity, equity and inclusion committee, or running employee resource groups, or planning events. It wasn’t until I had a mentor point out to me this is something you could do as a job that I really realized that’s what I wanted to pursue,” Gross told USC Online.
To truly excel in the HR field, Gross researched potential graduate programs, considering what skills he needed to acquire for this career pivot. Eventually, he determined that USC was the perfect match for both his background and future goals.