March 7, 2011 March 7, 2011 March 14, 2011 March 19 March 21-26, 2011 March 23, 2011 March 28, 2011 March 31, 2011 April 8-9, 2011 April 16, 2011 May 12, 2011
Out of State Teacher Fair (Career Services)
Washington, D.C. Reception | RSVP
Ravines Revisited: Photo Essays and other media exploring the Allendale Campus Ravines (GVSU Art Gallery)
Tampa Club Detroit Tigers Spring Training Game | RSVP
Volunteer! Community Outreach Week
Career Conversations with Liberal Arts Alumni
Graduate Showcase 2011 (featuring 10 graduate programs)
Graduate Showcase 2011 (featuring 12 graduate programs)
Volunteer! Relay for Life at GVSU
16th Annual Laker Football Spring Classic Celebration and Cash Draw | Register
April 19 - 21
Volunteer! GradFest
New York City Alumni Reception: 50th Anniversary Celebration | RSVP
YOUTH ADVOCATE: For Stacy Stout, ’04 , education director of the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, a typical week at the office covers a wide range of duties: writing grants, researching best practices in youth and adult education, arranging academic enrichment events for teens, and sitting down one on one and in small groups with Hispanic youth, aged from 13 to 21, who have the potential to be promising and dedicated workers, even entrepreneurs, in the Grand Rapids community. Since 2005, Stout has filled multiple roles at the community-based nonprofit Hispanic Center, located in southwest Grand Rapids. Currently, as education director, Stout oversees all adult education and youth services. She is certified as an Intermediate Gang Specialist by the nonprofit National Gang Crime Research Center. Stout uses this knowledge, and her extensive youth development experience, to provide gang awareness, prevention, and intervention trainings for school and community groups. The trainings also generate revenue for the Hispanic Center’s Supporting Our Leaders (SOL) Program, which serves over 150 youth annually, with a third of the youth struggling with gang affiliation when they begin the program. By emphasizing education and parent engagement, she helps youth see that they can get out of gangs, and in fact has helped many to successfully leave them. For adult education, she coordinates an integrated computer English as a Second Language (ESL) program focusing on occupational training readiness and is working to establish a new General Equivalency Diploma (GED) preparation class for English and Spanish speakers. She sees both programs as key stepping stones for residents to pursue two-year and four-year degrees. Stout says her Grand Valley experiences were invaluable. “The highlight of my undergrad career was the mentorship,” she added. “I was fortunate and grateful to have influential people who believed in me and mentored me…such as Don Williams, Mike Woods, and Eduardo Rojas-Sanchez.” Williams and Woods each led the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) at different times. Rojas-Sanchez recruited Stout to apply to Grand Valley when she attended the Hispanic Youth College Conference in Muskegon near her hometown of Whitehall. His encouragement helped her to gain a scholarship, student employment, and ultimately her first job after graduation as the OMA’s Freshman Academy and Special Projects Coordinator. Today Stout is a colleague of Rojas-Sanchez, who is now assistant principal at Burton Middle School in Grand Rapids. According to Stout, Grand Valley’s effect on her was profound... Full Story
Community-minded Alumna Recognized Among 40 Under 40
Many of the youth she works with are teetering on the edge of gang membership and incarceration…or gaining the education needed to be successful and contributing members and leaders of their community. This “edge” is where Stout’s passion is, where she does her best work, and where you’ll find some of the reasons she was recognized this past October as one of the Grand Rapids Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” young business and community leaders who are making a difference.
“Having mentors was also very important for me as a first-generation college student because I was going through so many changes as I began to define who I am,” said Stout.
Lakers Everywhere Called to Volunteer: Community Outreach Week, March 21-26
Join fellow Lakers globally and locally in this week of service, just three weeks away! Take part by providing volunteer support and outreach in your own community. Back in Allendale, volunteers are signing up to help 3,000 children compete in the National Science Olympiad. In San Francisco, Lakers will plant a garden at Edison Charter Academy. In Manhattan, still more Lakers will help Meals on Wheels deliver healthy meals to home-bound elderly men and women. Where will you plug in? Sign Up to Serve | Tell Us Your Project | Get Ideas | And of course we’re on Facebook
This year our goal is 50 projects for the 50th anniversary! On March 1, we hit 40 projects – so TEN TO GO! Who will be number 50? Help us by identifying fun and worthwhile group service projects in your community. Need more information or encouragement? Please contact alumni@gvsu.edu or call 800-558-0541.
GradFest Volunteers Needed April 18 - 21
Help welcome Grand Valley's newest graduates into the Alumni Association and give them information about the benefits of membership at GradFest. GradFest is both a festival and celebration for graduating students, combining commencement necessities and resources for their lives post-graduation as proud GVSU alumni. Volunteers are needed for one or more hour shifts between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on April 18-19 in Allendale and April 20-21 in Grand Rapids. GradFest is an exciting time for the students and equally exciting to be able to share the experience and welcome them into the alumni community. Contact Mindy Earley for more details or to volunteer today!
Preview the 2011 Lakers and Help Support GV Football - April 16
Don't miss the 16th Annual Spring Classic Celebration and Cash Draw sponsored by Outback Steakhouse. Preview the 2011 Laker Football team as Blue takes on White in the noontime inter-squad scrimmage, then mingle with Head Football Coach Matt Mitchell and the entire football staff at the post-game reception. The annual Cash Draw offers ticket holders multiple chances to win cash and prizes throughout the day. Register Online
For information, please email Kim Schmidt or call 616-331-3592.
Fight Cancer with GVSU Alumni - April 8-9
Time to pick up the baton -- sign up now to join the GVSU Alumni Association team in the 2011 American Cancer Society Relay for Life event at Grand Valley State University. Beginning at 6 p.m. on April 8 until 6 a.m. on April 9, walkers will take shifts circling the track in the Fieldhouse and collect money to help eliminate cancer. Please join us as a walker or by sponsoring alumni team participants. Visit www.relayforlifegvsu.com and click "Sign Up" to register as a walker or "Donate" to sponsor team GVSU Alumni Association. Survivors can also sign up to participate in the survivor lap!
Young Alumni Collaborative Helped Make Connections
Nearly 80 Young Alumni attended the Young Alumni Collaborative event, hosted by the Young Alumni Council , at GRid70 on February 17th, taking the opportunity to network and learn about the new facility. Attendees created name badges with special "flare" that helped make connections between one another.
One attendee commented "I was able to connect a person with the HR department in my company for a potential interview." Another shared "I met one guy who shares an interest in the same type of work that I do. I got to learn more about his side of things while I got to share about mine." And yet another comment: "I met a group of girls who love to read as much as I do and it was a good time talking about all the different books we have read." By all accounts, the event provided great connections and opportunities for social and professional networking. Check out our Photos with "flare"!
- February 19 - Grand Rapids – Hoop memories and “hoop babies” prevailed at the Women's Basketball Reunion as 45 Women’s Basketball alumnae and their families attended a reception prior to the women’s basketball game between Wayne State University and Grand Valley. President Thomas J. Haas, Athletic Director Tim Selgo, and Head Coach Janel Burgess also attended. The #22 Lakers earned victory with a 62-58 overtime thriller over Wayne State. How sweet it was, and still is! Photos
- February 10 - Chicago, IL - Nearly 70 Laker Alumni gathered at an event hosted by the Chicago Alumni Club to celebrate GVSU's 50th Anniversary. Hub 51 hosted the alumni gathering and was an ideal setting for networking and socializing. Attendees heard GVSU updates, learned of new campus construction projects, were invited to participate in the Alumni Challenge
, and watched the 50th Anniversary video. Photos
- February 16 - Grand Rapids - At the Roundtable held by the Kirkhof College of Nursing Alumni Chapter & the Student Nursing Association, nursing alumni shared their career stories with students in a "speed dating" format at the Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences.
- March 7 - Washington D.C. Alumni & Friends Reception - Celebrate Grand Valley's 50th Anniversary and hear the latest University news from President Thomas J. Haas; the fun starts at 6:00 p.m. at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Please RSVP by March 1.
- March 19 - Tampa Club Detroit Tigers Spring Training Game - Forget the blizzards, it's never too early to "play ball" and get out to the ballpark for America's national pastime. Details | RSVP
Join the GVSU Career Contact Bank
As a valued alumni professional, you are invited to join the GVSU Career Contact Bank, a searchable listing of individuals who have offered to provide career advice and informational interviews to students and graduates of Grand Valley State University. By joining the group, you make yourself available to students and alumni who are looking to leverage their Laker network; learn more about specific careers, positions, or organizations; and make informed career decisions.
The Career Contact Bank is a subgroup of the official GVSU Alumni Association group on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network. Students, alumni and friends of Grand Valley register directly with LinkedIn then have access to the GVSU Alumni Association group and the Career Contact Bank subgroup. Access to the groups is free, completely optional, and available only to approved members of the broader GVSU community.
Remember those who mentored and advised you along the way; please consider "giving back" to the new generation of Lakers by joining the group. Find more information at www.gvsu.edu/careercontact
College of Education Seeks Outstanding Alumni Awards Nominations
The College of Education is seeking alumni award nominations for Outstanding Leader/Administrator and Outstanding Educator. Awards will be presented at the Winter 2011 COE Convocation on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at DeVos Place. "The Alumni Awards are an excellent opportunity for the College of Education and the COE Alumni Association to recognize the tremendous work our graduates are doing in the field of education," says Forrest Clift, Assistant Director of Community Outreach.
To submit a nominee, please fill out the online Nomination Form. Nominations are due March 21, 2011. Questions? Email Forrest Clift or call him at 616-331-6230.
Woodrow Wilson to Host Information Sessions on Teaching Fellowship - March 22 and 24
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is hosting two information sessions about the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship (WKKF-WW MTF). The Fellowship is designed for those who have degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics and are interested in teaching science or math in Michigan’s high need secondary schools. Of interest to potential fellows, GVSU is developing an innovative graduate program that leads to a M.Ed. degree and a secondary teaching certificate in several science and math disciplines. The evening information sessions are set for March 22 on the Allendale Campus and March 24 on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Please follow these links for more information: WKKF-WW MTF program at GVSU | WKKF-WW MTF program overview
Plant a new seed for the future…make a gift to Grand Valley!
With the first day of Spring right around the corner, we invite you to join fellow alumni in making a gift to Grand Valley. Grand Valley alumni continue to annually support the university’s highest priorities, including student scholarships and programs - all gifts matter!
There is no better time than now to make a gift to the Mary Idema Pew Learning & Information Commons. Through June 30, 2011, Grand Valley alumni can double the impact of their gift! Are you up for the challenge?
You can also check out our student, donor and program stories of Giving to Grand Valley. Or, to make a gift, please visit our easy online giving page or contact Jill Dooley.