Education

Close friend and former colleague, Ken Byard, has been hired as Hart High School principal following the unexpected death of 46-year-old Principal Moran, April 27. The announcement was made on the school district’s Facebook page Sunday, May 5. “I met Mr. Moran about 25 years ago when we started...

Two Spring Lake High School students earned accolades at this year’s West Michigan Showcase. Kyla Koert placed second in the Literary Arts category for her short story title “Statues.” Oscar Anderson placed third in the Visual Arts category for his ink self portrait, “Unmasked.”. Anderson, a...

Next year the incoming freshman class will have the opportunity to take a brand new AP class to Spring Lake High School: AP Human Geography. The class will be taught by Ben Huitema will be a freshman exclusive class. When asked what the class will cover, Huitema said, “We’re going...

MONTAGUE, MI – The Whitehall boys track and field program has been traveling at warp speed in recent years under the command of veteran head coach Kirk Mikkelson and they’ve captured conference, city and regional championships along the way. Captain Kirk and his crew of unselfish athletes added...

MUSKEGON, MI – Two Muskegon-area high schools were ranked among the top 200 public high schools across the state of Michigan in the latest U.S. News & World Report best high school rankings. North Muskegon High School and Mona Shores High School were ranked the 110th and 197th best...

MUSKEGON, MI – We’ve asked you each week this spring to vote for an Athlete of the Week among a wide variety of worthy candidates. Now, we’re shining the spotlight on the seniors who are closing out their high school athletic careers in the next month with a brand new poll designed to highlight the top local performers in each grade.

“I’ll be playing the Carillon at Arlington Cemetery in Washington.”. Julianne Vanden Wyngaard is Grand Valley State University carillonneur. “I’m really happy to be going there. I’ve played there before. It’s a wonderful setting. I can look out one window and see the Iwo Jima Memorial and I can look out another window and see the Pentagon.”

SHELBY, Mich. — According to Pastor Steven Lister of Shelby Road Baptist Church, the loss of Troy Moran can be felt throughout the entire Hart and Whitehall communities. "Whoever he met became a friend who felt seen and heard with each interaction," said Lister. No less than a thousand...

Rachael Herring, a senior in landscape architecture, received 2nd place in the College of Agriculture for her research poster at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Conference. The poster, titled “Restoring Ecology to a Natural Community Retreat at Dune Harbor Park Status,” features her community engagement research to support her senior Capstone design project in Muskegon, Michigan. The project, mentored by Dr. Aaron Thompson (HLA) and Patrick Lydon (National Parks Service), focuses on the transformation of a former sand quarry into Dune Harbor Park, presents a unique opportunity to restore over 300 acres of diverse ecosystems along Lake Michigan coast while providing a peaceful retreat for the community. The park’s design integrates trails, overlooks, a kayak launch, a rain garden, a community pavilion, improved facilities, and Lake Michigan access, offering a range of recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike.

NORTH MUSKEGON, MI – North Muskegon Public Schools is asking voters for a 25-year, $5.6 million bond proposal to fund improvements to the district’s outdoor athletic facilities. The bond proposal that will appear on the Tuesday, May 7 ballot would increase the district’s millage rate by 1 mill...

After a nationwide search, Kary Bosma has been named co-director of the Hope-Western Prison Education Program operated by Hope College and Western Theological Seminary to provide a Christian liberal arts education to incarcerated men at Muskegon Correctional Facility. Bosma is coming to HWPEP from the Calvin Prison Initiative, where she...

On a beautiful spring day, Frederik Meijer Honors College resident Rachel Maude led a group of students from Kentwood’s Endeavor Elementary on a campus tour. Maude’s group was one of several this morning, criss-crossing the grounds and listening to Honors College students lead the expeditions. As they approached...

May 1 has historically been known as National College Decision Day, but countless students are still in limbo, unsure of where they're going to enroll or how much financial aid they will get.

Kara Van Dam: When I came to Grand Valley three years ago, I was really charged with helping us think about how to serve in particular working adults across the state of Michigan and beyond. And one of the things that I very quickly noticed was a real asset was our regional campus network. Obviously, there've been some challenges with COVID and the like, but I really saw that GVSU had the potential. with our existing presence and an ability to build a larger presence, and a potential to have a real presence across the state. And that's really important because a lot of Michiganders live in a four-year public education deserts. So only 12 of our 83 counties are home to a public four-year institution. Over half, 50 out of our 83 counties do not have an in-district community college. And as I looked at our footprint in Detroit, in Holland and Traverse City, it seemed to me that we had an opportunity to reach adult learners in particular, but also just people in those communities through that way. And so, I've really spent the last three years building out that regional network. We also have a location in Battle Creek and Jackson, and there's more to come really in community partnerships so that we can bring a GVSU education to learners across the state who today don’t have the ability to relocate to West Michigan and our main campus. And so that's sort of the initial seed for GVSU Omni, and Omni is Latin ‘for all.’ And so, it really is GVSU for all. And so, in leveraging our regional campus network, this allows us to bring the learning that students need to where they live. And sometimes that is going to be an online program, right? And sometimes that is going to be a hybrid or a face-to-face or an online program with face-to-face services and support. But we know from a recent national survey that even those learners who need an online program for you know, balancing work and life. Even those who need an online program, 76% of them will only do so with an institution within 100 miles of their house. And with our existing network, we are within 100 miles of every Michigander in the lower peninsula or 97% of the population. And the need is big. You know, half of Michigan adults, 2.5 million Michigan adults, don't have a post-secondary credential. That's 49.5% of our population, despite that still being the surest way out. of poverty. So really GVSU Omni became sort of all of these things. How do we leverage our regional network? How do we bring education to where Michiganders live so that we can extend that option of a Grand Valley education to Michiganders across the state in the formats that they need? And that can be full degree, it can be a short form badge, it could be a non-credit training, all of the above. Omni is for all, it's all of the above.