Grand Valley student-centric programs featured at second annual Kent ISD 学生状况

由大峡谷领导 REP4联盟 , which seeks to center student voices in the future of higher education, was among the programs featured at the second 年度听. 学习. 引领. 学生状况 summit on October 30. 

Organized by the Kent Intermediate School District, the event at the Eberhard Center on the Pew Downtown Campus focused on ways student voices and priorities can be elevated to the forefront of creating educational experiences.

REP4, which asks students to use design thinking to envision the future of higher education, took center stage during a portion of the program along with other GVSU programs like 大路径计划 that seek to empower students to shape their futures.

Grand Valley 菲洛梅娜五世总统. 曼特拉采访了 the group of students and educators from across Kent County, highlighting several ways the university is working to provide more equity, access and opportunity in higher education.

“Grand Valley is working toward that shared commitment to meeting student needs,” Mantella said. “我的‘怎么做’。 mind is to enable the student voice. 你们一直在谈论的 that today: listening carefully; really understanding our students. But the ‘why’ behind that is the higher level of individual success students will have when their voice is empowered; when they have 代理为自己学习.”

REP4 accomplishes this goal through 区域性峰会 where high schoolers build prototypes and work through 的思维解决方案. 大路径计划 offers Grand Valley students the opportunity to work with emerging technologies like extended reality (XR) and incorporate them into their education.

Two GVSU students were invited to read letters they’d written at a past REP4 summit, reflecting on their experiences with the program and how it helped them bridge the gap between high 学校和大学.

Emily Par had never been exposed to higher education before participating in the program.

“I did not even know what the word ‘college’ meant until I was like a freshman,” she explained. “所以这是一个很大的飞跃 对我来说. But the more I talked about it, the more I asked questions, 你知道，我感觉被倾听了. It let me know what I wanted with my education.” 

“I think that college is all about finding yourself,” 克洛伊·邓肯说. “And being a part of REP4, that’s definitely helping me figure out who I am.”

Par and Duncan are now sophomores at GVSU, and are T4学者 , a program that provides full-ride scholarships to traditionally underserved students. 

The event also featured a panel discussion with four students from high schools throughout Kent County. 他们提供了 insights about what students are looking for in their education and how schools can best prepare them for college or other paths after graduation.

Some talked about needing space in their day to develop a vision of who they are as individuals, and the need for college-prep and other programs to help them get a better idea of what they want to do after high school. 其他人则谈到了必要性 to remember high school students need emotional support, too.

“Remember what it was like when you were our age,” said panelist Micah Nagel, a student at Caledonia High School when asked what advice he would give the adults in the room. “我们并不总是这样 want to talk about ‘what did we do in school today’; ‘what homework 我们有吗?... 有时候我只是想要一个拥抱.”