Grand Valley State Tour

Thursday night we drove out to my brother’s house which is just a bit north of Grand Valley’s main campus. After channel surfing for a while, I hit the hay while Alex and Jason stayed up and watched some weird German dark comedy/thriller. My brother was at a concert and got back about midnight. We awoke at the butt crack of dawn (as my brother so eloquently puts it) since my daughter and sibling confused “leaving” at 8am with “getting there” at 8am. Since we had an extra hour to kill a stop at James’ old work place Perkins restaurant was added so we could have a good breakfast. We still got to the Field House with time to spare. Although Alex and Jason both had an interest in teaching, the guy giving the Education presentation really wasn’t selling it so we slipped out and made our rounds among the tables of program offerings. I was intrigued to find out that GVSU is one of the few colleges offering a Writing degree specifically; usually it is lumped in with another program. During the second round of presentations we sat in on Communications. This guy was good, very interesting, energetic, encouraging, upbeat, really excited about his department and the opportunities they offer in Advertising/PR, Journalism, Theater, TV/Film. In all areas they emphasize internships to help make graduates more marketable by gaining ‘workplace’ experience. Students have interned in Hollywood, New York, Chicago, as well as around Michigan. James and I sat in on the Financial Aid briefing while A & J looked over some materials they had gathered. Last we got in on a tour and were very impressed by the ‘green’ achievements of the campus, its fabulous eateries, awesome workout facilities/gym, availability of computer labs, plus the clean and cozy living centers. The campus overall is very well-maintained, they take great strides to discourage underage drinking, and smoking is not allowed in any buildings on site. After our windy walk we headed into downtown Grand Rapids to meet up with my sister-in-law who was just making her way into town after a road trip to Wisconsin for work. She had to stop in at a client, which was a tavern downtown, so we had some super sandwiches and salads plus a drink “on-the-house” before returning to James’ abode to let his labradoodles, Vixen and Nizche out. James napped, the kids played around with Rosetta Stone: Mandarin, and Shelly and I chatted it up until it was time to motor back home. Good Day-Go Lakers!