Thank you for all you do for GRCC! This is your monthly reminder to think about what’s happening in your school or department and share your successes with GRCC’s Marketing and Communications team so we can decide how best to promote your great work.  Story ideas I should share  As you’re thinking about ideas to share, consider the following: What are we doing that’s exceptional or out of the ordinary? Is it the first time we’ve done this, are we the best at this, or are we the only one that does this? What are we doing that demonstrates the value of a GRCC education? Would a prospective student, alumnus, community organization or employer see this story and be inspired to apply to GRCC, give to our institution or partner with us? How does this align with the mission, vision, values and goals of GRCC? What we need to know about your story idea  You’ll receive a reminder once a month asking for your ideas. Be sure to include a brief description of the story including the following information: Names and contact information including emails and phone numbers. If a student is to be featured, be sure to include their academic program of study. When will it happen? If it’s an event, please include the date and time. Where will it happen? If it’s an event, please include the location. Are photos available? Please share photos you’d like considered for use. Please keep in mind that providing advance notice helps us plan for and share your story. Giving us at least two weeks prior notice (or more) before an event is a good rule of thumb to follow. If you want to see some of the stories we’ve already shared check out our web stories at  grcc.edu/about-grcc/news . How to submit your story ideas You can send your story ideas to me at  amysoper@grcc.edu . You can also reach out to the Marketing and Communications team at  marcomm@grcc.edu .   And if you prefer to be removed from this email and have someone else from your department added instead, please let me know. Thank you for your help. Go Raiders!

Dear Colleagues, I hope that all of you had a great week.  It’s hard to believe it’s mid-November and the end of the fall term is just around the corner.  Please read below for several updates. Associate Provost of Student Affairs Ann Isackson has agreed to serve as our new Associate Provost of Student Affairs, effective Dec. 9, following a national search process.  As you may know, Ann has served GRCC since 2013 when she joined the College to lead our Financial Aid operations.  Since that time, Ann has held progressive leadership roles, serving last year as Interim Associate Provost of Instructional Support and Institutional Planning and now as Associate Dean of Advising and Student Support.  I’m excited for GRCC to have Ann’s leadership and experience in this new role!  We will work in the coming days to further outline a transition plan for Advising and Student Support in order to ensure continuity for all faculty and staff.  I anticipate an overlap between her new and current roles for a brief period of time. Please join me in congratulating Ann on her new position! Interim Director of High School Partnerships Given Robin Sterk’s departure from GRCC, I have asked David Lovell to serve as the Interim Director of High School Partnerships, effective this past Monday.  The search for the next permanent director is currently underway, therefore, I anticipate that this will be a short-term appointment.  I am greatly appreciative of David’s support, as well as that of the entire high school partnerships team and colleagues across Academic and Student Affairs, who are engaged in offering dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment and early/middle college courses to our students. Please join me in thanking Robin Sterk for her service to GRCC and David for his willingness to step into this role! Interim Associate Dean of the School of STEM Justin Fiene, Associate Dean of STEM, recently announced that he will be leaving the College on Dec. 2.  Dan Sullivan has agreed to provide support by serving as Interim Associate Dean of the School of STEM, effective Dec. 3.  Dan will continue to serve as Interim Dean of the School of Health Sciences until mid-January. Please join me in thanking Justin Fiene for his service to GRCC and Dan for his support in taking on this role! Upcoming Dean and Associate Dean searches: Screening committee volunteersn Soon we will begin searching for the next Dean of the School of Business and Industry, Dean of the School of Workforce Training and Associate Dean of STEM.  The postings for these three positions will go out in early December with the review of applications beginning in January.  If you are interested in serving on one of the screening committees for these roles, please send an email to  provost@grcc.edu .  Healthy Minds Study update: Survey extension   As you have heard, we launched the Healthy Minds Study to campus this semester!  We’ve had a lower response rate than we had anticipated and hope to capture more student participation. In addition, we discovered some students were missed in the initial outreach. We are extending the deadline for students to complete the survey and are also sending it to students who were not included in the original email group.  While students who were already sent the emails won’t be included in the new communications, they will still have an opportunity to complete the survey through Dec. 13.   As a reminder, all students at GRCC will be invited to participate in the survey and receive a $10 reward.  We would like to hear from as many students as we can, and would appreciate you sharing information with your students about this study in class or via email.  To encourage student participation, faculty members may do things such as cancel homework for a night to give students time to complete the survey, but we ask that you would please refrain from offering incentives tied to academic performance (such as giving extra credit for those who complete the survey), in order to preserve the quality of the data.  For those students that have already participated, faculty promotion of the survey made a significant impact. Thank you for your cooperation and support as we work to better understand our students and their needs. Student opportunity spotlight: GRCC’s Honors Program Did you know about GRCC’s Honors Program?  Housed within the  Department of Experiential Learning  located in the historic  Steven C. Ender Hal l, GRCC offers the experience of a small community of highly motivated students who want more out of their time in college.  You can help the Honors Program continue to be one of the best in the country by recommending students for the program.  Students are still eligible to join for this upcoming Winter semester.  Please take a few minutes to learn more and share this opportunity by visiting  grcc.edu/honors .  The website includes information about the specifics of the program and a link to schedule a meeting with a representative who will provide a brief overview of the benefits of the GRCC Honors Program experience. Reminder: Inclement weather As we continue to prepare for the winter season, please remember to review our  GRCC Emergency Closing Procedures website  and review all communications/reminders regarding inclement weather procedures.  This is also a good time to log into the Online Center via  MyGRCC  and confirm your mobile phone number is listed to ensure you receive timely notifications. In closing, as we enter a very busy time of year, I hope that everyone enjoys the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  Thank you for everything you do to support our students and each other!   Take care, Sheila  

There will be an open house retirement celebration for Math Professor Nancy Forrest. Monday – Dec. 2, 2024 GRCC Secchia Piazza 5-7 PM Everyone is invited to stop by and wish Nancy the best in retirement as we celebrate her 41 years of service at GRCC!  Nancy started as an adjunct in 1983 but has been full time for 35 years.  

Nominations We’re excited to announce a new, simpler nomination form for this year’s Alumni Awards! Nominations for GRCC's Alumni Awards are accepted year-round, however to be considered for the 2025 Alumni Awards, nominations must be in by December 31. All nominations are retained and reviewed in January, with winners selected each February. Join us in celebrating the outstanding achievements of our remarkable alumni by submitting a nomination today. Learn more about the awards below: About the Distinguished Alumni Award The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of Grand Rapids Community College. This award recognizes alumni who exemplify GRCC’s core values—Accountability, Diversity, Excellence, Innovation, Integrity, Respect, Responsiveness, and Sustainability—through distinction in their chosen field, service to society, and dedication to the college. Please complete and submit the Distinguished Alumni Award Nomination Form on the Alumni Relations webpage. About the Young Alumni Award The Young Alumni Award celebrates exceptional alumni under the age of 40 as of December 31 in the year of nomination. This award recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves through: Exceptional accomplishment in their profession. Exceptional community or civic service. Exceptional service in support of GRCC. Please complete and submit the Young Alumni Award Nomination Form on the Alumni Relations webpage. Let’s honor our alumni and their remarkable achievements!  If you have any questions, please contact Jenna Mencarelli at jennamencarelli@grcc.edu .

    Welcome to Together@GRCC, the biweekly podcast created for GRCC staff. Hosted by Ryan Nausieda, each episode features interviews with staff, students and community members, highlighting the people and projects that make our campus thrive. In this episode, Whitney Marsh, director of the Ford Fieldhouse, joins us to discuss her role, her experiences working with student-athletes and navigating renovations—all while sharing what she loves about her job. Don’t miss this engaging conversation! Be sure to subscribe and share it with colleagues who want to stay connected to our GRCC community. Available on  YouTube , Spotify and Apple .  

I'm excited to share that registration is now open for our winter semester Diversity Lecture Series!  We are really looking forward to getting more engagement from students, staff, faculty, and the general public!  We invite you to join us for continued conversations with  prolific community leaders on the theme of "Cultivating Community and Culture to Foster Belonging and Resilience." Participants are encouraged to attend this year's lecture series events in person.  If you are unable to attend in person, that's no problem. All events will offer the option to attend virtually. The Diversity Lecture Series is free and open to the general public.  Please see our Winter 2025 speaker lineup on our Diversity Lecture Series webpage!  We will kick off the new year with our Martin Luther King Jr. keynote speaker, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and cultural activist and artist LaTosha Brown. The MLK Celebration at 6 p.m. will be in Fountain Street Church on January 20. Address: 24 Fountain St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503 Please register to receive all the event details (virtual link information).  Eventbrite registration information:   LaTosha Brown Ovell Barbee Mandice McAllister Robin Wall Kimmerer If you have any questions about upcoming events, please email  WCIMA@GRCC.EDU  or visit our website:  GRCC.EDU/WCIMA .  

As we approach the busy holiday season, check your vacation hours and make sure you are not at risk of losing any vacation hours as of 12/31/24 with the  Vacation Bank Calculator .  As of 12/31/24, employees are allowed to have their current fiscal vacation accrual plus an automatic 10-day carry over. Employees can request to have these 10 days transferred to their sick bank by sending an email to hrpayroll@grcc.edu . Any vacation hours above the limits allowed by your employee contract/handbook will be forfeited. For APSS, CEBA, and PMA employees, an additional five-day carry over on an exception basis due to workload may be granted with supervisor approval. Supervisors, please email hrpayroll@grcc.edu with any approved employees for the additional five-day carry over. Supervisors, also remember that you have access to view the leave bank balances of your direct and indirect reports through the Online Center under Supervisor Self Service, My Employees’ Leave Balances. To view your indirect reports, click on the “View My Organization” link in the upper left corner of the page.

We are excited to announce that Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), in conjunction with the University of Michigan, is launching the  Healthy Minds Study  on campus starting October 28! We hope to use data from this study to understand the state of our students’ well-being by circulating a survey enquiring about their mental health status, needs, and other related information. If you have any questions for the study team, you can reach out to hms-  coordination@umich.edu . All students at GRCC will be invited to participate and earn $10, and students will receive their links to the survey in their inbox starting Monday, October 28. Please encourage students to not mark it as spam! Their participation ensures that a variety of student perspectives and experiences are represented.  The survey will be open from Monday, October 28 to Friday, December 13, sent from Dr. Sheila Jones,   at  GRCC-healthyminds@umich.edu . We would like to hear from as many students as we can, and would appreciate you sharing information with your students about this study in class or via email. Thank you for your cooperation and support as we work to better understand our students and their needs. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Melissa Ware, Program Director-Center for Counseling and Well-Being,  atmelissaware@grcc.edu . 

  There is a family friendly event taking place on Saturday, Dec. 7 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the GR Classics Auto Museum located inside the TerryTown RV Showroom,7303 S Division Ave, Grand Rapids.  Help fill a red '55 Chevy Cameo Pickup! There will be ornament decorating for the first 200 families who bring a toy to the event, a hot chocolate station and special guests/photo opportunities.   If you choose to donate, toys that you bring in need to be new and unwrapped. This event is being organized by the Lakeshore Corvette Club along with The GR Classics Auto Museum.