March 11, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Chef Bob Schultz believes the strength of GRCC’s Secchia Institute for Culinary education comes from the expertise and the camaraderie of culinary arts faculty and staff. “Working together is much easier and successful when a department has the same end goals in mind,” he said. Chef Schultz brings over 25 years of teaching experience to his team, as well as several degrees focused on excellence in teaching culinary arts classes. He earned an Associate Degree of Applied Arts and Sciences in Culinary Arts from GRCC, a bachelor’s degree in Business from Davenport University, and a master’s degree from Ferris State University in Career and Tech Education. Students can work with Chef Schultz when they take CA 114 International Foods, CA 115 Table Service, CA 180 Co-Op/Internship class, CA 160 Ice Carving, CA 209 Principles of Food Science, or CA 200 Hospitality Management. Chef Schultz has excelled as a culinary arts faculty member at GRCC because of the college’s commitment to supporting faculty in their professional development. “I have capitalized in my teaching profession thanks to the commitment from the college supporting me as I earned various degrees and certifications,” he said. “Teaching in the culinary field has always been a career goal. I have been teaching here at GRCC for over 25 years and my goal has always been to bring something to our students that culinary students can’t get from any other culinary school in the United States. Hence my tenacity for knowledge.” Chef Schultz inspires passion in his students when he focuses on their success by making sure they grasp important concepts no matter their learning style, by diversifying the delivery of the material using different platforms. Excellence in teaching is a main tenant of Chef Schultz’s career as he continues the work of the Chef-Professors that came before him at GRCC. “My heroes are the chefs that helped establish our culinary program and its reputation,” he said. “It is because of their work, dedication, and sometimes sheer tenacity to the culinary craft that inspires me. In following their example, I am doing my part to help students fuel their passion for the culinary arts.”

March 10, 2022 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The sixth-annual African-American Male Achievement Conference will be a day of inspiration, learning, sharing and caring for our male students in ninth through 12 grades. The conference, offered virtually this year, will focus on school achievement, graduation, college, choices, careers and becoming a positive young man in the community and world. The theme is “Challenges, Choices, and Change.” The conference is planned for 9 a.m. through 11:30 a.m. March 28. While offered virtually, there are times for localized breakout sessions. The event is a collaboration between Urban League of Western Michigan, Grand Rapids Public Schools, GRCC, Grand Valley State University, and the City of Grand Rapids. Organizers aim to convene more than 1,000 African-American young men from West Michigan secondary schools and engage them in workshops and other activities in which they will be affirmed, dared to dream about their futures, and reminded of their potential greatness. Offering the conference virtually prevents the participants from being together in one space, but does allow each site to tailor the conference to its unique needs. Registration is available at a link here . Questions about the event can be answered by Parris McMurray at mcmurrayp@grps.org and Rhondo Cooper at CooperR@grps.org.

March 9, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Grand Rapids Community College basketball player Grace Lodes was named Defensive Player of the Year by the Michigan Community College Athletic Association Western Conference in postseason awards announced Wednesday. Lodes, who led the nation in blocked shots, was joined by teammate Sally Merrill in being named All-Region, All-MCCAA, First Team All-Conference, and to the All-Freshman Team. “I’m proud of our student-athletes and coaches for strong performances,” Athletic Director Lauren Ferullo said. “We have strong programs, with some of the best players in the state, and the nation. They work hard to be successful on the court and in the classroom.” GRCC’s Marlene Bussler was named Second Team All-Conference, and Allison Kellogg and Emersyn Koepke were named Honorable Mention All-Conference. The women’s team finished with a 20-11 record, reaching the championship game of the NJCAA Great Lakes A District tournament. David Glazier, wrapping up his sixth year at the helm, posted the most wins of his GRCC career. Lodes, from Comstock Park, led the nation in total blocks with 99 and ranked in the top 10 in conference in rebounding. Merrill, a freshman from Allegan, was the team’s leading scorer with 491, averaging 15.8 points per game. For the men’s team, Ryel Daye and Andrew Moore were named Third Team All-Conference, and Danyel Bibbs was named Honorable Mention All-Conference. The men’s team finished with a 10-19 overall record and 5-13 in the conference. Moore led GRCC in scoring, with 584 points, averaging 20.1 per game. Daye was one of the best rebounders in the NJCAA D2. His average 11.9 rebounds per game was third best in the nation.

A School News Network feature -- Lynnell Talbert knows the importance of giving youth a voice in the justice system, and the power of being a transformative force and advocate in their lives. An assistant professor in the GRCC Criminal Justice program, Talbert saw a need to better prepare students for working with incarcerated youth. She created a new Juvenile Residential Services course, which is expected to launch this summer. The class will be offered as an elective, and Talbert hopes it eventually will be required in the Juvenile Services Associate Degree program. Talbert has taught at GRCC since 2008 and is the college’s juvenile services coordinator. The focus of the class is working with youth in secure or medium secure residential facilities, a need that is always present. According to the ACLU, on any given day nearly 60,000 youth under age 18 are incarcerated in juvenile jails and prisons in the United States.  “This class will specifically center around the culture and environment around custodial care. It’s very different being a probation officer versus a youth worker in a detention center or residential facility,” Talbert said. Areas of study include services for juveniles and the challenges they face. Juveniles in these facilities have been separated from their families and often have a range of mental health and emotional needs. “Our framework comes from the restorative justice perspective,” Talbert said. Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm caused by criminal behavior over penalization. Students will also be trained to work through physical challenges by way of effective communication and redirecting youth who have become out of control or irrational. “When juveniles are placed in our residential facilities, the workers will need to understand the trauma and the mental health aspect of it (on the child).” There’s a huge demand for youth specialists to work in residential facilities and probation officers, she said. “We are having more and more juveniles at a younger age who are participating in delinquent or criminal behavior. Our residential services centers and our secured facilities are becoming overcrowded and they don’t have enough workers.” In creating the class, Talbert received input from members on an advisory board for juvenile services, which she facilitates. The course is designed to better equip workers in regard to state guidelines, protocols, behavior modification and training. Cierra Lowe has worked as a youth specialist at Kent County Detention Center and graduated with her associate degree in juvenile services in 2017. She also pointed out the importance of a reformative approach in juvenile justice. Lowe said before working at the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center, she did not realize in detail how vital the restorative process is for adolescents. She said she is very pleased to hear GRCC is adding the course. “I think this course will provide great insight into the need (and) benefits that residential treatment brings to our juvenile adolescents. I think it also will provide great insight into how many career opportunities residential treatment provides.” During the course, students will visit a medium secure and secure residential facility to tour and ask questions. (Medium secure facilities are not locked, meaning students do things in the community, while secure ones are.) A Cause Close to Her Heart Talbert worked for many years in juvenile justice. She was a youth specialist at a residential facility for a detention center in Kent County. She helped children in many ways: school, hygiene and social skill development, to name a few. She developed an incentive system as well, rewarding them for good behavior. She has also worked as a community probation office for juveniles, and discovered that the two areas of the system have different norms. That’s another reason the class is needed, she said. “It’s fulfilling for me when I see young people afterwards and they say ‘Thank you, Miss Lynn, for all the work you invested in my life. You put more time in me than my mother, father, my grandmother or anyone in my life, and you told me the potential I had.’” She is passionate about training GRCC students to have similar impacts. “My job and my goal is to help others become successful, productive citizens in our world, community and society.” This story was reported by Erin Albanese of the School News Network. 

March 8, 2022, SCOTTSBORO, Ala. – Arie Jackman shot a three-round score of 148, finishing tied for seventh overall, helping the Grand Rapids Community College golf team finish in fifth place at the Ron Marshall Spring Invite on Monday and Tuesday. Thirty-six golfers from seven colleges competed in the tournament at Goose Pond Lake Course. "The Raiders played well despite the cold and rainy weather they had to play in," Coach John Forton said. "We finished in fifth in a field that had some very highly rated teams. It was a good building block for the upcoming season." GRCC golfers shot a 326 in round one followed by a 318 and 324, to finish with a total of 968, 104-over par. John A. Logan College won the tournament with a score of 45-over par. Jackman's rounds of 79, 74 and 78 gave him a total of +15, just seven strokes back from co-champions Andrew Watson and Tanner Walton, both of John A. Logan College. Matt Denhartigh finished tied for 11th place with a score of 19-over par. Conner Oman, +31, Brad VandenHout, +42, and Sam Foss, +50, rounded out the Raiders golfers.

March 8, 2022 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Grand Rapids Community College and the Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan are hosting a free Senior Dental Day on March 14, helping students gain new experiences while volunteering to help residents. Students in GRCC’s Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene programs will work with area dentists through the Kent County Oral Health Coalition to provide free cleanings, X-rays, exams and referrals. The patients, all Kent County residents, are at least 60 years old and haven’t seen a dentist during the past 12 months. The Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan has organized the patients’ initial paperwork and is providing transportation to those who need it. Professor Christine Dobberstein said the event introduces the GRCC students to a volunteer opportunity and public health collaboration. “The students benefit by getting outside their comfort zones with a variety of patient experiences,” she said. “As they haven’t yet started their partner-office rotations, the Dental Assisting students haven’t had the chance to work with patients who are not friends, family or classmates. While the Dental Hygiene students have been seeing patients here in our GRCC clinic, they may not have worked with very many seniors at this point in their clinical education.” Senior Dental Day also gives the Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene students, who are often on very different schedules, a chance to work together as a team to care for a large number of patients, Dobberstein said. GRCC’s Dental Clinic is located on the third floor of the Peter and Pat Cook Academic Hall, 143 Bostwick Ave. NE. Services, offered throughout the year, include a review of medical and dental history, blood pressure screening, cleanings, preliminary dental hygiene exams, X-rays, fluoride treatments, dental health instruction, chemotherapeutic agents and sealants. More information is available online .  

March 7, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited Grand Rapids Community College on Monday, touring automotive technology labs and taking about auto insurance refund checks headed to car owners this spring. It’s the third time Whitmer has visited the Leslie E. Tassell M-TEC and fifth visit to GRCC since becoming governor in 2019. The governor toured GRCC automotive tech labs and classrooms, met with students and was greeted by GRCC Provost Brian Knetl. Whitmer was joined by Anita Fox, director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, to announce that the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association will complete the transfer of $3 billion in surplus funds to Michigan’s auto insurers this week. Once complete, the transfer will trigger a 60-day deadline for auto insurers to send out required $400 refund checks per vehicle to eligible Michiganders no later than May 9, 2022. “These $400 refunds are game-changers for so many Michigan families,” Whitmer said. “I called for these refunds because I am committed to lowering costs for Michiganders and putting money back in people’s pockets. They are possible because we worked across the aisle to pass bipartisan auto insurance reform, and we will keep working together to grow our economy and build a state where families can thrive.” The MCCA voted in Dec. 2021 to return approximately $3 billion of the surplus funds to Michiganders while maintaining approximately $2 billion in surplus funds to ensure continuity of care for catastrophic accident survivors. Michigan’s auto insurers must now issue refunds to eligible state policyholders of $400 per vehicle, or $80 per historic vehicle, for each vehicle that was insured under a policy that meets the minimum insurance requirements for operating a vehicle on Michigan roads as of 11:59 p.m. on October 31, 2021.  Eligible consumers who do not receive their refunds by the deadline should contact their auto insurer or agent. Additional information is available from DIFS online at Michigan.gov/MCCArefund , or by contacting the agency by phone at 833-ASK-DIFS (833-275-3437). or by emailing autoinsurance@michigan.gov. Whitmer was joined by Shawn Jones, owner of Jones Logistics Services, a trucking small business, and Sarah Weir, Kentwood Public Schools’ homeless student liaison. Photo by Andrew Schmidt.

March 7, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- In the sea of green and white at Michigan State University, Grand Rapids Junior College alum Carolyn J. Miller works with the very greenest.  Miller, who received her associate degree in 1987, is MSU’s plant recorder. Start at GRCC and go anywhere. Every former student has a story to tell about how GRCC gave them the education and opportunity to be successful. “I use GIS (geographic information systems) technology to track and record all the trees and shrubs on campus,” she said. “Not only do I work with GIS, but I update the plant database with pertinent information to all trees and shrubs.” Miller embarked on her higher ed journey at GRJC because of its affordable tuition, small classes and the help available at tutoring labs. “I would spend hours in the math help labs to get the added instruction I needed,” she said. “Knowing that I could succeed in these classes solidified my continued education.”. While she loved all her science classes – “every instructor I had went above and beyond to assist students” – Introduction to Botany and Organic Chemistry I and II were especially pivotal. “My botany professor, Dr. Jack Heydenburg, encouraged me to focus on botany, as he saw my enthusiasm for the plant world,” she said. “I will be forever grateful for his encouragement. “My organic chemistry professor, Dr. Ron Edwards, made me get outside my comfort zone in the lab. I was apprehensive on taking organic chemistry, knowing that I’d have to take it wherever I transferred to, but in the end, it was the best decision to take this class at GRJC.” Miller went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in botany and plant pathology from MSU and is working on a master’s degree in biology at Miami University in Ohio. After working at Frederik Meijer Gardens and then Naples Botanical Garden in Florida, she started at MSU in 2015. “Life is not easy, and to find a career that fulfills you can be even tougher,” Miller said. “Getting all the experience you can in college is a must. Yes, some of those experiences might be lackluster, but in the end, you will not regret those chances. I have always strived to tackle any job, and, ultimately, this led me to my dream job.” Let GRCC help you start your story. The first chapter starts at grcc.edu/apply .