As college students, we can sometimes get stuck in our own bubble. Attempting to balance a heavy academic schedule, extracurricular activities and social lives, it can be easy to forget about the needs around us.

Recently, a group of students from a MGT 345 Team Building class were assigned a project to help the community around them, so the students took the opportunity to help the local homeless population by setting up a community goods drive. We think this hands-on initiative with a great community impact is a great model for other classes at Grand Valley State University.

With a student body of over 25,000 students, GVSU students have great potential to make a difference, especially in the community around us. With such a large community of Lakers, we should be taking every opportunity available to help those around us.

In addition to the community benefits, this kind of work allows students to become acclimated to the real world they will be entering after graduation. By gaining a larger perspective than what is seen within the classroom, students would be gaining experiences larger than just the university. This kind of community work doesn’t look bad on a resume, either.

While group projects and papers are beneficial in learning how to work with coworkers and meet deadlines, taking classwork out into the real world gives back to the community in ways that group projects can’t. It also allows for students to have tangible projects to talk about in job interviews, something that is sure to impress a potential employer much more than a GPA will.

The GVSU brand reaches far. From study abroad experiences to scholarly works, we have a lot of impact on the world around us, but we need to make sure that we are focusing on ways to contribute outside the limitations of academia.

With campaigns focusing on expanding our college experience and showing the “Laker Effect” of a GVSU education, we think classroom application is a great way to do so. Every student in every major has some way to give back to the community, it’s just about finding that potential.

Each day we go to class, we are surrounded by people who have an opportunity to make a difference. This semester alone, GVSU students have developed “growing shoes” to help with poverty in Tanzania and organized book drives for local schools in need. College is a time to expand upon innovation and utilize creative ideas, and that means engaging with the real world.

As we stand 25,000 students strong, it is important that Lakers remember those around us and use that collective power to create a larger footprint for change.