News briefs 2/26/18

GVsu joins MiSTEM network

On Friday, Feb. 23, Grand Valley State University announced that it was joining the statewide MiSTEM Network, a cohort of various regions designed to tailor education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields (STEM). GVSU’s Regional Math and Science Center (RMSC) will lead the effort to design a “robust regional STEM culture.” 

In an interview with GVNow, Kristofer Pachla, director of the RMSC, said that “research suggests that if we can engage students early on in these exciting and high-quality experiences, we’ll capture their imagination and interest in STEM fields.”

The RMSC will receive $110,000 from $1.3 million in state funding for the project. The initiative is part of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s MiSTEM Advisory Council. The council aims to make the state of Michigan a worldwide STEM leader.

Teachers of the Year lecturing at GVsu

The two previous Michigan Teacher of the Year recipients will be speaking at Grand Valley State University on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tracy Horodyski and Luke Wilcox, who won the award in 2016-17 and 2017-18, will be speaking at an event titled “Teacher Leadership Matters” in the Cook-DeWitt Center at 7 p.m. Both Horodyski and Wilcox are GVSU alumni. 

Student senate is sponsoring the event, which is LIB 100-approved. 

Horodyski graduated from GVSU in 1999 and then again with a master’s degree in 2002. She currently teaches in Kenowa Hills Public Schools as an elementary educator. Wilcox received a master’s degree from GVSU in 2006 and currently teaches math at East Kentwood High School.

New Chick-fil-A location opening in Grand Rapids

A second Grand Rapids Chick-fil-A is opening Thursday, March 1, and will be located at 2750 East Beltline Ave. SE. 

A pre-opening campout will begin in the restaurant parking lot at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The first 100 people in line will receive a gift card worth 52 meals. The meals consist of a chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a medium drink. 

Campus for Consent to screen the film ‘The Hunting Ground’

“The Hunting Ground” is a movie of first-person testimonies that follows undergraduate rape survivors who are both pursuing their education and seeking justice for what happened to them. The filmmakers, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, reveal what rape survivors go through once they report sexual violence—institutional cover-ups, rationalizations, victim-blaming and denial—making it less likely that rape survivors will report their experiences and more likely that they will become victims. 

Join Campus for Consent in their screening of “The Hunting Ground” on Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Room 1142 of the Kirkhof Center.