For  ten years our College has wrestled with creating a common identity. We have talked about our mission. We have crafted our elevator speech. We have outlined our marketing plan.

It is time to do something else. It is time to put our identity crisis behind us and embrace a shared vision, a common purpose, a raison d'être. Over  the next ten years, I want the College of Community and Public Service to become a model of an “Engaged College.” That is, I want us to expand our various community connections, deepen our commitment to service learning, and promote our faculty’s participation in community problem solving. I want us to do these things more and I want us to do these things better. I want CCPS to become the model not only for the rest of Grand Valley State University, but for any college that wants to do community engagement and do it right.  I want us to be a leader in reinvigorating the community and public mission of American higher education .

Dean George Grant Jr, August 2015

Michigan Cares for Tourism

Michigan Cares for Tourism, a volunteer partnership chartered by Grand Valley State University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Department and other Michigan tourism organizations, was presented with the 2016 Governor’s Awards for Innovative Tourism Collaboration during April’s Pure Michigan Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

Michigan Cares for Tourism coordinates vital volunteer clean up events at treasured Michigan tourism locations each year in need of revitalization. In the first two years of the program, Michigan Cares has engaged nearly 900 Michigan tourism industry professionals to volunteer their time and talents to help restore four of Michigan’s historic attractions. These efforts combined to provide $307,000 in labor and supply savings for Waterloo Recreation Areas’ Historic Mill Lake, Belle Isle Park, the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse, and Fayette Historic State Park.

The Governor’s Awards for Innovative Tourism Collaboration were created by the Michigan Travel Commission, in conjunction with the Governor’s Office, to elevate the status of Michigan’s tourism industry and to promote innovative collaboration as an effective, efficient and creative operating principle for the industry.

The Beautiful Foundation

CCPS and two local nonprofit organizations, Learning to Give and Korean Connection, hosted an 11-woman delegation from the Beautiful Foundation in South Korea. The delegation studied, shared, and observed practices in youth philanthropic education. Their first full day in America was spend at GVSU’s College of Community and Public Service, with Dorothy Johnson Center ED Kyle Caldwell, SPNHA Professor Sal Alaimo, Associate Dean Mark Hoffman, and the Our State of Generosity team of Kathy Agard and Robin Leonard. At a Wednesday-night forum they gave a public presentation of their own educational programs in Korea.