Social Studies Program Homepage
Social Studies Happenings
Meet the Professors Event
Pizza, Professors, & Possibilities
The History Department hosted its annual Meet the Professors event, where students had the opportunity to come speak with faculty and get some free pizza! At this event, students get to visit the History office, meet professors in a more relaxed environment, and explore what programs the department offers. Because History is such a wide reaching program, as many professors try to attend as possible to give students the opportunity to learn more about the various concentrations someone can study. Make sure you stop by next year to get a slice of pizza and meet our amazing professors!
Donuts with Gloria
Alumna Speaks with Future Social Studies Majors
Gloria Masterton Hunter, the recipient GVSU's Young Alumni Award, visited the History Department to have donuts and speak with future Social Studies students to talk about her career, her time at GVSU, and how she's making an impact on her local community. Students asked Gloria questions ranging from her course work at GVSU to how she ended up moving from Michigan to South Carolina. Gloria graduated from GVSU in 2017 with degrees in both Social Studies and Secondary Education and has since gained many accolades for her commitment and passion to education including the 2021 LCA Teacher of the Year award and the 2022 NSHSS Top 10 Educator award!
2025 Great Lakes History Conference
Climate, Environment, Psyche, & History
This year's conference, "Climate, Environment, Psyche, & History", brought together experts from many fields to explore how people and societies experience and respond to both natural and human-made disasters. It focused on the often-overlooked emotional, cultural, and psychological impacts of environmental trauma, such as those caused by climate change, pandemics, pollution, and war. By encouraging dialogue between scholars of past and present disasters, the event strove to deepen our understanding of how humans perceive, react to, and reshape their environments in times of crisis.
GVSU Aspiring Educators of Michigan
GVSU Aspiring Educators of Michigan (AEM) is a social and professional group for future teachers connected to the Michigan Education Association. GVSU's chapter plans volunteering events and monthly meetings to discuss unique educational ideas. This includes bringing in teachers, faculty from GVSU's Teacher Education programs, and other educational professionals.
Educators of Color Network
The Educators of Color Network (ECN) is a registered student organization and is committed to provide support, guidance, awareness, and connections for the GVSU pre-service community with an emphasis on those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). ECN provides community, networking, scholarship, support/professional development opportunities, as well as financial resources, alumni advocacy, and inspiration to future educators of color.
National Science Teaching Association - Student Chapter
The Grand Valley National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Student Chapter connects science to teaching and provides professional opportunities for students pursuing careers in K-12 science education. Science education majors and minors host meetings, explore careers, share resources, and talk with practicing teachers.
Health and Physical Education Club
This club is for Health and Physical Education Majors and Minors to work together to become professional educators. We are on the move to promote unity among health and physical education majors and minors, advocate for physical activity in physical education, and enhance professional development opportunities.
PRISM: Careers in Education
Prism: Careers in Education meets once a month to unite LGBTQIA+ students and allies who want to work in education-based careers. If you are thinking about working in teacher education, juvenile justice, school counseling, speech language pathology, social work, youth advocacy, etc., this is your space to connect!
Come share ideas and build your network with people who care about making schools and communities better for everyone. We plan to offer networking events and professional development opportunities throughout the year.
Suitable
GVSU has more than 400 Registered Student Organizations; Check them all out by clicking the Suitable logo and see what you can get involved in today!
Why Study Social Studies at Grand Valley?
The major in social studies is designed for students seeking teacher certification in secondary, middle, or elementary school. The major coursework is in history, economics, geography, and political science as well as in the social studies specific pedagogy.
Choose from a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in history, or a minor in history or history of science. Careful training in research, writing, critical reading, and interpretation makes history graduates attractive to a wide number of employers who value those abilities, especially in fields of law, library and museum work, finance, journalism, and public administration. Students also study history to advance their own liberal education and to train their minds.
Social studies majors study the world from a variety of disciplinary perspectives giving them strong interdisciplinary training, are prepared to tackle the teaching of a complex subject in a changing world, are attractive to schools that seek to hire teachers who are able to teach a variety of courses in social studies, and work closely with social studies faculty to learn the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching social studies.
D3 in TC (2026)
Inquiry | Integrity | Impact
In an age of information overload where credible research, biased opinion, and outright misinformation often coexist, students need more than just content knowledge; they need the analytical skills to navigate, evaluate, and make sense of the sources they encounter. Dimension 3 of the C3 Framework emphasizes the ability to analyze sources and use evidence to support claims and conclusions within an inquiry process. Now more than ever, these skills are essential across all grade levels.
This past April, Professor Annie Whitlock took ____ GVSU students up to Traverse City to attend the Michigan Council for Social Studies conference, where keynote speakers Carl Azuz & Rachel Scott spoke on the power of news and media, as well as how to encourage a society to be active citizens with civic efficacy.
