GVSU launches new downtown Grand Rapids housing for freshmen, transfer college students

GRAND RAPIDS — 4 new housing possibilities positioned in downtown Grand Rapids will be obtainable to 1st year and transfer Grand Valley State College college students in the fall.

The 4 new residing-studying communities are a “game changer,” and will bring in students who may well like dwelling in the town alternatively of in the vicinity of the university’s most important campus in Allendale, mentioned GVSU President Philomena Mantella.

“This local community-based living encounter allows students to collaboratively examine tutorial possibilities, understand from just about every other, and possibly uncover new academic paths,” Mantella said in a statement. “Being in the coronary heart of downtown Grand Rapids will give students better access to internships, work and other networking opportunities.”

A few of the college student housing communities will be for college students who are majoring in social operate, engineering and business enterprise, while the fourth will be open up to any scholar, such as people who are undecided. All of the communities will be positioned in Winter Corridor, 1 of the two scholar housing centers on the Robert C. Pew downtown campus. 

GVSU Seidman Higher education of Enterprise Dean Diana Lawson claimed the academic residing-finding out communities will combine experiential understanding and engagement within their respective specialist communities.  

“In (residing-discovering communities), learning usually takes location in the classroom, with peers in residing spaces, and by way of experiential options that integrate classroom finding out with the skilled communities in and throughout disciplines,” Lawson stated in a assertion.

The pupil housing communities are based mostly on 6 current communities on GVSU’s Allendale campus, and analysis has revealed that they have a strong effect on scholar discovering and accomplishment, explained Kyle Boone, director of Housing and Home Life. Each and every residing-discovering group is made for 200 pupils.

“Students are dwelling on the very same ground and taking comparable lessons,” Boone said. “Living-learning communities at Grand Valley, by design and style, hook up the educational and the student expertise immediately. Spontaneous review groups will occur and school users are right there to solution concerns. Pupils on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus will have entry to assets and companies just as they would on the Allendale Campus.”