While it should be obvious what our team name represents, it is both of our first names (Grace and Rachel) mashed together. It doesn’t mean anything super special in particular, but we realized we share three of the same letters in our names (in the same order), so we decided to utilize that.
GVSU Group Landmark Photos:
This is the L. William Seidman statue just outside the Pew Library on the main campus. It was moderately brightened. For me personally, it hit me pretty quickly, once I read his plaque, that we share the same birthday! (April 29) He was allegedly one of the founding fathers of the university, and worked under several Presidential Administrations. Several buildings attached to GVSU were named in his honor, including one of the top business schools in the nation. I don’t do business but that’s pretty neat to me. Plus we’re birthday buddies. Did I mention we share a birthday?
This statue is called “Transformational Link”, and it sits near the border, just off the main Ravine bridge, of North and South campus. It was edited with a gradient layer of two different blues. This statue represents what I first saw of GVSU. In my initial college search, I found GVSU and saw this weird-looking house statue thing. Whenever I thought of GVSU, I thought of this rather large statue, meant to represent the observer putting in mental effort to finish the statue on their own. GVSU superstition states that a current student should never walk under it, otherwise they’ll fail their exams. I don’t really want to take that chance right now.
I think for every single student attending GVSU, the Mary Idea Pew Library represents something quite special (i.e. actual hell). The contrast, color balance and saturation were modified. Even though I am only in my first semester of college, I have spent more hours here than I would ever think to spend here. As it turns out, this library is one of the nicest places I’ve ever studied, with hundreds of resources to use, even including an Argo Tea!
I honestly have no idea what this statue means. It’s a monk holding a bird, but other than that there wasn’t really anything else indicating what it was called or why it was there. I added a halo around the monk’s head:). The only real significance this statue holds to me is that before the year even started, my older brother wanted to see where I was going to school, so we all flew out in the middle of summer. He tends to go off on his own and explore, and I had no idea where he was going or what he was doing when he found this statue. but he found it, and we (my mom, my brother and I) spent several minutes wondering what the HECK kind of school was this to have a very random monk statue sitting around. Whenever I come across this statue, I think of him and how RANDOM this statue is, but at least it’s tied with a good memory.
GVSU Individual Landmark Photo:
Namely one of GVSU’s most iconic landmarks, the Clock Tower is something possibly everyone thinks of when they think of GVSU. Usually featured on any GVSU-related print or media, it’s a definitely a centerpiece on campus. The exposure on the image was darkened, then the saturation and vibrance on the image was edited. While the Clock Tower is important to everyone, it’s the one other landmark that gave me tingles when I thought of GVSU a year ago and if I might go here. The tower is intimidating (and rather loud every 15 minutes I must say), but it fills every Laker with a sense of pride I don’t think they can get anywhere else.
Vintage Internet Memes:
HADOUKEN MEME: The Hadouken Meme originated from the one-on-one fighter game franchise Street Fighter, named after a combat move.
QUIDDITCHING MEME: Also known as the Pottering Meme, it originated in August of 2012 on Reddit.
CONDESCENDING WONKA: First introduced in January of 2011 with the screencap of Wonka’s condescending face, it began being memed soon after.
Meme Research:
SALT BAE: The Salt Bae Meme first saw the light of day in January of 2017, when a Turkish chef posted a video of himself salting some meat. The post gained overnight popularity, as did the Turkish chef. Since “being salty” became a popular term among the youths (especially myself) , the meme became widely used with many variations and contexts, but began to drop off in popularity near the end of the year, though the meme is still alive and used at various times.
In reading through the GVSU Foundation Annual Report (for 2017), I learned that the university, using the funds raised through the foundation, is planning on opening a new building, Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall on the health campus, set to have opened this year. The infographic reports a total of about $12.6 million raised through 14,000 private donors, meaning each donor gave an average of $900.
It seems as if there is no definite pattern over the last 10 years as to how much money the foundation will raise, but while $12.6 million is a lot of money, it’s actually one of the smallest amounts raised by the foundation, compared to the $28.4 million raised in 2010 and the $24.7 million raised two years before that. But regardless, the fact that GVSU has this type of money-raising program at all proves how much people care about the university whether or not they’re still going there or working there.
Grace Recla 