News from Grand Valley State University
Women's basketball team members celebrate their win as they hold a trophy and confetti falls.

GVSU in Photos, March 2025: Sparks fly, nature beckons and confetti abounds to celebrate Laker champs

 A college student takes a selfie with a group of smiling friends.
Joshua Eapen, right, takes a selfie with a group of students that were attending the first Multicultural Night March 20. Eapen is a first-year biomedical sciences student.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 A student studies near sunlight streaming in a window creating shadows on the walls.
Medical laboratory science major Claire Peyerk studies inside the DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health in Grand Rapids March 12.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 College basketball players lay on the gym floor among blue and white confetti after winning a championship game.
GVSU celebrates the 70-58 win over Cal-State Dominguez Hills in the NCAA Division II National Championship at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh on March 28.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 A college student flexes their muscles while wearing work gloves.
Ashlyn Jenkins, a senior studying social work, flexes her muscles while volunteering for Students Leaving a Mark Spring Break trip in North Carolina.
Image credit - Emily Riddle
 A speaker at a lectern throws their arms into the air while speaking at an event.
Shontaye M. Witcher, assistant vice president of Student Affairs for Equity and Accessibility/ deputy ADA coordinator, dances during EqualiTEA at the Kirkhof Center on March 18.
Image credit - Cory Morse
Sparks fly as a person wearing safety glasses works on making a sword.
Sparks fly as mechanical engineering major Scott Strayer grinds a sword for a video crew at the Kennedy Hall of Engineering on March 21. Workaholic Productions is producing a video of GVSU students making a sword for the Cast in Steel competition.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 Two students embrace after listening to a suicide prevention talk.
Megan Snoyink, a graduate student in social work, hugs students DeMarion Owens, Dallas Mathews and Max Cochran after mental health training that was offered to all students on the Students Leaving a Mark Spring Break trip to North Carolina.
Image credit - Emily Riddle
 A professor poses for a portrait in his office surrounded by a taxidermy bear, zebra skull and hornet's nest.
Steve Rybczynski, associate professor of biology, said the things in his office show his students what's important to him: the photos of his family, the jars of insects and plant seeds, the taxidermy bear named "Hank," a zebra skull, his mother's collection of "National Geographic," a bald-faced hornet's nest. "It humanizes us," said Rybczynski. "We're not scary robots but we're people with families and interests."
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 A college student moves a plant inside a greenhouse.
Denise Gardner is an environmental studies student who will graduate this April. She is pictured in the Barbara Kindschi Greenhouse.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 Two people wearing hardhats embrace at a construction site event.
Omni Director of Southwest Michigan Al Shifflett, left, celebrates the construction site of the Battle Creek Innovation Hub with Elizabeth Carey, CEO and president of Starr-Commonwealth.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 Two college students wearing blue caps and gowns embrace while smiling into a mirror.
Reette Thorns, left, and Ava Grillo share a moment in a dressing room in the Haas Performing Arts Center while participating in a Commencement video production. The two students will be graduating this April.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 A portrait of a smiling student holding a flag from Nepal.
Kamala Pokhrel was born in Nepal and holds a flag from her native country. When Pokhrel, a senior mechanical engineering major, first attended GVSU, she didn't see a student organization for Nepali students so, she created one.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 Three mallard ducks sit on ice near open blue water.
Three mallard ducks sit on ice near the open water of Zumberge Pond March 10.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 A person stands on an enclosed blue metal bridge to remove holiday lights.
Ben Westhuis, left, and Carter Wiebenga, take down holiday lights from Little Mac Bridge on March 3. The two work for Shine of Grand Rapids.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 A university president and a faculty member laugh while recording a podcast.
President Philomena V. Mantella talks with Jaideep Motwani, chair and professor of management in the Seidman College of Business, during a recording of a Faculty Focus Podcast March 6.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 Two squirrels jump and play in the branches of a tree.
Squirrels run and jump through a budding tree at Great Lakes Plaza in Allendale on March 4.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 A college student holds a small pinch pot in their hands as they paint it.
Aarya Bhandari, a first-year nursing student, paints a pinch pot during a booth hosted by Honors Familia. Painting the pinch pots was a way to celebrate Hispanic heritage through pottery. Pinch pots were used for both practical and ceremonial purposes across Latin America.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 Two people leave a building with luggage as a bus waits outside.
TRIO students leave the GVSU Detroit Center on March 7 for a TRIO student leadership summit in Traverse City.
Image credit - Cory Morse
  A student studying is reflected in artwork hanging nearby, left. At right, a student wearing a Nike sweatshirt and glasses reads a book in an arboretum.
Left, Physical therapy major Victoria Ciavaglia is reflected in "Balena" by René Romero Schuler while studying inside the DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health in Grand Rapids March 12. Right, Riley Eicher, a sophomore art education major, sits in the Arboretum to read on March 10. "I have class in 20 minutes so I'm taking a break and reading for me," she said.
Image credit - Cory Morse, left, Kendra Stanley-Mills, right
 A college student riding in a car gives a peace sign to a donkey out the vehicle window.
Oliver Shampine, a junior public and nonprofit administration major, flashes a peace sign at Jack the donkey during the Students Leaving a Mark Spring Break trip to North Carolina.
Image credit - Emily Riddle
 A women's college basketball team celebrates by jumping into the air as they win a game.
The GVSU women's basketball team celebrates their regional championship win against Ashland March 17.
Image credit - Emily Riddle
 A detail photo of a cheerleader's hands lifting another cheerleader into the air.
The Grand Valley State University Cheerleading Team helps performs stunts during the women's basketball regional championship game against Ashland.
Image credit - Emily Riddle
 People mingle near a blue sky coming into building windows while a video plays on a large screen television.
The DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health (DCIH) opened in 2021. It is considered the flagship building of GVSU's Health Campus. Students, university leaders and lead donor Pamella DeVos celebrated students and community partnerships March 25 at an event in the building.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
 A university president celebrates with a large crowd during a women's basketball national championship win.
President Philomena V. Mantella celebrates the 70-58 win over Cal-State Dominguez Hills in the NCAA Division II National Championship at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh on March 28.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 A detail of hands on a trophy as it is lifted into the air while confetti falls.
GVSU celebrates the 70-58 win over Cal-State Dominguez Hills in the NCAA Division II National Championship at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh on March 28.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 Two middle school students wearing matching green t-shirts work on a helicopter during a Science Olympiad competition.
Plymouth Christian eighth-graders, Jason Kleyn, left, and Carter Van Dyke compete in Region 12 Michigan Science Olympiad's helicopter event in the Fieldhouse March 29.
Image credit - Eliana McGlinchey
The sunsets on a college campus as warm lights from windows reflect into a pond.
The Haas Center for the Performing Arts Center is reflected into Zumberge Pond during sunset on the Allendale Campus March 20.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
  A person dressed in an orange costume stands near other college students in a natural wooded area.
Environmental studies and sustainability major Luci Stein wears a costume depicting "The Lorax" at the Arboretum as part of a class project for ENS 242 - Climate Change in Popular Culture on March 27.
Image credit - Cory Morse
 A dance team member holds a blue GO sign while screaming to get the crowd excited during a basketball game.
Passionate Laker Dance Team member, Zackery Walters, holds a 'GO' sign embodying the excitement and energy of the regional championship game against Ashland on March 17.
Image credit - Emily Riddle

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