Students Earn Nearly $300,000 in Nationally Competitive Awards

“Dream Big” is the motto of the Frederik Meijer Office of Fellowships, a small, but pivotal office that is helping to bring national recognition to Grand Valley State University. The mission of the fellowships office is to advise and support GVSU students and alumni to achieve the extraordinary by matching their dreams to prestigious fellowship and scholarship awards and other opportunities. Such prestigious awards provide funding for a specific purpose such as studying abroad, teaching English abroad, learning a critical need language to U.S. national security, or supporting undergraduate or graduate research or study, as non-exhaustive examples. 

During the 2014-2015 academic year, the fellowships team scheduled more than 364 student appointments, offered 21 workshops/information sessions, and supported more than 100 applicants for nationally competitive awards. Forty GVSU students and alumni were offered nationally competitive awards and have been awarded nearly $300,000 in nationally competitive award monies for the 2014-2015 academic year. “We are approaching the $1 million mark in the amount of nationally competitive award monies awarded to GVSU students and alumni since the opening of the fellowships office in December 2009,” Frederik Meijer Office of Fellowships Director Amanda Cuevas said. 

The office was established through a generous monetary gift from the Meijer Foundation.

Women and Gender Studies Student Receives Multiple Awards

Frederik Meijer Honors College student Danielle Meirow capped a successful tenure at Grand Valley State University by receiving both top student honors at the annual awards banquet in April.

Meirow, who was a double major in Women and Gender Studies (WGS) and Biomedical Sciences, earned the Niemeyer Award and the Venderbush Award. Named for Glenn A. Niemeyer, the award honors students who strive for excellence in all aspects of their academic experience. The Kenneth R. Venderbush Award is presented to a senior who has made a significant leadership contribution to student life.

Meirow was also named Outstanding Student by the WGS program and Outstanding Student Senator by the Student Senate.

She served as both a student senator and a resident assistant, and she was involved in many student organizations. “Grand Valley is sincerely dedicated to its students and I greatly enjoyed being one of the many working to improve the institution we all love so much,” Meirow said.

Meirow began her studies at Grand Valley with the intent on becoming a physician. An introductory WGS course led Meirow to pursue that field of study also.

“Following my study abroad trip with the WGS program to South Africa in 2012, I realized I wanted to spend even more time learning about issues that affect marginalized communities across the globe and decided to add it as a second major,” she said.

She will begin a year of service with AmeriCorps, working with the Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative in Fall 2014.

Student and Alumni Successes

• Alesia Alexander, an African/African American Studies minor, was awarded a fellowship at the African American Literature and Cultures Institute at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
• Meijer Honors College students, Mario Amaya-Velazquez, Samantha Batdorff, Anthony Clemons, Michael Dykstra, Mary Hoekje, Bailey Tucker and Liberal Studies student Morgan Olson received the Gilman Scholarship.
• Ross Argir, a Religious Studies major, was presented the Outstanding Student Award in Religious Studies.
• Christine Bectal, a Middle Eastern Studies minor, received the Padnos Study Abroad Scholarship to study German in Munich, Germany.
• Ricky Benavidez, a Women and Gender Studies minor, who served as Student Senate president, received a Thomas M. Seykora Award for his outstanding contributions to improve the campus community.
• Michelle Bouwkamp, a Chinese Studies major, received the University Major Award for her excellent performance in Chinese Studies courses.
• Allie Bouza, a Meijer Honors College student, received the Goldwater Scholarship honorable mention.
• Youssef Darwich, an Environmental Studies minor and Sustainable Agriculture Project intern, won the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum 2014 Future Green Leaders competition.
• Abigail DeHart, Meijer Honors College student, received the prestigious DeKarman Fellowship.
• Joseph Hogan, a Meijer Honors College student, received the Meijer Honors Outstanding Senior Award.
• Liberal Studies alumni Denyel Kolka, who completed coursework at GVSU’s Muskegon Regional Center, has completed one year of service at United Way of the Lakeshore through AmeriCorps as a community resource navigator. Kolka exceeded the company’s expectations in recruiting and training volunteers, as well as participated in 10 community service projects.
• Jepkoech Kottutt, a Women and Gender Studies major, received the Jean Enright award presented by the Women and Gender Studies program.
• David Leestma, a Middle Eastern Studies minor, was awarded the nationally competitive Boren Scholarship and the Padnos Study Abroad Scholarship to study at Birzeit University in the West Bank. Additionally, Leestma was selected to go on a student study trip to Saudi Arabia by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations.
• Kyle Meppelink, a Middle Eastern Studies minor, received the Padnos Study Abroad Scholarship to study Arabic in the West Bank.
• Xinyi Ou, a Meijer Honors College student and Dean’s Office student assistant, and Mary Banghart Therrien, professor of Social Work, presented Getting the Straight Scoop: Strategies for Working with LGBTQ Youth in Child Welfare at a conference hosted by the State Court Administrative Office. Ou is the recipient of the History Department’s Outstanding Student Award.
• Seth Price, a Meijer Honors College student, received the Critical Language Scholarship.
• Julia Raap, a Women and Gender Studies major, won an Outstanding Student Award presented by the Women’s Center. Raap also was named the Volunteer of the Month for December by the Community Service Learning Center and presented research at the American Popular Culture Association meetings in April.
• Mark Switzer, Office of Sustainability Practices Web editor and Student Office assistant, received the Graduate Dean’s Citation for Excellence Award, the Outstanding Graduate Student in the School of Counseling Award, and a Graduate Showcase Award.
• Stephanie Tanis, a first year Meijer Honors College student, won first place in the 2014 Students Reinventing Michigan Competition for her proposal entitled Combating Childhood Obesity.
• Alexis Van Haitsma, a Religious Studies major, was presented the first Outstanding Research Award in Religious Studies at the Religious Studies and Liberal Studies senior showcase.
• Seven writing consultants from the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors presented at the East Central Writing Center Association conference at Miami University in Ohio.
  • Losing FaceSpace to the Cloud? by Melanie Rabine
  • Next Gen Learners and the Knowledge Market: What Writing Consultants Can Learn by Yah-Hanna Jenkins
  • Linking Reading and Writing by Alaina Moreau
  • An Innovative Approach to Learning in the Knowledge Market by Megan Rodawold and Jackie Vega
  • Where in the World is Your Thesis? Consultants as Cultural Translators by Nicole Fisher and Xinyi Ou
• Eleven writing consultants from the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors presented at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing at the Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida.
  • Awkward Turtles: Handling Unique Situations in the Center by Andrew Brown and Lindsey Wolpert
  • Across Time and Space: Best Practices in Online Consultations by Rachel Amity and Anna Worm
  • Rhetoric and the Student-Writer: Strategies for Helping Students Understand and Apply Rhetoric to their Writing by Joe Hogan and Kevin Joffre
  • Self-Efficacy: Making Writing A Collaborative Process by Andrew Brown
  • Author v. Audience: Whose Needs Are We Addressing? by Nikki Fisher and Anna Worm
  • Under Pressure: Removing the Paper to Empower the Student by Katie Conigliaro and Marissa Kobe

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