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23 GVSU highlights from 2023

BY University Communications
Image credit - Top photo by Amanda Pitts

Dec 19, 2023

Here is a look back at some of GVSU's 2023 highlights as Lakers learned, connected, celebrated and continued to Reach Higher.

To keep up with all of Grand Valley's stories, visit GVNext , Grand Valley Magazine and Forum , and follow us on social media .


Five top-read stories on GVNext

A wrestler holds arms up in triumph while another wrestler lies on the floor. The mat has GV in the center.
The return of wrestling as a varsity sport at GVSU was one of the top-read stories of 2023. Photo by Kendra Stanley-Mills

Five Lakers vie for title of Miss Michigan

10 things every incoming Laker must know

After three decades, wrestling returns as a varsity sport to Grand Valley

Grand Valley reports record first-year enrollment

No. 7 Grand Valley, No. 1 Ferris State square off in Anchor-Bone Classic


Five top videos

Ben Moon: Flow State

GR in XR GVSU Blue Dot Innovation District conceptual video

Welcome Home, Lakers!

Water in the West

Top five social media posts


Happy little trees

Something special: What first-year students brought with them to campus

First football game of the year: What's your favorite touchdown cheer?

Surprise: Student commencement speaker, Megan Smith '23, surprises her dad

Back to school: Louie preparing campus

Three top Grand Valley Magazine stories

A person wearing a justice's robe smiles with arms folded in a courtroom.
A feature on GVSU graduate and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden was one of Grand Valley Magazine's top stories in 2023.
Image credit - Amanda Pitts

Supreme relationship builder

Searching for patterns in cold case class

Responding to climate change as educators

Four images (plus the one at the top of the page) that capture GVSU moments in 2023

A person holds a clump of mussels up for another person to look at.
An Inland Seas schoolship instructor hands mussels to David Buchanan. Mussels were brought up from Suttons Bay at different depths. Buchanan was with a class of integrative studies students in Traverse City who spent a day conducting water experiments aboard a schoolship operated by the Inland Seas Educational Association in Suttons Bay.
Image credit - Amanda Pitts
Two people in academic regalia stand on stage smiling.
Board of Trustees Chair Susan Jandernoa, left, and President Philomena V. Mantella, right, smile on stage during Commencement, April 29.
Image credit - Amanda Pitts
Silhouette of two people opposite each other with their backs to the same pillar. In the background are colorful pieces of art on a wall.
Chad Britton, left, and Kaylee West work on their studies between classes in Henry Hall September 27. Britton was reading a book for an anthropology class and West was studying for an exam.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills
Hands hold instruments above camera with trombone bells facing down toward the camera.
The Laker Marching Band trombone section holds their instruments in the air for a hype cheer before the first home football game of the season September 9.
Image credit - Kendra Stanley-Mills

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