“Fill the Gap” social media campaign wins award

The GRCC Communication team’s “Fill the Gap” social media campaign was honored with a Silver PRoof Award from the West Michigan Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The campaign encouraged students considering taking a gap year due to the pandemic to instead continue their education by taking classes at GRCC.

The campaign included a series of 20 social media posts running in May and June 2020, supported by information on the GRCC website. 

The series featured portraits of GRCC students, considered reasons why a student would contemplate a gap year, and countered every one with an example of why a community college would be a better option for them. It shared the educational and financial benefits of gaining transferable credits at GRCC rather than taking a year off.

This campaign already earned a national Paragon Award from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations — a community college communications organization — and was recently featured in NCMPR’s Counsel magazine. 

GRCC hosting virtual event with members of Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission

Grand Rapids Community College is hosting four members of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission for a virtual event on Monday, June 14.

The commission is made up of four Republicans, four Democrats, and five independent citizens and is the first group of its kind to be drawing state district lines.

The first half of the free event will be a 45-minute presentation and question and answer period about the commission and its work.

The second half will be a hands-on workshop on how to use the tool Districtr to draw maps to be submitted as public comment for consideration in the map-drawing process.

The link to attend the event is here.

The event is being coordinated by the professors Meghan VanderMale of the Math Department and Heather Richards of the Social Sciences Department.

The redistricting commission was created by an amendment to the state constitution changing the way the state determines state House and Senate and U.S. House of Representatives districts.  

The Commission also is planning a public hearing in Grand Rapids at 5 p.m. on July 1 at DeVos Place, 303 Monroe Ave. NW. People can attend remotely or in person. Sign-up information is here.

The Zoom link, as well as a live steam can also be found on the Facebook event page.