The Grand Rapids Community College women’s basketball team had a strong first half against the No. 2 team in the nation, but wound up losing in their opening round game of the NJCAA Division II National Basketball Championships on Tuesday.
“Tough outcome against a talented group,” head coach David Glazier said. “I thought our kids played a really good first half, but CCBC’s depth got the better of us. I’m Looking forward to continuing to compete toward our goal of playing on Saturday.”
GRCC’s basketball team got off to a slow start, scoring just two points after one quarter of play, but bounced back by out-scoring Community College of Baltimore-Essex 18-16 in the second quarter to trail by just 14 points at the half.
GRCC couldn’t cut into the lead any further, and CCBC-Essex, whose only loss this year was to the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, cruised to the 87-40 victory.
Point guard, Marlene Bussler led the team with 17 points on seven-of-18 from the field, and grabbed six rebounds. Last week’s district tournament Most Valuable Player, Sally Merrill, led the team with 10 rebounds. Grace Lodes tallied eight points and six rebounds.
GRCC’s next game will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday against 10-seeded North Central Missouri College who lost their opener to No. 7 Pima Community College 69-66.
It can be a long and winding road when it comes to finding your passion and turning it into a career. Sydney Sayre’s journey led her to become a Metallica Scholar.
“I went to Western Michigan University and studied social work,” Sayre said. “I took a break from that to join AmeriCorps and did that for about three years. By the time I finished, I realized that the social work field was not for me.”
Sayre started looking into the possibility of learning a professional trade.
“I didn’t see a lot of opportunities for women. I was working for a concert venue doing production and these bands would come in with semi-trucks and set up these massive stages – it was amazing! That led me to take a Women Who Weld bootcamp in Detroit for a week – I absolutely loved it!”
The GRCC Metallica Scholars Welding Bootcamp offers people the opportunity to gain skills for entry level welding positions. It is a short-term program to get welders work in West Michigan. The goal is to help people grow into apprenticeships or other learning opportunities within the welding field.
“I’ve had my eye on this program since it started,” Sayre said. “I’ve been waiting for the timing to be right and I’m so glad it came together!”
Sayre said it turned out to be even better than she thought it could be.
“What really surprised me the most is how good the instruction is and how supportive Nick Pinkney and Bri Lampe are. They just want to see you succeed. It’s kind of like a mentorship almost. They really care about you and your goals.”
The hands-on training program meets for 14 weeks and includes OSHA training.
“It’s a lot of information in a short time span but it’s all good information and I like the way Nick presents it. He’s very approachable and willing to answer questions.”
The program goal is to build an accessible pathway into the field of welding with a focus on producing ready-to-work welders for Kent County companies. This program works to attract, retain, and graduate individuals of different genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds to welding careers.
“I was impressed with how you have been able to recruit a diverse population. We have so much fun together!” she said.
Now that Sayre has completed the program, she wants more!
“I am transferring from where I go to school now to come here. Just seeing how the welding program is set up, I know that’s what I want to do and I want to be here at GRCC.
“I know that I would like to work as a welder but I’m not 100 percent sure what exactly I want to do. Definitely something creative or maybe working with production for a band. I’m really interested in getting women into skilled trades. I’m working on creating a supportive network so that women can be successful. I loved this program. It has been phenomenal.”
To qualify for the program, participants must be 18 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED, and be able to work in the United States. For more information go to grcc.edu/metallica.
GEAR UP Wyoming students toured the Charter Communications Spectrum call center in Walker this week as part of a career exploration experience. Students learned about different career pathways pursued by VP of Residential Retention Bryce Williamson, HR Director Hyun Allister, and Recruiter Noe Islas.
Williamson told students about the company’s $10 thousand annual tuition reimbursement and how that helped him complete a master’s degree at Michigan State University. “Working full time, it took a little longer, but I finished with no debt.”
The high school students remarked about the diverse workforce on the call center floor and how employees had personalized work spaces.
At the end of the visit, Islas quizzed students about what they had learned and awarded them with company caps, cups, and phone chargers.
Charter Communications, a Fortune 100 company with 32 million subscribers in 41 states, generated $54 billion in revenue last year. The Walker site, one of 12 call centers around the country, houses more than 300 employees.
The GRCC GEAR UP Wyoming grant supports cohort students in the Class of 2024 at Kelloggsville, Godwin Heights, Wyoming, and Godfrey Lee as they put together post-secondary plans.
The Grand Rapids Community College baseball team split a doubleheader against Davenport University’s junior varsity team, winning 8-2 before dropping the nightcap 3-2.
In the first game, sophomore Fernando Rivera-Calderon led the offense with three hits, while Dylan Chargo added two hits and center fielder Trevin Laming hit his first home run of the season.
Freshman Lucas McKinney picked up the victory pitching two perfect innings with one strikeout.
GRCC’s pitching staff allowed just three hits in the second game, but five walks proved costly, resulting in two of Davenport’s three runs.
Tommy Reid had two of the Raiders’ six hits while Jacob Gumieny and Zacarias Salinas each had a double.
Mike Eddington’s baseball team is scheduled to play Wednesday against the Cornerstone University junior varsity team.
The Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion is collecting donations until the end of the month for the YWCA and the Women’s Resource Center.
The YWCA accepts donations of cleaning items, hygiene items, sheets, and baby items.
The Women’s Resource Center collects lightly-used business casual clothing.
Donations can be dropped off at the ODEI office inside the Library and Learning Commons. A full list of acceptable donation items can be found on the ODEI News and Events webpage.
Have a poster you want put up to advertise a GRCC event? You can use the GRCC posting boards located on campus.
Have something you would like to share with the campus community not directly related to GRCC? You can use the Community posting boards located on campus.
GRCC posting boards:
Please drop off 20 posters to cover the boards, if you are short of 20 we cannot put them up.
Posters are put up on Thursday each week, so please plan your posters to be dropped off accordingly.
Everything that goes up on the GRCC posting boards must be approved and stamped with an approval in order to go up. Posters that are not approved will be taken down.
To be approved for our the GRCC posting boards, the poster MUST be affiliated with a GRCC department or a student club/organization on campus.
Community posting boards:
Posters that are unaffiliated with GRCC need to go on our community boards. These are located at:
on the first floor of the Student center building by the elevators (2)
in RJF level G2 on the north end of the corridor
by the main entrance of GRCC Lakeshore campus
Please contact Student Life (616) 234-4160 or studentlife@grcc.edu with any questions.
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