In this podcast, Sam and I dive deep into the restaurant industry, and how its employees are dealing with the current pandemic. We took interviews from former servers and managers as well as restaurant workers that are still working during this time. The goal of this podcast was to shed some light on the service industry’s cogs and see how they are taking in and dealing with the situation at hand.
GVSU’s Sustainable Students
In a new age where everyone is an environmental activist and the planet is on the verge of irreversible catastrophe, what else can we do to save our home? Many turn to cleaning the oceans, recycling, and driving electric cars. However, not a lot of people think about farming as an opportunity for conservation. Most see farming as a simplistic process: plant the seed, water it, and watch it grow. This is the nuts and bolts of what farming is. Most of the farming in the 20th century is planting the product you need and then selling it to the consumer, but there is a give and take with everything.
Margaux Sellnau is the lead intern at the Grand Valley Sustainable Agriculture Project, or SAP. The phrase “sustainable agriculture” is thrown around a lot, but what is it? Sustainable agriculture focuses on planting a variety of crops so as to not to remove so many necessary nutrients from the soil. Say for instance a farmer grows broccoli, broccoli takes away a lot of iron and magnesium from the soil in order to grow. If the farmer wants to grow more broccoli, they must find a way to put more iron and magnesium back into the soil. This is usually done with chemicals that are detrimental to the ecosystem, but the SAP is using natural techniques to avoid this.
“The SAP started as just a community garden around 10 years ago, so it was actually birthed out of a philosophy class. Now it’s turned into something that I don’t think anyone would have anticipated.” The SAP is now a farm completely run by students to teach their peers about farming and how to use sustainable techniques to produce quality crops.
At the end of the growing season, the whole club gets together for a big potluck called the harvest party. The students use all the crops they grew themselves for one big collaborative dinner. “The main goal of the SAP is to spread awareness about good farming techniques and how they are used.” The harvest party is a great opportunity for students to get involved and spread the word.
“The SAP currently has around a hundred and thirty members and is always looking for more to join.” The house where the SAP is built off of (Wesley House) is home to four interns every year, Margaux included. Students can join the SAP by just typing in a quick facebook search for “GVSU Farm Club” to take a look at all their events and workshops or by going to the SAP’s volunteer hours which vary semester to semester. These can be found on the same facebook group, or on the GVSU website.
Instagram Valley Or Instagram Fairytale?
On Tuesday, August 13th, Grand Valley State University was deemed the most instagrammed university in the state of Michigan. The middle class university beat their Goliath, University of Michigan, with surprising results. The hashtag “#gvsu” became the most popular university hashtag in the state of Michigan, or so AT&T claims.
This is all according to attsavings.com, which shows the hashtag “#gvsu” as the most used hashtag in the state of Michigan. However, with a rudimentary trip to instagram, one may begin to come up with some questions. These questions can include, but are not limited to “Why does Michigan University have roughly eight times more followers then GVSU? Why does MU have at least double, if not triple the amount of hashtags that GVSU has? How can a big ten school have a less popular Instagram then a DII school?”
Grand Valley is known for their small class sizes and more affordable tuition, they take pride in their ability to help students with whatever is necessary for them to succeed. With 25,000 students enrolled (2018) they consider themselves a mid-sized, premier DII school. Where as, off in the other corner in the ring, grunts University of Michigan. With an enrollment of 45,000 students (2018) and a Big 10 title, they seem like a tough competitor to beat in a game of social media. As much as GVSU would like to be as much of an empire as University of Michigan, the math just doesn’t add up.
A visit to Instagram reveals some not-so surprising answers. Seen here are the two most recent Instagram posts made by both schools. They were posted one day apart, UM posting after GVSU. These posts are quite similar to each other in that they both depict a picture of a recognizable land mark on each university campus. UM’s post already has more then double the amount of likes that GVSU’s post has. With more people seeing and liking UM’s post over GVSU’s, more people will be inclined to use #UMICH.
Maleek Harvey is a student at GVSU, and thinks there are many reasons for GVSU to be Instagram famous “Grand Valley is very pretty during the spring and summer, and the smaller campus makes its landmarks easier to recognize.”
Another GV student, Jake Sobeck, believes it is unlikely that GVSU beat Michican. “Maybe the hashtag thing could be true if enough parents get involved, but it seems really unlikely.”
GVSU prides itself on never taking the easy way out. Popularity and recognition is earned by hard work and is not simply handed to everyone on a silver platter. Its these fundamentals that keep the school moving forward and working harder to achieve greatness. One could say the probability of GV beating MU in a social media battle is slim to none. Maybe more research then a casual look at Instagram needs to be done, but from where I’m standing from the sight of GV’s victory is getting dimmer and dimmer.
Aidan McCoy Portfolio 