The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) at Grand Valley State University received a $2.2 million grant to support the growth of the CLAS Voyage Program. The grant, awarded to the Center for Experiential Learning in the CLAS, will fund multiple projects to increase equity of opportunity within the college and specifically benefit the CLAS Voyage Program. The program’s main goal is to allow every learner to engage in career-centered education and to better function in their chosen field when they graduate.

These opportunities include field work, volunteering, internships, apprenticeships and study abroad programs. All are geared towards giving the student an easier transition into a paying job when they leave GVSU through the CLAS Voyage program, which is set to launch in the 2025 academic year. Funds from the grant will be used to develop a fuller, more well-rounded educational experience for students within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, particularly through the development of the CLAS Voyage Program.

Kris Pachla, Director of CLAS Center for Experiential Learning said he is excited about the new grant and hopes it will set students up for success in the future.

“The grant will be used to improve student support systems in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Pachla said. “It will fund the people, pilots, and students experiences needed to launch the CLAS Voyage, a commitment to students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) of an empowered educational experience through hands-on, career-connected learning across the college.”

Pachla is determined to put the grant into use as soon as possible, with clear plans for exactly how the money will be allocated.

“We’ll fund two new faculty positions to oversee the revision and alignment of curriculum and create better data visualizations,” Pachla said. “We’ll test models of embedding peers into first-year courses, and we’ll pay faculty for the work necessary to get this work done over the summer.”

Additionally, Pachla’s plans include a provision for an endowed account to help students deal with additional costs of top learning experiences. The amount seeded into the account from the grant will be matched by CLAS and other fundraising from the university, according to GVNext.

“Almost $250,000 will seed a fund to reduce barriers to participating in things such as internships, undergraduate research and scholarship, and community-based learning,” Pachla said.

Pachla said some of the many benefits of the grant would strengthening the college’s efforts to give students the training they need through further and deeper course development.

“First it builds up the student support systems, like peer mentors in first year courses and hands-on learning in all majors within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to ensure that all students get the benefits of the high quality educational experience,” Pachla said. “Those dollars will eventually go directly to students and to departments to run these courses.”

Pachla believes longterm benefits of the grant money will take time to physically present themselves due to the several channels of approval and overhead necessary to move funding of this size.

“We will begin seeing results next semester, Winter 2024, by kicking off conversations around the first-year experience at GVSU and with the hiring of our two faculty members to oversee the work,” Pachla said. 

The CLAS Voyage Program, the college’s “main vehicle for achieving the strategic priorities of the college,” will vastly benefit from the grant.  

“The CLAS Voyage is our commitment to an empowered educational experience within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, highlighting the many opportunities that liberal arts and sciences students have to apply their learning outside the classroom and ensure that all students, in all majors participate in hands-on, career-connected high-impact educational activities such as internships, undergraduate research and scholarship, and student learning communities,” Pachla said. 

CLAS faculty and staff has worked closely with university partners to launch the CLAS Voyage Program. Receiving this grant showcased a culmination of work done to coordinate and begin to implement the program, and the opportunities it will bring to students within the college.

According to a press release from CLAS, “Beginning in Fall 2025, all undergraduate students in CLAS will be guaranteed five hands-on, career-connected experiences, including the Embarking Experience (a resource-rich first-year-experience course), and an ePortfolio that helps them connect their curricular, extra/co-curricular, and work-based learning.”

Pachla said many core tenets of the program are currently being utilized at the college.

“Many of the pieces of the Voyage are already in place in CLAS, and we are working now to build it out to ensure that all students in all majors realize the benefit of this great education.”