One of my favorite things about Grand Valley State University is the freedom students get to explore their true selves. In high school, I felt as though my creativity was stifled under strict rules and regulations, but now that I’m finally an adult, everything feels less suffocating. 

College has taught me that no idea for a club is too big or too small. As long as you can gather an E-Board, you’re allowed to have your club recognized by the University. This has created many opportunities for students to gather and get to know one another. I’d like to highlight a few of the smaller, lesser-known organizations at GVSU because it’s important for all clubs to be widely recognized for their work.

Women in Cinema

Women in Cinema encourages students who identify as female or gender-nonconforming to find their community in film and video. The club provides a safe place to talk about cinema and share experiences. This club is very important to students, especially because film and video majors can be dominated by men. Providing a space specifically for women and gender-nonconforming students matters. Due to its small size, the club deserves more recognition. It plays an important role in the film community by challenging stereotypes and potentially inspiring students to seek out careers in film.

Book and Comic Book Club

I think that Book Club, which focuses primarily on novels, and Comic Book Club are pretty self-explanatory in their missions. Both groups discuss their respective media while doing fun activities associated with novels and comic books. They are fantastic representations of interests shared by a large number of people. Despite many people enjoying reading, both clubs are small in size, and deserve plenty more popularity.

Grand Valley TV

GVTV is the University’s student-run television station. Members can create their own fiction or nonfiction shows, and work with others on shared projects. Shows produced by GVTV are available on YouTube. As an active member myself, I can tell you this organization is undoubtedly underrated. The club is great for building a portfolio and improving your resume. It’s also a perfect place for those who have a passion project in mind but lack the means or support to pursue it on their own. 

While the club is open to all majors, it’s the perfect place for film and journalism majors to become familiar with equipment. I also believe the students involved in this club are warm and inviting.

Green Team 

The Green Team is a volunteer organization part of Laker Food Co. that promotes sustainability on campus. The group is meant to educate students about sustainable practices and how to apply those skills throughout their campus endeavors. This club is particularly underrated (as most volunteer organizations are) because it directly gives back to our community. 

Green Team provides students with guidance on how to improve the campus environment. If you’re looking for community service hours, this organization seems like a great way to spend your time. 

Brains & Beauty 

Brains & Beauty is a club that teaches members makeup and other glamour skills. While it’s not a completely unknown organization, I’d say it’s not widely recognized. For starters, the club is marked as “inactive” on LakerLink despite being active on Instagram. From my vantage point, the group deserves more recognition for its hard work teaching skills that can benefit members in their careers and everyday life.

To my knowledge, Brains & Beauty also collaborates with other organizations, providing skills for shows and other events. I think this definitely warrants some praise.