Leadership reception features GV alumnus, student awards

Featuring speaker Mathew Sernau, a Grand Valley State University alumnus, the annual Venderbush Leadership Reception will look to honor leaders in the GVSU community on Friday.

Every semester the Office of Student Life holds the leadership reception in honor of Kenneth R. Venderbush, former GVSU vice president of student affairs. Sernau, the keynote speaker, is a financial and investment adviser for Ameriprise Financial Services.

The reception will also acknowledge outstanding student leaders in the GVSU community with the Immediate Impact Award. The reception will be at 1 p.m. in the Pere Marquette Room of the Kirkhof Center. Registration for the event is open at www.gvsu.edu/leadership.

Research buoy dedicated in Muskegon Lake

Aiding in offshore wind assessment studies for potential offshore wind energy on Lake Michigan, a buoy in Muskegon Lake was dedicated Friday. The buoy is an eight-ton, 20-by-10-foot boat-shaped instrument and one of only three in the world. Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan are all using the buoy for wind assessment studies and will receive real-time data from it while it is in use.

The buoy will be tested in Muskegon Lake this week before moving four miles offshore in Lake Michigan for a month-long trial.

The official study will begin in the spring after the lake thaws.

Bernstein to bring family advantage to GV

In conjunction with Disability Awareness Month in October, lawyer Richard Bernstein is coming to Grand Valley State University to give a presentation to raise disability awareness.

Bernstein, familiar to many from TV commercials for the Bernstein Law Firm in Farmington Hills, Mich., will present to the GVSU community on at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Cook-DeWitt Center. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Bernstein has received several honors, including “Michiganian of the Year” by the Detroit News and making the list of “40 under 40” by Crain’s Detroit Business.