GVPRSSA aims to help prospective students through “Life 101”

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GVL / Annabelle Robinson. GVSU campus during February 2021

Kylie Elwell

Grand Valley State University Public Relations Student Society of America (GVPRSSA) is launching a new program called “Life 101.” This program was organized by members of GVPRSSA in order to try and make the transition from high school to college easier for first-year students. The COVID-19 pandemic was a big motivation for creating this program, as the organizers said they want to aid students in their difficult transition from high school to college during a difficult time. 

“COVID-19 has made everything for students and teachers harder,” GVPRSSA Faculty Advisor Dr. Adrienne Wallace said. “Students are having trouble in nearly every area from reading comprehension to executing anything that has multiple steps or parts. In an effort to make entry to college life easier, we developed Life 101.” 

Chapter President Allison Canter reorganized and reworked the content of Life 101 amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to virtual learning for the majority of college students.

This program will provide incoming students with a virtual library full of resources they may need in order to have a successful transition. All of the video resources can be found through GVPRSSA’s emails sent out to first-year students across Michigan, or on their youtube channel. The videos will cover topics such as finding roommates during COVID-19, staying on top of mental health, staying organized as well as many more resources and tips. 

 “We were motivated to start Life 101 by various factors. However, our main motivation was the fact that we knew that the transition from high school to college does not look like it did for any of us just a couple of years ago, and we empathized deeply with the amount of anxiety that this must cause incoming college students,” Canter said. “We also were motivated by the loss of informal conversation that high school students would have due to the fact that they won’t be able to tour colleges as freely, visit campuses, and have unstructured conversations.” 

The goal of the program is to close the gap between high school students and college students since this new step can be especially hard during an ongoing pandemic. Life 101 provides many necessary resources that wouldn’t be available for students without the work of the faculty, staff, and students involved within this organization. 

“Life 101 is a mutual relationship. It connects us with our community and it connects our community with us. With that being said, it’s important that incoming college students are able to be informed on the areas that they may be losing out on,” Canter said. “The Journal of Medical Internet Research, reports that 71% of students have an increase in stress and anxiety due to COVID-19. These videos will hopefully help to alleviate some of that stress.” 

For more information regarding the resources and videos offered by Life 101, all incoming students are encouraged to contact GVPRSSA at [email protected] with any questions, as well as checking out GVPRSSA’s YouTube channel.