As a part of the Grand Valley State University 50th anniversary celebration, 301 students, graduates, staff and faculty were honored Friday for completing the GVSU president’s 50-hour service challenge this past school year.

Bunmi Fadase, the Community Service Learning Center coordinator, said the purpose of the challenge was to engage as many people as possible in celebrating 50 years of GVSU history through service.

“We hope to continue learning about the various ways our campus serves the community,” Fadase said.

About 260 of those who completed the challenge were expected at the event, where all participants received certificates for completing the 50 hours. Four of the participants received awards for completing the most hours in four categories: undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty.

Callista Cook won undergraduate, Catherine Sheroski won graduate, Michael Walenta won staff and Linda Davis won faculty.

“I am really inspired by what has happened here,” said President Thomas J. Haas, who also completed the challenge. “When you give of yourself, you are really providing yourself a leadership opportunity and through that service and leadership, you’re learning more about yourself, you’re giving of yourself. So when this came forward from student leadership, I said ‘Wow. This really is giving of the university to many thoughts and ideas and organizations that would benefit from this initiative.’”

Junior Rayanne Mason, majoring in public non-profit administration, said she discovered the challenge through her friend, who heard about it during one of their non-profit classes.

“I think that it is really important to be involved in our community especially having Grand Rapids like 20 minutes from campus, and there is so much to do there,” Mason said. “I just really think the community development is so important, and I probably get a lot more out of it than the people that I’m serving. But I love to just help in whatever way I can.”

Mason served the 50 hours by volunteering for a service project and leading a spring break trip through Campus Ministry.

Cook, the undergraduate winner, accrued 304 hours of service work through organizations such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) nurse examining program, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Safe Haven Ministries.

“For me, there has always been a great need to help others,” she said. “I take great satisfaction and inspiration in that; it’s always got me through. You learn a lot about yourself and others and how you can best help other people. I think the most powerful thing you could do in your lifetime is help others.”

Joshua Lee, graduate assistant at the Community Service Learning Center, said the center hopes to continue the logging system for students to make this an annual challenge while being able to gain enough funding to keep recognizing the work that is being done.

For more information about the President’s 50-hour service challenge, including a complete list of all those who finished 50 hours of service or more, and for information of service opportunities, visit www.gvsu.edu/service.

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