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Author: Mara Spears, CEP Project Specialist Staff, Elana Burns, Communications Content Student Assistant

From Groundswell to You

   Student Project Showcase Highlights

   Academic Year 2024-2025 

   Partner Celebration Recap 

   Register for Summer Institute

Friends of Groundswell

   Marywood Prairie July 2025 BioBlitz Project

   Explore and Protect a Living Language 

   Educational Travel with American History Tours

On May 14, 2025, Groundswell hosted its Annual Student Project Showcase with over 700 people in attendance! Thirty Exhibits from 27 PreK-12 schools and several community partners from across Kent and Ottawa counties were showcased. We were pleased to see so many of you join us for an impactful evening of engagement and learning as students shared their project discoveries. Special shout out to Keith Piccard from Allendale Middle School who received the Swell Teacher of the Year Award, and Melanie Ver Duin from Mary A. White Elementary who received the Sprout Teacher of the Year Award. (let's add these links in after Lana's hard work on the website!)

Explore the highlights of the event below.

Explore the highlights of the event below!

We've had a busy year at Groundswell, and the numbers are a testament to this! In total, Groundswell has helped to impact thousands of students from twenty-seven schools just this academic year. We provided over 40 hours of professional learning hours to support teachers and community partners to conduct Place-Based Education. Thank you for an incredible year!

*Total count projected

We hosted our annual Partner Celebration on June 9th at Brewery Vivant yesterday evening. It was filled with great drinks, good company, and excellent networking opportunities. Our partners give so much time and energy to our schools and students, so this was a moment where Groundswell could give back and thank everyone for a year of learning and support. To thank them for these efforts Groundswell distributed certificates of appreciation to each; if you were unable to make it please let us know so we can get you yours! A big thank you to our wonderful host Brewery Vivant, who always makes everyone feel right at home. All who made it were able to connect, relax, and enjoy each other’s company. We appreciate everyone who came out and made the event a success. 

If you are a partner and were unable to make it, we missed you! Please make sure to sign up for our partner newsletter; we email quarterly. Sign up below to stay in the loop for all things network related. 

Groundswell’s annual Summer Institute is designed to help Kent and Ottawa County teachers bring place-based education (PBE) into their classrooms. This hands-on workshop walks you through the six key elements of a PBE project so you can create powerful, locally rooted learning experiences for your students. Groundswell is proud to offer this $400-value training at no cost to educators, including expert facilitation and meals provided each day.

Register today at the link below!

Join partners Joyful Wildcrafting and Revery Studio at Marywood Prairie in Grand Rapids for a July BioBlitz. This is a free and family-friendly event where participants will explore and document local wildlife. Using the iNaturalist app, attendees will help record observations of plants, invertebrates, birds, and fungi as part of the Marywood Prairie July 2025 BioBlitz Project. Volunteers can participate as data collectors, field assistants, or technical assistants, depending on their interests and experience. This event welcomes people of all ages and skill levels to engage with nature and contribute to community science by learning and exploring together. Register at the link below. 

For those in the Groundswell network, it feels like a no-brainer to get young scholars outdoors learning, whether rain or shine. One of our partners, Lauren Westerman, President of the Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education, is pursuing her PhD, and she is conducting a research study exploring how someone's current eco-friendly behaviors might connect back to their earlier environmental education experiences during their K12 school years. Almost every partner, teacher, and supporter of Groundswell has a story to share about what they encountered in the environment when they were young, and how that influenced them to move into their current career. It's your moment to share these stories! Tell Lauren about a moment when you were young, how that shaped who you are now, and how it created a lifelong environmental steward in you.

To participate, click the button below. 

Research participation deadline: June 16th 2025

Email lauren.westerman@student.prescott.edu with questions.

Looking for a meaningful way to connect with Indigenous culture and keep an endangered language alive? There is a regional digital space you can go to that is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Anishinaabemowin, the Ojibwe language. Ojibwe was the language spoken in our region before colonists settled here hundreds of years ago, and this site works to keep this language thriving. Hear the proper pronunciation, learn from fluent speakers and creative language keepers, and join the effort from anywhere—whether you're on the rez, in a city, school, or at home. Anishinaabemowin is alive and well, but it’s also endangered. That’s why this site exists—to connect learners and speakers across generations and geography, so the language continues to grow, not fade.

Check out learning resources and guides on learning the language at the button below.

American History Tours LLC is a nationwide educational travel organization that has delivered fun, safe, and curriculum-enriching group tours for over a decade. With a mission to make a difference one tour at a time, they specialize in unforgettable, life-changing trips to historically significant destinations. They help schools fundraise to reduce travel costs for families, making educational travel more accessible while maintaining high-quality, engaging experiences.

Groundswell is proud to share this opportunity that aligns with our values of equity in experiential learning. Get students engaged through fundraising and receive funds for traveling on local field trips or further abroad. To learn more, click the button below.

Questions? Please contact Groundswell at groundswell@gvsu.edu.