2008-2009 - Grand Valley State University

COE Launches Future
Teacher Scholarship
Endowment
The College of Education, under the
leadership of Glenda Eikenberry, Associate
Director, Administrative Services, launched
the COE Future Teacher Scholarship
Endowment in 2008. The fund will
provide financial assistance to students
as they begin their student teaching
experience. Once the target goal of
$30,000 is met, the President’s Office will
match that amount and awards will begin
to be made from endowment earnings.
“Roughly 80 percent of our students
have a financial award of some kind,”
says JoAnne Litton, Scholarship and
Outreach Manager in GVSU’s Financial
Aid Office. “The average undergrad award
is $8,520.” Current and former COE
faculty/staff, alumni, as well as family
and friends of future educators, may
contribute to the fund. Every gift will
make a difference to a future teacher.
For more details or to make a gift, contact:
GVSU University Development Office
Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences
301 Michigan St. NE, Ste 100
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-3314
Man on a 2000-Mile Mission
There are thousands of children around the world whose living
conditions and daily lives are deplorable. One of those situations
is in Matamoros, Mexico, where many children roam the streets
soliciting donations, living in a dump, trying to get food and
various goods to sell or use, lacking education, and having no
opportunity to escape the poverty and abuse that has become
a routine part of their lives.
“We have been blessed with the opportunity to change these
conditions for children, by building a safe and supportive
orphanage that will begin to reverse this tragic situation that no
child should experience,” says John Shinsky, Associate Professor
of Education at Grand Valley State University. Shinsky, along
with Joe DeLamielleure, and Eljay Bowron, friends since their
Michigan State University days, committed their time and talent
to generate resources needed to support abandoned, abused
and neglected children. They organized a fundraiser bike ride
and rode their bicycles 2000 miles from the MSU East Lansing
campus to the orphanage in Matamoros, Mexico, in April of 2009.
With the love, support and generosity of many people, they
hope to complete the 12-building, 33,000-square-foot facility
that will provide a home, food, safety, love, education, bilingual
and vocational training for hundreds of children who are
abandoned and physically, sexually and emotionally abused.
Six buildings have been constructed thus far at a cost of $30
per square foot. 100 percent of all the donations given to the
project go directly to supporting this facility named, “The City
of Children of Matamoros Mexico.”
For more details, see www.shinskyorphanage.com
Social
Responsibility
John Shinsky with children in Matamoros, Mexico
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