Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2015 - (Page 37)

ALU M N I N EWS photo cour tesy of Grand Rap ids Press WHAT'S IN A NAME? Alumna steps back to remember history behind 'Grand Valley State' by Abigayle Sloan, '07 Marianne (Lovins) Czechowskyj, '75 and '00, had high hopes as a 7-year-old in 1960. She wanted to be a teacher, and she wanted to live in Allendale. "I grew up in Grandville, but I came to Allendale to visit my grandparents and always liked the country," she said. "My mother did daycare and she would have 17 to 30 kids and ran it like a pre-school. I was around kids all my life and I was bossy." Even as a first-grader, Czechowskyj said she had an imagination for what most could not see at the time, the growing potential among Allendale's corn fields. In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president and Grand Rapids was about to undergo an urban revival. Meanwhile in West Michigan, talks of a new state college swirled and soon Czechowskyj's mother got wind of a contest established by the new institution's Board of Control, soliciting entries for an official college name. With encouragement from their mother, Czechowskyj's brother, 20-yearold Frederick H. Brack, submitted the name "Grand Valley State College." Between November 1960 and January 1961, more than 2,500 proposals were submitted and some suggestions were rather unconventional: "Paradise Gates," "Learning for Life College," and "Vade Mecum," which translated from Latin is "walk with me." Ultimately, the nine-member board, led by founder L. William Seidman, favored the more conservative name, "Grand Valley State College." Brack's name was drawn from a hat among four others who suggested the same. The reward was a four-year tuition scholarship to the new college. Brack was finishing his senior year at Michigan State University, so his little sister seemed like a natural successor to the award. In 1961, before the college's founders had even hired a president, Marianne Czechowskyj made history as Grand Valley State College's first scholarship recipient. "A Grand Rapids Press photographer took the photo back and the editor said, 'She's too cute to go on the back page, she's going right on the front page,'" Czechowskyj said. "At 7 years old I liked the attention, and I was excited to be in the newspaper. I didn't quite understand what the prize was." Once all the excitement passed, Czechowskyj said her family never received any official paperwork proving she was the recipient of a full ride scholarship. "No formal letter had ever arrived at our house about the scholarship, so when it came time for me to enter college, my mother went down to Grand Valley with the newspaper article and said, 'Here, my daughter has this tuition scholarship,' and Grand Valley was very nice and didn't put up a fuss," she said. By the time Czechowskyj entered college in 1971, tuition had increased from $1,080 in 1963, to $1,824 a year. The $744 difference in tuition would equate to approximately $4,346 today, yet there was no question that Grand 37 Grand Valley Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2015

Campus News
Athletics
Donor Impact
Fall Arts Celebration
Evolving as a professional
Finding fellowships
Mastering a subject
Research
Focal Point
Q&A John Berry
Off the Path
Museum School
Alumni

Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2015