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Grand View has many faculty members dedicated to student development and success such as tutors, academic advisors and athletics coaches. These mentors are placed around campus to help students whenever they are struggling and to ensure they have support. GV also competes in 26 sports and has over 800 student athletes that need to be certified and maintain eligibility before every new season starts. This is where Michelle Prange comes in. As GV’s success coordinator, she would describe her role as being the “liaison between the academic side and athletics side of campus” and that it is fulfilling helping students achieve their goals and watching them succeed.

 Currently in her 14th year at GV, Prange says she is “like a mom to 800.” She connects with all sports teams at GV to make sure that there would not be any problems with a student being able to participate. Prange helps student athletes with planning schedules and staying on top of their work in their classes. 

Prange, born and raised in Madrid, Iowa, started her collegiate career at GV in 1987. She played softball for the Vikings before graduating in 1992 with a degree in elementary education. 

“Grand View has changed so much,” Prange said. “That’s the fun part of coming back full circle.”

Upon graduating, Prange went into the education field and started working with kids. She attributes her passion for working with students to her now father-in-law. While she was in college, her father-in-law worked as the at-risk coordinator at Saydel High School. While being a substitute teacher for a year, Prange would fill in for her father-in-law at the school. Prange says that is where her inspiration to work with students started. 

“That was the initial click for me to just work with students who struggled in the classroom or just with life, it just became a passion of mine to figure out the why,” Prange said. “Just being able to have that opportunity to help someone every day.”

Before accepting the position of success coordinator at GV in 2008, Prange spent time working with the public school system, teaching at-risk youth and helping decrease the drop-out rate.

“I taught eight years of middle school and eight years of high school,” Prange said. “I never envisioned teaching above elementary, but it was like a vocation for me, you never know you like something until you try it.” 

Prange considers college students as still being kids and still having a lot of development to go through. College can be a completely different environment for many students and at the same time, can also hold a tougher and more rigorous academic schedule than what most students can be used to coming out of high school. This leads to students not doing their best in their classes, not wanting to participate in their athletics, and sometimes wanting to go back home. Prange works with students to get through those obstacles and it can change a student for the better and provide an extra push needed to help them improve.

Personally, I was introduced to Ms. Michelle Prange at the start of my time at GV in 2018 and our relationship has grown tremendously since then. She allowed me to come visit her office whenever I felt I started to struggle with a class, had a problem that did not relate to school or to just talk to her. She would help me with planning out semesters, registering for classes and even working through assignments with me to make sure I stayed ahead of my work. She would tell me that her door was always open, for anything.

 During my last semester, I could not wait to get to her office and tell her how excited I was to graduate and my plans after. Her welcoming demeanor is warming to students and is what makes her special to so many students. For many students, college is their first time being away from home without the guidance and support of their parents, but Prange has been at GV to provide that same support so students can stay focused, and feel like they have someone in their corner at all times.  “I know there are always bumps in the road, and we try to talk you through those bumps and to keep persevering,” Prange said. “Sometimes that light bulb just hasn’t turned on yet, but when it finally does turn on and to see the success is what it’s all about. It’s the greatest feeling.”