Transportation
Option 1: "Ride the Rapid" (Grand Rapids city bus service)
- Cost: $0.50 (each way) with a Rapid WAVE card. Rapid WAVE cards are available for purchase to current students, staff, and faculty at the Service-Learning Center for $5.
Questions: Come to the S-LC where the staff can help you with routes, schedules and navigating the bus system.
Option 2: Use your own car or carpool
Share a ride with a friend! Consider chipping in for gas if you are the passenger.
Option 3: Service-Learning Transportation Service
Still need a ride? Fill out the Ride Request Form to request a ride:
Rides available
- Monday through Friday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Special requests outside of these hours will be considered and fulfilled subject to staff and vehicle availability.
Rides are not available during: weekends, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, Interim break, Spring Break, Reading Recess, final exam weeks, or during the summer.
Ride request policies
Service-Learning Transportation Service (SLTS) ride requests are prioritized to best serve as many Calvin students as possible get to and from various service-learning opportunities. The following policy outlines our ride prioritization process, based on a number of factors.
Recipients of our services
Academically Based Service-Learning
- Service-learning that is assigned by a professor and is a mandatory element of the course will take the highest priority in otherwise similar situations.
Student Organizations
- The S-LC seeks to support student organizations who participate in service-learning as a group. We consider ride requests from student organizations in the mid-priority range.
Student-Based Service-Learning
- The S-LC encourages students to find and participate in their own service-learning experiences outside of our programs. We will support these students with necessary transportation as much as possible when their requests do not conflict with high priority rides.
Social Security Office
- The S-LC has an established partnership with the International Student Development Office through which international students at Calvin can request rides from SLTS to the Social Security Office. These requests will be scheduled around any service-learning rides, and we encourage students to be flexible with their time and schedules. NOTE: Most service-learning requests take place in the afternoon, so mornings are typically the best time to request rides to the Social Security Office.
Other
- Rarely, we provide rides for other reasons.
Additional Considerations
Access to a Car
- We understand that gas money can add up, but we would like to keep our vans available for people without access to cars, and consider using the resource of a car and gas as an extension of the service-learning partnership, in addition to time spent.
Carpooling
- If you are going to do service-learning with a friend and/or classmate, please attempt to schedule a carpool, so we can save our vans for those who are doing service-learning without access to any vehicle.
Proximity to Bus Line
- We also encourage students to use The Rapid, the Grand Rapids bus system, before filling out a ride request form. Calvin students, staff, and faculty can purchase a Rapid WAVE card from the Service-Learning Center (S-LC) for $5 that reduces the one-way cost of a bus ride from $1.75 to $0.50. You can find bus schedules and maps at www.ridetherapid.org.
Academic Time Crunch
- If you have committed to service-learning, but also need to be back for a class immediately afterward, we will take that into account because we do not want you to be late. We will do our best to help you.
*Because we would like to be available and of service to a variety of Calvin students, we do not schedule more than two rides per week with any one person or organization.*