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Alumni Profiles
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Calvin seeks to equip students to think deeply, act justly, and live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. These stories demonstrate how our alumni are living out that mission. Jaylyn Gough is the founder of Native Women’s Wilderness, which strives to create a platform for native women to use their voices to speak out against injustices, to bring awareness to indigenous people and land rights, and to serve as adventure-seeking role models for native girls. Janet Staal and Katelyn Egnatuk launched one of West Michigan’s first nature-based preschools, a movement that is rapidly gaining momentum across the country.
Calvin seeks to equip students Grand Rapids’ Aperitivo manager to think deeply, act justly, and live Evan Talen has taken his passion wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents to a whole new level by winning of renewal in the world. These the Cheesemonger Invitational, a national competition that pitted him stories demonstrate how our alumni are living out that mission. against many of the top cheese connoisseurs from around the country. God doesn’t make mistakes, said Meredith Wiggers Heintz. It’s her Tim and Andrew Harris are the founders of ColorHub, an innovative faith in God that has compelled her digital printing company specializing to work with children with extreme in high-end graphics packaging and learning differences. She’s now the retail displays.head of school at Promise Christian Academy in St. Louis, Mo. Summer visitors to Yellowstone National Park will meet Harlan Kredit. He’s been a park ranger there for nearly 50 years, pointing visitors to the beauty in the details of the park. Sungjin Yoo was born in South Korea but spent much of his childhood in Michigan. He now seeks to build bridges between those two places as he helps Grand Rapids develop a sister city relationship with Gangnam-gu in Seoul. As a Calvin student, Claire Vande Polder developed a passion for journalism and storytelling. She’s spent her career working as a nonfiction television producer and writer.
Janet Lenger Staal ’98 Meredith Wiggers Heintz ’93 Katelyn Ver Woert Egnatuk ’13 Evan Talen ’06 Sungjin Yoo ’13
Overcoming adversity, one student at a time
Humans are created in God’s image—every one of us. That’s what Meredith Wiggers Heintz ’93 wants you to know. “As people who claim Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have to be willing to give to the least of these. We have to be willing to look at them—to really see them. They have so much to offer,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
Heintz doesn’t come across as an emotional kind of person. She was a swimmer at Calvin and credits that experience with instilling discipline. She’s a self-proclaimed workaholic—working late into the night, fielding phone calls, and making sure things are done just right.
Meredith Wiggers Heintz ’93 Recreation therapy Head of school Promise Christian Academy St. Louis, Missouri
She channels that energy, discipline, and passion into her current role as the head of school at Promise Christian Academy in St. Louis, Missouri. Students at the school come with a diagnosis of some kind, many with autism or Down syndrome. In other words, Heintz’s life’s work is serving and learning from the least of these.
“God doesn’t make a mistake. Why should we hide what society views as a mistake? To see the joy and the love that these students can give to society … it’s worth every sweat and perspiration,” she said.
SEED PLANTED
Heintz was born in west Michigan and moved to St. Louis in sixth grade. As a senior at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, she was affected by a volunteer project at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “I saw the worst of the worst—gunshot wounds, brain tumors, traumatic brain injuries,” she said. She also saw a recreation therapy department at the hospital that completely intrigued her.
The seed for recreation therapy was planted in high school, and it was watered at Calvin. Two days into her first year, Heintz discovered there was a recreation therapy major. “I went straight to Glen Van Andel’s office, declared a rec therapy major, and never looked back,” she said.
EYEING ABILITIES
Heintz uses the knowledge she gained from her Calvin degree in her job. “At Promise, we have a therapeutic approach to education. We don’t just look at the child’s disabilities, but their abilities,” she said.
The K-12 school offers 10 hours per week of intensive occupational therapy and speech therapy, and one-on-one help with reading and math for younger kids. “Because we’re able to give that kind of support, the students make progress in leaps and bounds,” Heintz said.
The quality of education at Promise Christian Academy draws families from many faith backgrounds, including non-Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu families. “We are a missional school,” Heintz said. “They all understand we are teaching from the Bible.” The work is challenging and rewarding. “It brings me immense joy to work with children with extreme learning differences. I love learning how their brain works, how they interact with the world around them,” she said.
LEARNING TO STRETCH
Even though her passion is working with the children, Heintz wears many hats. In January 2020, the school moved into a new $5 million building that gives it 16,000 square feet of learning space. Fundraising for that facility was a recent experience that stretched Heintz.
“I’m thankful for the well-rounded education I received at Calvin,” she said. “When we started the fundraising project, it felt like a mountain that we had to climb. I think about the classes I had to take that weren’t in my major, like communication and English, and how I used those skills in fundraising. I never would have taken those classes on my own, but they helped me get to where I am today.”
Sungjin Yoo ’13 Classics, German, and international relations In-house counsel Ottawa Avenue Private Capital Grand Rapids, Michigan
Well-rounded education leads to well-rounded life
Sungjin Yoo ’13 has always been intellectually curious. So the broad education he received at Calvin was a great fit.
“My Calvin experience was enriched because of the well-rounded education that I had,” he said. “And I continue to grow and learn something every day, both in and out of the office,” said Yoo, who works as in-house counsel for Ottawa Avenue Private Capital.
Because of the impact he’s made in his career as an attorney as well as his volunteer work, Yoo was named to the Grand Rapids Business Journal list of “40 Under 40” in 2020. Yoo serves as a board member for both World Affairs Council of Western Michigan and Metro Health Hospital Foundation impACT Board. He also mentors students at The Potter’s House High School.
HOW IT STARTED
Yoo was born in Seoul, South Korea, but spent much of his childhood in Grand Rapids when his father attended Calvin Theological Seminary. “Our whole family was embraced by the Calvin community and the church we attended, LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church,” Yoo said.
When Yoo was in high school, his family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, but ended up back in South Korea his senior year. Why? The family’s immigration attorney inadvertently made a paperwork mistake. Yoo was always interested in studying law, and that experience solidified his goal of becoming an attorney.
“Calvin was appealing to me because it draws students from all over the world. I also knew the academics would prepare me well,” said Yoo, whose older brother was studying at Calvin at that time. But the cost of the liberal arts education he wanted seemed daunting. Calvin and Yoo’s community stepped up to help. “I received a great scholarship and financial aid package from Calvin,” Yoo said. Family friends, including Herbert ’60 and Sharon ’64 Lantinga, also supported Yoo’s Calvin education.
“I’m so grateful,” Yoo said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them. It sounds cliché, but in this case, it’s totally true.”
LANGUAGES SHARPEN SKILLS
Yoo loved his Latin courses in high school and was also interested in German. He ended up with three majors: classics, German, and international relations.
Yoo spent a semester abroad in Vienna, Austria, while at Calvin, and his German came in handy when he studied in Hamburg, Germany, during law school. He keeps up his skills by speaking the language with his German sister-in-law and friends, as well as listening to German podcasts.
The language and humanities courses he took at Calvin developed critical thinking skills and sharpened his writing. “I’m living proof that you don’t have to major in business to work at a private equity firm,” said Yoo. Through his time at Calvin, Yoo continued to plan for a future as an attorney. “My pre-law adviser was Joel Westra. He is an awesome mentor, professor, and well-known scholar in international relations. We still keep in contact,” Yoo said.
BUILDING BRIDGES
In fact, Westra attended the Chuseok event hosted by Korean Connection that Yoo co-moderated in fall 2019. The sold-out celebration of Korean thanksgiving featured Calvin students performing K-pop, as well as Korean food and time honoring Korean veterans. Proceeds from this event went toward supporting an orphanage in Korea.
Now, Yoo is helping Grand Rapids develop a sister city relationship with Gangnam-gu in Seoul, most recently serving as the interpreter for Grand Rapids at a meeting between the mayors.
“Our country and world have become polarized—there is so much animosity. Relationship-building opportunities like the ones that a sister city relationship provides are critical to a functioning and welcoming society,” Yoo said.
Our God is in the details
Harlan Kredit ’61 Biology Park ranger Yellowstone National Park
Harlan Kredit ’61 is the kind of man who notices details.
He remembers specific details from when he was a Calvin student 60 years ago. Like the time when he was feeling homesick for Lynden, Washington, and he heard the sound of migrating geese overhead. He recognized their call as the same kind of geese he knew from the mountains of Washington. That sound reminded him that he was part of a big, interconnected world—and that the same God that ruled that world cared for him.
A YELLOWSTONE FAMILY
If you’ve ever visited Yellowstone National Park in the summer, Kredit might have encouraged you to look for the details. This year was Kredit’s 49th summer at Yellowstone, where he serves as a park ranger when he’s not teaching at Lynden Christian.
He has met lots of Calvin alumni at the park and taken countless hikes along the lakes, rivers, canyons, and mountain ranges. “We’re a Yellowstone family,” he said, mentioning that he now enjoys the same hikes with his grandchildren as he did with his own children when they were growing up.
Kredit talks with visitors about the intricate beauty in the park and encourages them to look more closely. “I’ll ask visitors to be really quiet to see if they can find evidence that an animal has been in the area. It’s hard at first—but then they start seeing tracks, nests, and holes dug by animals.
“I might be the only ranger they’re going to encounter at Yellowstone. I might only have five minutes to convince them to visit more national parks and appreciate these places more deeply,” he said.
Kredit hopes to impress upon visitors the interconnectedness of nature and our responsibility to it. “It all fits together. You mess up one part, you mess up others,” he said.
A LIFELONG KNIGHT
Kredit has always loved nature, and his time studying biology at Calvin deepened that love.
“My professors believed that everything belongs to God, and we have to take care of it. My professors took us out to study plants. They’d get so excited looking at flowers. To me, that was contagious. It was never dull.”
The dedication that Calvin professors had to their students made an impression on Kredit. “I’d see them teaching biology during the day and then at Calvin basketball games at night,” he said. “Their job wasn’t just in the classroom. That’s a legacy I really appreciate and one I’ve tried to live out.”
Calvin had a lifelong influence on his personal life as well. He met his wife Linda at Calvin and his three children attended.
A CALLING TO TEACH
Kredit has taught nearly 60 years, most of them at Lynden Christian, and continues at age 81 to lead field trips and substitute teach. He’s received many awards over the years, including being inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2006. In 1997, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award at Calvin for his work as a teacher and park ranger.
“I just think this is what God’s calling me to do. If you are where you’re supposed to be, you’ll work very hard at it.”
Kredit uses every opportunity he can to get his students out experiencing nature. He’s led hundreds of field trips. And he’s involved his students in projects such as raising Coho salmon and planting trees.
“God made such an unbelievable universe,” he said. “We appreciate the things that we see and participate in.”
Kredit also takes inspiration from his Calvin professors and gets to know students outside of class. “I want my students to know from my actions that I really do care about them,” said Kredit, who often talks with students over Dairy Queen ice cream. “I can’t keep up with all 7,000 students I’ve taught, but I keep up with many.”
He’s been a strong advocate for Calvin over the years, recommending students continue their education at his beloved alma mater. “I’ve been so blessed by Calvin,” he said.
Adventure abounds in career telling stories
Claire Vande Polder ’85 took a career possibilities test in her final year at Calvin, and it told her she should look for a job with adventure.
And it was absolutely right. As a nonfiction television producer, Vande Polder has explored the world, from the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to inside the pyramids in Egypt and to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. For her latest project, she embarked on a quest of a different sort— to understand happy marriages.
Her Calvin experience was formative to who she became. “Calvin was where lightbulbs started to turn on,” said Vande Polder. She majored in English and discovered a lifelong passion for journalism and storytelling.
“Working on Chimes changed the trajectory of my life. I found people with similar interests. It gave me experience and a sense of community I hadn’t had before,” she said.
After a master’s in literature at King’s College, University of London, Vande Polder and a friend from Calvin moved to Washington, D.C. She found an administrative job at National Geographic Television and worked her way into producing, directing, and writing.
“The work was hard. I missed holidays and important events because I was on the road. But I loved what I was doing. I was constantly learning, and that was the great motivator,” she said. After 12 years with National Geographic Television, she worked for the Discovery Networks and is now an independent writer, executive producer, and development executive working with clients like Smithsonian Channel, Investigation Discovery, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.
Most recently, Vande Polder’s natural curiosity led to writing about another kind of adventure: marriage. In her new book, Making Marriage Happy: Hard-Won Wisdom from Real Couples, she interviewed 26 happy couples who had been married for a collective 1,000 years. “The book offers a collection of wisdom, advice, stories, and confessions from happy couples, told in their own words,” she said.
“I know from my own marriage that every relationship is unique. I wanted to discover what happily married couples do in day-to-day life, and what these couples had in common.” The book goes in depth on how couples fight, handle money, have conversations, navigate hard times, and more. “There are a lot of funny stories in the book, and some are poignant and heartbreaking— just like marriage,” she said. “I learned a lot, but it’s most gratifying to hear from readers who’ve learned something from the book, too.”
Meanwhile, Vande Polder continues her work in television and is currently finishing a three-hour series called “Age of Humans” for Smithsonian Channel. The series focuses on the environmental impact humanity has had on earth, sea, and sky. She’s also in development on both a reality/competition series and a true crime series, and she’s consulting and writing for a podcast as well.
“In my work, it’s good to keep a lot of irons in the fire,” she said. “No project is ever a sure thing, so you learn to multitask, pivot if an idea doesn’t fly, and then move on. Once you learn that rejection is a natural part of the process, the variety is definitely part of the fun.”
Claire Vande Polder ’85 English Independent writer and executive producer Boca Raton, Florida
