Calvin University French Alumni Newsletter 2021

FRENCH ALUMNI NEWSLETTER

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRENOBLE PROGRAM SUMMER 2021

IN THIS NEWSLETTER: Grenoble, 20th Anniversary

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Graduation 2020 & 2021

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TAPIF updates

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Alumni updates

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Professor and Instructor updates

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Chevalière des Palmes Académiques Alpine Adventures

2021 Editor Jolene Vos-Camy

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What a pioneer Madame Vos-Camy was to take a group of unsuspecting students to France for the first time; thank you for your courage! It’s been over 20 years, and I still remember this program fondly and the many experiences that have shaped my life over the years.

From learning to ride the Métro, hanging out at the Internet Café, exploring France and Italy by train and bus, or attempting to ski on the French Alps, my fondest memories are the strong friendships I made and the opportunity to continue expanding my worldview.

Looking back, I think of the generosity of my famille d’acceuil, professors who surely put up with some poorly written French papers, and French shop keepers who patiently listened to my garbled French. The grace and care given to me, as a foreigner, is astounding.

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In a world that can feel divided or living in a culture with civil unrest, study-abroad programs could not be more pivotal to moving towards peace.

Getting to know a different culture, living with French residents, students, and business owners brings a new understanding of how our differences in outward culture can often hide the similarities of our inward hearts and thoughts. Late night conversations with locals, other students from across the globe, and my famille d’accueil revealed our analogous worries, joys, interests, and fears.

Removing language barriers was critical in my understanding of the vibrant people around me who became less foreign and more familiar as I learned how to speak the language instilled in their everyday lives.

As someone who focuses on communications for a career, these skills of using the same language and taking time to understand another perspective, have been the basis of any success I’ve experienced.

God uses everything for our good, and every experience in the Grenoble program has been used for good these 20+ years later. I’m grateful to have participated in this first study abroad program in Grenoble with my fellow students, and I pray programs like these will continue to grow in the future.

—Dena Sievert Stahlheber (‘01)

platform, because the mother was sure that the bed she had was too small.

It was an exciting start to an exciting semester. I was very proud of the 18 students who trusted me to lead them to places unknown!

—Professor Jolene Vos-Camy, first director 2

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On January 3, 2001, I left the Grand Rapids airport with 18 students and a 3-month-old baby in tow for the firstever Calvin Study in France semesterlength program in Grenoble, France.

The group first went to Paris for a 3-week interim before taking the train to Grenoble where we stayed until the end of the spring semester.

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I remember the train ride to Grenoble: students were asking me where the university was in Grenoble, where the good cafés were, where the library was, and every time I had to answer that I didn’t know—we would figure it out when we got there! I had spent a lot of time in France but had never gone to Grenoble myself before the trip with the students. I had arranged the entire program through correspondence the old way (stamped mail).

When the train pulled into the Grenoble train station, the host families were waiting for us. By the time my husband and I had unloaded all our luggage and baby equipment from the train, nearly all the students had disappeared with their host families. I wondered if I would ever see them again! I heard later that one host family quickly traded male students right there on the train

Students of the first Study in France program, Spring 2001:

Katie Blandino, Cheryl Bootsma, David DeGroot, Joe Eisenbraun, Eunice Ham, Marcel Hoff, Ben Lion, Elizabeth Roberts, Adam Rutan, Dena Sievert, Abigail Smith, Miranda Spriensma, Ryan Stolee, Ryan Thompson, Angela Thullen, Perry Trolard, Eileen Weverink, B.J. Wolstenholme.

GRENOBLE REFLECTIONS 2

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GRADUATION 2020

FALL 2019

2020 French Calvin graduates returned for a real in-person graduation ceremony on May 22, 2021 at 11 a.m. after a year’s delay due to the COVID pandemic. Graduation was held at the LMCU Ball Park Stadium in Grand Rapids to allow for pandemic safety measures.

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2020 GRADUATES Pictured here: Caroline Smith & Emily Bass, Christine MacCarthy, Tori Richardson, Kat Fetter, Abigail Miedema, and Christine Vermeer.

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GRADUATION 2021

FALL 2019

2021 French Calvin graduates met many challenges: a full year of quarantines, in-person learning that could quickly switch to online and back again, hybrid classrooms where classmates in isolation (in dorm rooms) interacted with their healthy friends (in-person in the classroom) via webcams. Sometimes the finish line seemed a long way off! Graduation was held on May 22, 2021 at 3:30 p.m. at the LMCU Ballpark Stadium in Grand Rapids.

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2021 GRADUATES Pictured here: Michaella Ouoba, Emma McCallion, Luc Selles, Annaka Ediger, and Rylan Shewmaker.

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SUMMER 2021

TAPIF UPDATES The Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF)

Nearly every year since the early 2000’s Calvin graduates have gone to France to teach English in the French school system. In 2020-2021 four recent Calvin graduates did the TAPIF program in the middle of the global COVID pandemic!

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Curran De Vries (’19)

Hey there! This past year was an interesting one to say the least. My wife (Katie, also featured in the newsletter) and I spent our year in La Rochelle, France. We worked through the TAPIF organization and were placed in primary schools, something I somewhat dreaded the thought of at first, but came to love by the end of our time there.

Traveling and living abroad during a pandemic came with its ups and downs.

France was on lockdown for a lot of the time we spent there, however we were still able to make the most of our time; we didn’t move around too much within the country, but that allowed us to make some wonderful market friends and truly fall in love with our small maritime city. Sun, oceanside walks, and pastries every day isn’t a bad way 8

to hunker down during a pandemic.

Now that we’re back in Grand Rapids, I’ve accepted a job at CETUSA and am looking forward to beginning my work there.

Katie (Rottman) De Vries (’18) 2

Hello! My husband (Curran) and I recently returned from France participating in the TAPIF program, which, needless to say looked a little different this year than it has in the past. From COVID tests before flights and wearing masks in the classroom, the program had its challenges.

However, it also had its joys.

I taught in kindergarten classes to fifth grade in four different primary schools in La Rochelle, a beautiful beach town situated on the western coast of France.

Singing head, shoulders, knees and toes and miming emotions for students to guess in English never ceased to be enjoyable for me or the students.

Wearing masks added additional challenges to learning a foreign language, such as students thinking that “knees and” or “and toes” are parts

of the body. While Curran and I had dreams of traveling throughout France and Europe, enjoying new foods, and seeing new places, we quickly realized that these things would not be possible to the extent to which we had hoped.

However, we were able to enjoy La Rochelle to the fullest extent instead.

Walking along the ocean, trying a variety of local chesses, and befriending the woman who owned the wine shop all lifted our spirits if ever we felt a little down. My time in La Rochelle, while challenging, strengthened my language skills, pushed me out of my comfort zone, and deepened my love for Francophone culture and language. I would recommend the TAPIF program to any and all recent or future Calvin alum—masks and all.

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Kat Fetter (’20)

Bonjour à toutes et à tous !

A little while ago, I returned from my position as a TAPIF teaching assistant in Voiron, France near Grenoble.

Before leaving for the program, I was anticipating a celebratory return to the beautiful mountains that I cherished during the semester abroad in Grenoble; however, nothing could have prepared me for the experience of a pandemic in France.

There were many challenges presented by the lockdown and curfews, such as the inability to go downhill skiing, frequent cafés, or go mask-less outside of my apartment. However, the pandemic did bring unexpected joys, like covert, socially-distanced rugby parties, movie nights with my colocataire, and walks outside in the French countryside with teachers who would spontaneously suggest something fun to do over the weekend.

corners of my students’ eyes crinkle with a smile or with laughter, it felt more worthwhile. I especially enjoyed presenting fill-in-the-blank style lessons on American songs; not only was it a great opportunity to introduce them to some idioms, but it also let my students to admit that the music “made [them] feel like dancing!”

Being an English Language Assistant during the pandemic was not the experience that I had hoped it would be. However, I am very thankful for the people that I met, and the change of pace that I was able to bring into my classrooms this year.

FALL 2019

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Margaret Hendricks-Shatto (’20) 4

This past year I participated in the TAPIF program, teaching English in two primary schools in Montélimar, a small city in the south of France. While the circumstances were not what I had originally expected when I applied in October 2019, the experiences I gained were exceptional. Currently, I’m in a transitional period between TAPIF and attending graduate school at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, and every day I find another reason to be grateful for the ability to speak French. During this period of transition, I have been working at a warehouse job where, to my surprise, quite a few of my coworkers are native French speakers with low English levels.

In this work environment, I have slowly started to become known as “the American that speaks French” and I’m able to help translate the daily announcements for my coworkers.

Knowing French has single handedly made my temporary warehouse job 10x more enjoyable.

Due to the lack of everyday excitement, however, my presence in the classroom was a blessing for the students in the lycée and collège where I worked. For the students, speaking with someone new and learning from an American brought a different light into the classroom. Teaching is challenging, and some of my lessons were more successful with certain classes than others, but every time I saw the 9

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ALUMNI UPDATES In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the first Calvin Study in France program in Grenoble, we asked our alum for their memories of Grenoble, or any Calvin French study-abroad trip. This is what we heard back…

Saskia Deventer-Metz (‘77)

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In response to your request for photo’s of time spent in France as a Calvin student I looked up the pictures that I had of our trip to Paris in January 1976 with Professor Arthur Otten.

There were eleven of us, all young women on the programme. We spent three weeks in Paris, we made a day trip by train to Chartres and we also visited the Château of Versailles.

Besides attending church services at Notre Dame, and going to a matineé at the Comédie Française, we visited all of the important monuments and at least ten of the museums! I found the ticket stubs in my journal :) We were totally submerged in city life of the French capitol, staying at a small hotel in the eleventh arrondissement and traveling everywhere in the city with our metro card! What a fabulous three weeks we all had. Our only textbook was the green Michelin guide!

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We ended our stay in France travelling to Tours to visit some of the châteaux of the Loire valley: Blois, Chaumont, Amboise, Chambord, Chenonceau, and Azay-le- Rideau.

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I am afraid I have lost touch with the participants of the interim experience.

Perhaps these photographs will “spark” more reactions? Greetings from the Netherlands.

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SUMMER 2021

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In January, 1978, Calvin hosted one of its first French interims abroad.

A small group, led by Professor Lois Read, headed to France, to visit the wonders of Paris, the castles in the Loire Valley, and a slightly warmer area closer to the Mediterranean.

Near Paris, we visited the renowned cathedral of Chartres, but were dismayed to find the only public flush toilet nearby offered a solid footing but no seat. In the Loire Valley, we were hosted in a former castle in Tours, and tested a sparkling wine in Vouvray. Heading south, we visited the amphitheatre in Arles and the rocky outcropping of Les Baux-deProvence, famous for its “santons” and, according to local tradition, having become the home of Balthazar, one of the three wise men to visit baby Jesus.

In Avignon, we visited the Palais des Papes, and since it was a cold blustery day, the wind accidentally locked us into an anteroom with our guide. Sue Duiker is attempting to open the door, or failing that, to attract help! The Côte d’Azur is decidedly colder in January!

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Dianne (Vrieling) Marty (‘78)

I, Dianne (Vrieling) Marty, have now retired from teaching high school French, but I’m still tutoring one client, and facilitating a local French conversation group with over a dozen participants.

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Catherine Ristola Bass (‘89)

I live in Holland, Michigan and do Personal Historian interviews with older members of my community. I will be the president of the Rotary Club of Holland this coming year. We went to Europe in December, 2019 to see my host father in Belgium from my Rotary Youth Exchange (1984) and to “pick up” our daughter Emily Bass (‘20) from her semester abroad for her French major. We were foiled by the transit strike from seeing Grenoble, but Emily finally was able to march in the LMCU ballpark delayed graduation ceremony in May, 2021.

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Zach Campbell (‘05)

It is a bit astounding to think I completed my studies at Calvin fifteen years ago! While my proud side would like to think I already spoke French fairly well before joining the department’s study abroad program in 2003, the program was truly transformational for me: living with a French family and negotiating understanding amid different assumptions and ways of approaching daily life, wandering through the historic streets of Grenoble, and being intellectually challenged in unprecedented ways have all in retrospect been life-changing experiences that – in lesser and greater ways, across languages and cultures – have determined the path my life would take.

After graduating from Calvin with majors in both French and Spanish, I went on to spend time teaching English and French in Quito, Ecuador.

After Quito I moved to New York, where my knowledge of French and Spanish were integral to non-profit work in programs serving refugees and asylees, and then I pursued graduate studies in literature in Spanish at Rutgers University.

In 2019, I defended a dissertation that analyzes montage techniques in the political journalism of the Mexican Revolution, and since then have taught Spanish language and literature at Pace University and Mercy College in Westchester, New York.

While it may sound like Spanish has won out, that’s not quite the case – knowledge of French was an integral part of my graduate research, and I currently am part of the international editorial committee of Liaisons (with members from Montréal and Paris), a collective which publishes a journal and hosts a blog dedicated to circulating accounts of activists engaged in social movements from around the world. This often involves translating from French to English, and also provides an interesting window onto cultural and linguistic differences between Quebec and France.

I still remember with great fondness my classes with Professor Fetzer, Professor Selles, and Professor VosCamy, and realize in hindsight how important these learning experiences were for me – not only because of their intellectual rigor, but also because, as professors, they offered me models of pedagogues truly dedicated to students’ well-being.

My efforts at being a caring teacher have been especially important to me as I attempt to be a resource for students facing difficulties during the pandemic.

I wish the French program and faculty my heartfelt goodwill and the study abroad program another successful 20, 40, or 200 years!

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Rebekah (Kent) Sandefer (‘06) I remember my host mother repeating “il n’y a pas de ‘ré ‘ après un ‘si’” over and over. I know she meant well with her corrections, but I had no idea how I managed to derail my hypothetical situations so often. It wasn’t until I taught conditional sentences as a high school teacher that I finally figured out my mistake. I taught French for eight years in NY and NJ. Then I decided to stay home to raise our kids once we moved to Massachusetts.

Thinking back to our semester abroad brings back so many fun memories of the places we visited, the foods we tried and the friendships we made. I miss how easy it is to hop on a train or EZjet plane and step into a whole new culture. It was incredible to visit Athens over spring break, and I’m so glad I made nerd friends like me who wanted to see all of the historical sites and not just come home with a great tan. One day we all wanted pasta for dinner but there were no pots in our rental bungalow so we did our best with a coffee pot. It was not our best moment.

Matt Sandefer (‘06)

We are currently living in Massachusetts. Je suis professeur de français dans un lycée, Tabor Academy.

Grenoble memories: Our host family took Jason M. and I to the mountains outside Grenoble. My face got fried from the sun reflecting off the snow.

My family came to visit in April. We went to Normandy together. There was a garage band practicing next to the hotel we had reserved, so we ended up sleeping in a place last renovated circa 1925. The gates shut at 10pm.

I needed money, so I scaled the fence and wandered into town to find an ATM.

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these students fostered as a group did not end with the semester and they held frequent reunions and dinners together until the youngest among them graduated. Many of them remain dear friends to this day.

Amma Ampong AgyemanPrempeh (Aboagye) (‘09) 6

After graduating from Calvin with a double major in International Relations and French (with Honors), I went on to University of Warwick in the United Kingdom where I obtained a Master’s Degree in International Relations. I moved back home to Ghana in 2010.

I am1a writer. My first book, Motherhood 101, was launched in 2019 and is available on Amazon.

I am currently in my second year of Law School and loving every bit of it.

I also work part-time at our family business where we train nurses and nurse assistants.

Although my use of French is now limited to assisting my son and nieces with their French homework, I continue to watch TV5 regularly because I love French and it is helpful to speak and understand French in West Africa. I am positive that it will come in handy when I start to practice as a lawyer.

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Jane (Stearley) Langschied (class of 2010) and Emily O’Brock (class of 2011) became inseparable friends while on this semester. They initially bonded over the stresses associated with a new language immersion experience: living with host families, navigating a new city and university system. Their friendship was solidified through travel mishaps, afterschool exploration, and the curation of pranks. Jane and Emily used their semester in France to improve their knowledge of French language and culture, and also to photobomb rude tourists’ vacation pictures, to tag their friends as pigeons and gargoyles in Facebook photos, and to plan a special surprise for Professor Fetzer on the Avignon bridge. Upon their return to Grand Rapids, they made further use of these talents cultivated in Grenoble and they continue to do so today.

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After graduation from Calvin and stints in the TAPIF program, Jane and Emily were coworkers. They translated French at neighboring desks until Emily started graduate school. Jane continues to advance in this career, while Emily will soon finish her PhD in French. Nearly 13 years after their Grenoble semester, Jane and Emily are still best friends and will always be thankful for this amazing program that brought them together.

Jill Paslier (Zeigler) (‘09)

Jill Paslier (Zeigler) studied abroad in Grenoble in 2008 with Professor Fetzer. While there, she met her husband-to-be Sylvain Paslier at the FEU (Foyer Évangélique Universitaire) and at Église CasimirPerrier. They kept in touch long distance for a few years and got married in 2012. They’ve lived together in Minneapolis, Phoenix, and now, Philadelphia. Jill completed her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2014, worked for six years in a specialty pharmacy, and this year is completing a fellowship in medication safety.

Sylvain is self-employed and he plays and sells beautiful handpan instruments. Included are pictures of them at Mcdo in France in 2008, and Philadelphia in 2020.

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Emily O’Brock (‘11) Jane (Stearley) Langschied (‘10) 8

The group of students on the Fall 2008 semester in Grenoble, directed by Glenn Fetzer, was unusually closeknit. The sense of community that

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Greg Vondiziano (‘11)

After obtaining my MA in Linguistics from National Taiwan University in 2019, I moved to Honolulu, Hawai’i to pursue a doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. As of this writing, I’ve just finished my second year in the PhD program, where I continue to specialize in the syntax of Austronesian languages while also receiving training in language documentation & revitalization.

Over the past year I have immersed myself in learning Hawaiian and, as a result, my research interests have expanded to include the languages of East Polynesia in addition to the Austronesian languages of Taiwan.

Given that French Polynesia is a major country in the East Polynesian geo-region, opportunities to use the French I learned at Calvin continue to present themselves in unanticipated ways.

In reflecting on my experience studying abroad in Grenoble during the fall of 2010, it’s apparent that it was a pivotal experience. There are certainly fond memories of class trips to l’Aguille du Midi, in the Alps, and to Lyon and Paris, cozy dinners with my host parents, and afternoons spent lazily putzing around the different neighborhoods of Grenoble with friends. But what characterizes my time in Grenoble most overtly was the steady and precipitous decline of my mental health. I couldn’t see it at the time, but by the end of the semester, I had fallen into a deep depression that was underscored by relentless anxiety and punctuated with debilitating panic attacks. It took a long time for me to finally admit that the experience was not a good one – I wanted so badly for it to be an idyllic four months of linguistic enrichment and continental self-discovery. Instead, I returned to the US a shell of the optimistic Francophile that had first set out. But there was a silver lining in all of this, believe it or not. This experience not only galvanized me into taking mental health care more seriously, but also afforded new space to take seriously my intellectual interest in the AsiaPacific region. The spring of 2011, on the eve of graduating from Calvin, I turned down an offer to serve as a teaching assistant at l’Académie de

Lille, opting instead to teach English in Taiwan. That decision was the very first step down the path on which I currently find myself.

My memories of Grenoble are mostly painful ones, but I’m still grateful for them, in my own way. Without that experience, I would never have built the very formative and impactful life I had in Taiwan, I would not have fallen in love with and become fluent in Mandarin, and I likely would not have had the opportunity to discover and cultivate my keen interest in the languages of Austronesia.

Admitting that a study abroad experience was negative is difficult – it took me a decade to do it – but I am so thankful for the wealth and richness of intellectual and crosscultural experience that it, directly or indirectly, guided me towards. While my time in Grenoble revealed, in no subtle way, that I had hit a dead end, the resultant course-correction led me to something more profoundly empowering and enriching than I could have ever imagined. I’m very excited to see where my life goes from here.

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Christina (Hill) Phillips (‘15)

J’habite à Montréal, Québec avec mon mari (Nathan Phillips ‘14) depuis presque 3 ans. Je profite des occasions quotidiennes pour pratiquer mon français, d’apprendre davantage sur une culture que je trouve vraiment intéressante et de connecter avec des gens que je ne pourrais pas connaître sans la capacité de parler français.

Je vois mon semestre en France en 2011 comme une préparation importante pour ma vie actuelle. Il m’a appris à naviguer la vie dans une deuxième langue, à accepter des différences culturelles et à faire face à de nouveaux défis.

Jonathan Crow (‘15) I am still in Strasbourg with my wife, happily working at Steelcase. My offer to anybody in the French dept still stands, come visit and we can eat together or climb the cathedral tower or something. Students or professors, peu importe.

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Bernadette Arthur (‘17)

I am currently back home in Ghana, job searching, after having completed my Master’s in the UK. Job searching is brutal right now, so it is sometimes discouraging not finding anything.

I am so hopeful though. In the meantime, I am working with some friends on an organization they co-founded which I joined since its inception as part of the core team. It’s called Plug-in, and it is a mentoring program we provide for young Ghanaian women to connect with older more experienced women in their areas of expertise, to develop a mentoring relationship.

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We provide workshops (virtually) covering different topics that are geared towards career and personal development. I work as the Research & Communications Specialist now, basically helping co-develop a solid framework for the org, as well as using research to develop programming materials such as workshops, worksheets, etc. Also I think about how that research could be channeled into our social media team’s goals as well.

Friends: please feel free to email me at arthurbernadette@gmail. com, look up ‘Bernadette Arthur’ on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/ in/bernadette-arthur-158903122/)... or to contact Plug-in directly on email: plugin.gh@gmail.com, Instagram: @ Plugin_org, Facebook: Plugin_org, Linkedin: Plug-in (https://www. linkedin.com/company/plugin-gh/)

Laurel Gutierrez (Youngquist) (‘17) 12

This past school year has been an eventful one for me. Last August I married my now husband which was, by far, the best part of 2020. We both graduated medical school and matched into residency at the University of Michigan. I will start this June as a Family Medicine doctor in Ann Arbor and he will be in Internal Medicine. I have been trying to keep up my French skills by spending time speaking with medical school classmates who speak French. My husband, who grew up in South Africa, speaks Afrikaans so we have had fun learning phrases from each other. My favorite Afrikaans saying is “cool as a cucumber,” but I am not that great at pronouncing it. While it has been a

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wild year to finish medical school we are so grateful to be staying where we are at!

Thinking of just one memory from my time in Grenoble is nearly impossible.

I think my favorite memory was when our entire group spent a weekend in Paris and found the best falafel place in the world. Or when we all stayed in a hostel where they had a courtyard in which we ate lots of cheese, drank some wine and sang Taize songs until we realized we were bothering our neighbors! Taize was also a wonderful experience and some of the songs we learned from there became the theme songs of the whole time abroad. I am so thankful for the French department and the wonderful friends I met through it! And I will never forget how much of a blessing those months in France were to me!

Ben DeMaso (‘18) While I moved to Colorado in January 2020, settling into life in Boulder has felt like the big objective for the last 12 months. That and getting married, which Jess and I did in February in the mountains of Telluride! Note: outdoor weddings in 15 degrees aren’t a cake walk, and neither is planning a pandemic wedding. Would not recommend. However I would recommend Boulder, an outdoor capital just like Grenoble.

I’m often reminded of those host family outings, mountain biking with my host brother Axel, or taking the bus or a Bla-Bla car to Saint-Hilaire, Villard-de-Lans, or Chamonix to hike with fellow Calvin students. For the most part Grenoble is where I finally realized how big the world was beyond the Midwest. That has led me to so 15

many awesome opportunities living and working abroad, and makes me want to do it again. I miss the pastry shops, the paragliding festival, and running to catch the TGV. I miss how new everyday was and the excited discomfort of communicating with my host family at dinner. I know that challenge was good for me, and has since shaped who I’ve become. I’m grateful for Grenoble, and grateful that I now how friends who are a few hours ahead of me that I can call on early morning solo drives from Colorado to Michigan to see family.

Thank you Professor Vos-Camy for setting up the Grenoble semester in the first place. It has made a beautiful difference in my life!

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Maame Arthur (‘20)

Grenoble 2017 a certainement été un rêve devenu réalité. Je ne regrette pas l’argent que j’ai économisé pour m’offrir ce séjour. La belle culture française, ainsi que les nombreuses cultures dans ce pays, la nourriture, les voyages m’ont, sans aucun doute, ouvert les yeux et mon esprit au monde. J’ai vécu dans un appartement avec mes adorables parents d’accueil et j’ai été bénie d’avoir les Alpes qui m’entouraient. Je vivais littéralement la vie du Psaume 121 « Je lèverai mes yeux vers les collines, d’où vient mon secours. » Je vais apprécier Dieu plus simplement en regardant les merveilles de cette création. Par exemple, un jour je me suis levée, il y avait de la neige d’un côté de l’appartement et rien de l’autre côté!

J’ai été étonnée chaque fois que j’y pensais. En outre, les voyages que nous avons faits en groupe étaient aussi très instructifs et enrichissants.

Même si nous n’étions pas en mesure de visiter chaque endroit en France, nous avons vraiment tous apprécié. De Lyon à Versailles, aux tours à vélo à Paris et même à Taizé. Je me souviens de l’activité de groupe de raquette à laquelle la professeure DeVries nous a fait participer. C’est de loin l’une des plus difficiles que j’aie jamais eu à faire. Mais la vue sur les montagnes valait absolument le voyage. Taizé était particulièrement spécial car il était nécessaire de faire une pause dans tout le chaos de notre vie pour réfléchir à la bonté de Dieu dans nos vies.

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En conclusion, mon expérience en France restera pour toujours avec moi. Il y avait beaucoup de hauts et de bas, mais je crois que tout cela fait partie de l’expérience d’apprentissage.

Mon français n’est peut-être pas au meilleur niveau mais il s’est énormément amélioré. Je suis très heureuse d’avoir vécu cette expérience.

Margaret Hendricks-Shatto (‘20) 14

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Photo memories from Grenoble 2019.

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PROFESSOR AND INSTRUCTOR UPDATES

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Otto Selles

During 2020-2021, I had probably the busiest year ever at Calvin. During the summer of 2020, I became chair of a newly formed Department of World Languages. This department puts French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean professors all under one roof.

I spent a great deal of time learning the needs of the different language programs and responding to various administrative duties and university initiatives that came up all year long.

In the fall, I taught French 301 (conversation) and French 375 (cinema) and then in the spring French 302 (grammar/composition) and French 102. The first weeks of class, I struggled to learn how to teach while wearing a mask in a socialdistanced classroom, where students had to stay six feet apart from each other or where some followed online.

I had one of my classes in the lab theater (the practice room beside the Gezon theater) and that felt like teaching in a warehouse. Despite such constraints, students remained positive, often saying how much they preferred in-person classes to the online version. Overall, I was very impressed with the way professors and students adapted to the situation.

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While I thought I might not be able to be involved in ski patrol at all this year, the season turned out to be quite good, that is, once I learned how to wear a face mask and stop my glasses from steaming up. I was also invited to join the ski patrol at Nubs Nob (Harbor Springs) in addition to Cannonsburg. I enjoyed the chance to be outside, help out people, and practice my ski skills. I also continued to take nature photographs, as a change of pace from my work duties.

This past May, our youngest child, Luc, graduated from Calvin with a major in bio-chemistry and French.

I will regret not having any of my kids on campus anymore but am grateful 1) they all studied French and 2) they are moving on in their lives and careers. For the first two weeks of summer, I am teaching two asynchronous online courses, a DCM on French cinema and French 302.

These courses have greatly added to my workload. I am glad though for the opportunity to learn how to develop an online course with my colleagues in World Languages. Once the courses are done, my wife Rita and I plan to do some camping on some days she has no bakery orders. I also hope to relax a bit and return finally to my research and writing projects.

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Ali (VanderWoude) Haveman

Life has been challenging this past year. For my two oldest boys, it has been hard to learn how to do preschool and 1st grade, let alone trying to do school during a pandemic. For my husband, it has been hard to navigate state mandates while still running an electrical services company that makes emergency calls in people’s homes and businesses. For myself, it has been hard to figure out how to teach a French Multisensory Sequence successfully when we are in-person one day and online the next. Kinesthetic learning just isn’t the same when you’re staring at a computer screen. Nevertheless, through all of these hurdles, we are learning how to do better and how to appreciate the positive moments each day no matter how small.

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Jo (Admiraal) Ellis

Bonjour! Cette année, j’ai eu l’opportunité d’enseigner plusieurs cours de français à Calvin, dont 131, 132, 201, et 202. Je suis vraiment reconnaissante pour cette opportunité, qui m’a permis d’utiliser le français et de rester encore une année à Calvin.

Une de mes plus grandes joies était de voir le progrès des étudiants qui ont commencé pour la première fois le français, mais qui ont appris peu à peu à s’exprimer. L’année prochaine, je déménagerai en Jordanie avec mon

SUMMER 2021

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mari. Nous y enseignerons l’anglais aux réfugiés syriens, avec le but aussi de partager la joie et l’espérance que nous avons en Jésus Christ.

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Jolene Vos-Camy

This year was full of difficult challenges. In August 2020 I made the very hard decision to get divorced. The fall-out was harsh, and my professional career was affected, pulling me away for an entire semester. I am grateful to the many people along the way who kept assuring me that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

When I returned to the classroom in the spring it was with extra joy that I met with my students in person and online, as covid numbers fluctuated through the semester.

I was still able to present three papers at conferences this year: “Slavery, Turks, and the Bourgeois Gentilhomme” in November, virtually at New York University and De Pauw University ; “‘Il s’est fait un grand baptême à Marseille’: Le sort de cinquante Africains rapporté par le Mercure galant” virtually at the University of Iowa in May; and “La Compagnie Royale d’Afrique au dixseptième siècle: créatrice d’esclaves ou de chrétiens?” in person in Côte d’Ivoire, in March.

That last conference was my first trip ever to the African continent—a wonderful experience after teaching so many years of francophone African literature.

The highlight of the year was being named “Chevalière” in the “Ordre des Palmes Académiques” in a ceremony in the Calvin University Chapel in March. The Emperor Napoléon created this award in 1808 to honor outstanding contributions in French education. Though my official paperwork from the French Minister of Education does say “Chevalier” (the masculine and official title), the French consul, Guillaume LaCroix, used the feminine form in the ceremony, much to my delight. I am now a knighted Calvin knight.

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Vicki De Vries

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since I last wrote an update for the alumni newsletter. Since then, my husband and I sold our house in Grand Rapids and moved to Boston, where I started a new job as the French teacher at Boston Trinity Academy. BTA is a small school with a big mission—to bring a rigorous college preparatory program to a wide socio-economic range of students. It’s the only non-Catholic Christian high school in Boston, and the most diverse private school in Massachusetts.

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Because of COVID restrictions, I’m just starting to get to know my colleagues, but I can already vouch for the quality and character of the students here. They are bright, hardworking, and respectful, which makes them a joy to work with.

I love living in a walkable city— probably the closest I can get to living as if I were in France without leaving the country. The hardware store, bakery, deli, pet store, bank, grocery store, and a bunch of good restaurants are all within a few blocks of our house. I even bought a “caddy” to haul all my finds up the rather steep hill to get home. And Gus (if you were in one of my classes last spring, you might remember seeing or hearing him on Zoom) loves the Arnold Arboretum, which is full of squirrels, robins, and other dogs.

If you’re ever in Boston, please get in touch. I’d love to meet you for an apéro and catch up!

Vicki De Vries began teaching at Calvin in 2008. She was promoted to full professor in the spring of 2021 and had served as French Department chairperson for two years when Calvin University administration decided to eliminate one teaching position in the French Department. It was very hard to lose Vicki!

Chevalière des Palmes Académiques

French Consul Guillaume Lacroix.

Pinning the medal.

Ali Haveman and Otto Selles.

German prof. Corey Roberts and Spanish prof. Dwight Ten Huisen.

Students from Prof. Vos-Camy’s French literature class.

GVSU professor Dan Golembeski was also knighted.

Student Sarah MacCarthy helping with the zoom broadcast.

Prof. Emerita Claude-Marie Baldwin Vos

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ALPINE ADVENTURES, SUMMER 2021 After missing a year because of the pandemic, Jolene Vos-Camy returned to the Massif du Mont Blanc in the Alps in June 2021. Her mountain guide, Hervé Viollet, who is based in Grenoble, has taken many Calvin students on snow-shoeing and paragliding adventures over the years.