Campus News

Clarence Joldersma

In 2020, education professor Clarence Joldersma was invited to be part of a team of 70 researchers organized by the International Science and EvidenceBased Education Assessment, to contribute to a report on educational systems and reforms. This was part of a once-in-a-generation UNESCO report called “Futures of Education,” which came out in November 2021. In essence, it’s an international effort to rethink and revitalize education as a social institution.

“UNESCO consults with people from around the world and is creating a vision for how education, organized institutions of education, meet the current challenges facing us globally,” said Joldersma.

The project leaders wanted someone to contribute to the project who had an understanding of social, political, and conceptual contexts that shape educational neuroscience. They knew of Joldersma’s scholarly work and asked him to co-author a chapter.

“A marker of success [for this project] is if the way we envision education in the report moves the needle even slightly from thinking narrowly about education for human capital development to a broader understanding of education for human flourishing.”

Calvin professors will guide high school students as they explore their interests and think about possible careers.

Career planning and college decisionmaking can be daunting tasks for incoming undergraduate students. Calvin University is introducing a new program to help students work through the many uncertainties they face heading out of high school and into college.

“The idea of career exploration is to help our students explore the different interests they have so that when they come to college, they have a more realistic expectation of what their major and possible career outcomes are going to be,” explains Rosalba Ramírez, director of College Access Programs.

Ramírez says that many students grapple with the pressure of either attending college or finding a job soon after high school. The Career Exploration Program, which is partnering with the Career Center, is seeking to make this decision easier for high school students by providing invaluable experiences through its weeklong workshop.

This summer, the program is open to local students who are able to either stay with their families for the week or experience overnight residential life without the pressure of being far away from home. The intention is to expand this program to include a broader audience in future years.

The program’s expected start date is June 20, 2022, and the application deadline for day programs is April 15.

For more information and to learn about registration, go to calvin.edu/go/sce.

Rachael Denhollander

In December 2021, Rachael Denhollander accepted the 2021 Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life at an event hosted by Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary. Denhollander is an attorney, author, advocate, and educator who is recognized as a leading voice on the topic of sexual abuse.

The Kuyper Prize was established in 1996 by Rimmer and Ruth de Vries and is named after Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper. The prize is awarded each year to a scholar or community leader whose outstanding contribution to their chosen sphere reflects the ideas and values characteristic of the neo-Calvinist vision of religious engagement in matters of social, political, and cultural significance in one or more of the “spheres” of society.

“To marry Kuyper’s work to what’s taking place in the public square right now on many levels is incredibly challenging, but Calvin has long had a history of making place and priority for these conversations. It’s a place with a rich understanding of faith and application of theology,” said Denhollander. “So, to be part of that tradition in some small way is deeply humbling.”

A recording of the event is available on Calvin’s YouTube channel.

Find more campus news daily at calvin.edu/news. Knightletin is a new chemical compound that glows bright blue under UV light.

During fall 2021, Professor Mark Muyskens and a group of students created a compound never seen before: a clear liquid that, when shown under UV light, glows a beautiful bright blue.

Soon after discovering this coumarin from a series of syntheses, Muyskens held a naming competition for the compound.

“It’s not necessarily traditional that if you [just] make a new compound that you will name it,” explains Muyskens. “There probably have been hundreds or maybe thousands of molecules that have been synthesized at Calvin that are brand new and they don’t all get named.”

After reviewing the names presented by students, the chemistry department settled on “Knightletin,” after Calvin’s mascot and for its chemical similarity to aesculetin, the compound they were studying.

Before naming the compound, students Leah Knoor, George Du Laney, Isaac Jonker, Liam Hoogewerf, Yukun Tu, Hunter Pham, and Joy Yoo composed an article, “Aesculetin Exhibits Strong Fluorescent Photoacid Character,” explaining their processes leading up to the discovery. The article was published in the Journal of Fluorescence as the first to explain the new compound.

Professor Gary Schmidt

This summer, Calvin is hosting a writing boot camp. Scriptoria is a writing workshop open to adults who want to gain writing experience, hone their craft, and make connections. Morning workshops, afternoon writing conferences, and evening readings are all on the docket for the in-person, workshop scheduled for June 20-24, 2022.

Gary Schmidt, professor of English and award-winning author, is collaborating with his colleagues at Calvin, Cornerstone University, and Aquinas College on Scriptoria. He hopes to awaken creativity, teach craft elements, and create a space where writers can wrestle with the ways in which each faith tradition may affect the writer’s purpose and process.

Workshops held throughout each day will include small groups of eight writers each, where their work is passed around and peer reviewed. Participants will also work one-on-one with professional writers and editors in the Christian publishing industry. In this immersive atmosphere, writers will experience how professionals navigate the writing world and get a taste of what a master’s program in English at Calvin might look like.

For more information, visit scriptoriaworkshop.org.

Senior Freshta Tori Jan and her new book, Courage: My Story of Persecution.

In January, Freshta Tori Jan’s book, Courage: My Story of Persecution, was published. In it, Tori Jan, a senior pre-law student studying international relations, shares her journey fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan, relentlessly pursuing education against all odds, and learning the power of her own voice.

Tori Jan and her family are Hazara, a minority ethnic group that has faced a devastating amount of persecution and prejudice. In the fourth grade, Tori Jan witnessed Hazara communities get attacked and killed one after another—and yet no one did anything about it. “I was surrounded by people who were letting these things happen,” wrote Tori Jan. “I didn’t know how to advocate for my people. I didn’t know how to raise my voice. All I knew was that I was hurting for so long.”

Courage: My Story of Persecution is the third book in the I, Witness series by W.W. Norton & Co., which shares first-person narrative stories of contemporary young people who have faced terrible challenges in their lives. The series is aimed at readers 9–12 years old, and Tori Jan wants young people to know that they are not too young to become leaders.

Find more campus news daily at calvin.edu/news.

Professor Matt Heun and his students discuss low-carbon solutions in Engineering 333.

Engineering students in professor Matt Heun’s “Thermal Systems Design” class worked in a living lab last fall. They studied the building of Habitat for Humanity’s newly constructed low-carbon house and were tasked with finding out how the organization could reduce the carbon emissions by a further 20%.

The two sections of Heun’s class were each assigned an existing Habitat house in Grand Rapids to analyze as well as the low-carbon build that was just a foundation when they were introduced to the project in early September. They were divided up to work on two areas, some working on analysis—everything from looking at embodied carbon, the onsite carbon emissions, electricity, and heating—and the others focused on what design aspects would help reduce emissions further.

The students found that while you can’t ignore the carbon emissions present in the initial upfront activity of getting materials and all the onsite construction actions, the majority of the carbon emissions come after someone occupies and operates the house.

Hear more about the Habitat for Humanity project from Professor Heun and the engineering students. Calvin Start-Ups

Daniel Kwik, a data science and marketing major, joined Calvin Start-Ups, a student organization geared toward entrepreneurs, during his first year at Calvin. Through this experience, Kwik helped bring students together with diverse skill sets to help a fellow student start a business.

“In the real world, you’re not going to be a businessperson surrounded by businesspeople, right? You’re going to need designers. You’re going to need people smarter than you in different fields,” said Kwik.

Leann Gasaway ’21 was the first beneficiary of this new organization. She always wanted to start a bakery. A few months prior to graduation, she started meeting with Calvin Start-Ups to make her pitch a reality. The student organization helped her think through the logistics of her business and connected her with the right people on campus. Later that spring, College Cupcakes was officially up and running.

The group also started a podcast, Beyond Ethical, where they interview entrepreneurs about their journeys and investigate what it means to be “redemptive entrepreneurs.”