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March 26, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
Steve Timmermans' long career of knitting Calvin College into its surrounding
community was recently honored with a Faculty/Staff Community Service Learning
Award from Michigan Campus Compact (MCC).
The award recognizes the faculty or staff member on each MCC member campus who
motivates students to engage their communities through community service or
service learning.
His heart for service will soon benefit another college, however. Timmermans
recently was selected by Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill., to
be its seventh president. He will begin his duties there in July.
People at Calvin who have worked closely with Timmermans say his passion for
education will be a big plus for Trinity Christian. And that his recent honor
from the Michigan Campus Compact is a fitting close to his career at Calvin.
Jeff Bouman, director of the Calvin's Service Learning Center, nominated
Timmermans for the award. He believes Timmermans has impacted Calvin in
numerous ways.
"As far as I'm concerned," he said, "you name it, and if it's progressive he's
had his hand in it at Calvin."
Timmermans has been at Calvin since 1989, most recently as a professor of
education, but also has served the school in numerous other capacities,
including as executive associate to the president, director of student academic
services, dean for instruction and interim director of the service-learning
center. After receiving a bachelor of science degree from Calvin in 1979,
Timmermans continued his post-graduate education at the University of Michigan,
where he earned a master of arts degree in psychology and an education
specialist degree in education in 1983, and a doctor of philosophy degree in
psychology and education in 1985. He spent the next four years at Mary Free Bed
Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Grand Rapids as a licensed psychologist,
eventually serving as both chief of pediatric psychology and director of
pediatric programming and research.
At Calvin he has helped to foster several innovative program, investing the
college in the Grand Rapids area and beyond. He worked with the Entrada
program which brings ethnic minority high school students to Calvin's campus to
sample an authentic college experience. Timmermans also pioneered Pathways to
Possibilities, an effort that partnered with church congregations to encourage
students in continuing their educations past the high school level. (Pathways
to Possibilities now partners with churches in several states and serves as a
national model for such programs). Most recently, Timmermans fostered
Calvin@Burton Heights, a partnership funded by a HUD grant, which placed a
community center in the Burton Heights Neighborhood.
Bouman reserves his highest accolades, however, for Timmermans' dedication to
integrating service learning into Calvin's curriculum. "'Engagement' is the key
word for Steve," he said. "It's Steve's strong belief that the college has to
be engaged in the community."
Timmermans was gratified by the award, yet was quick to share the honor: "It's
really more about the ethos and mission of service at Calvin than it's about
me. Service at Calvin is part of our institutional fabric, woven together by
pioneers who helped to set the direction."
Michigan Campus Compact is an association of the state's colleges and
universities, dedicated to promoting civic engagement on their college
campuses.
NOTES TO MEDIA
For Trinity Christian's news release see
http://www.trnty.edu/new/archive/031703/index.html
A picture of Timmermans is attached
For more on this award contact Jeff Bouman at jpb4@calvin.edu
-end-
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