From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Wed May 21 2003 - 10:08:23 EDT
May 21, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
Commencement weekend at Calvin College will mark a first. Senior Joseph Ku
will be the first-ever Calvin student to take part in an ROTC Commissioning
Service. Ku was dually enrolled at Calvin and Western Michigan through the
ROTC program.
The event will take place at 6:30 pm on Friday, May 23 in the Calvin Chapel.
Commencement for Calvin is Saturday, May 24 at 3 pm in the Fieldhouse. For the
complete weekend schedule see
http://www.calvin.edu/commencement/students/schedule.htm
Among the people scheduled to take place in the Friday ROTC Commissioning
Service are Calvin president Gaylen Byker (an Army veteran who served as an
artillery officer in Washington state and Vietnam, where he supervised 90
enlisted men in combat situations and was repeatedly decorated) and 1965 Calvin
graduate Rev. Herman Keizer (a former Army Chaplain who also served in Vietnam
and was repeatedly decorated).
Ku, a California native, enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army in 1998 and
continued to be in the Army Reserves at the 334th Medical Group in Walker,
Mich., until Dec 2001 when he received his contract as a ROTC cadet. At
Calvin he is a computer science major and business minor. After graduation he
will head to the 128th Quartermaster Airdrop Unit in Santa Barbara, Calif. He
will go to airborne school in the summer and quartermaster officer basic course
in September.
Commencement 2003 marks the 83rd such conferring of four-year degrees in
Calvin's 125-year history. This year's ceremony will feature a graduating
class of approximately 900 students. Calvin awarded its first bachelor's
degrees in 1921 to a senior class of eight men.
The 2003 Commencement speaker will be John M. Perkins, a sharecropper's son
who grew up in Mississippi amidst dire poverty, but went on to become a leader
in the civil rights movement. He now is an international speaker and teacher
on issues of racial reconciliation, leadership and community development. For
more on Perkins and the John M. Perkins Foundation, see http://www.jmpf.org/
Calvin's 2003 Commencement Ceremony also will be marked by the presentation of
Calvin's highest alumni honor -- the Distinguished Alumni Award -- to Robert
Swierenga and Paul VandenBout. Calvin College has presented its Distinguished
Alumni Awards -- intended to honor those who have made significant
contributions in their field of endeavor -- annually since 1966. Swierenga,
A.C. Van Raalte Research Fellow at Hope College and a professor of history
emeritus at Kent State University, is the "dean of scholars" concerning
Dutch-American studies in the 19th and 20th centuries. VandenBout, director
emeritus of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va.,
is a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy.
A quartet of Calvin professors will mark their final Commencements as they
move from the classroom into retirement. Together the four - Edward Ericson
(26 years), Sanford Leestma (35 years), James Timmer (33 years) and Lambert Van
Poolen (35 years) - have served Calvin for a combined 129 years!
For the complete Commencement weekend schedule see
http://www.calvin.edu/commencement/students/schedule.htm
-end-
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