Bank One Grants to Calvin Fund New Programs

Dec. 17, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College will host "a call to action" in January for young people
interested in furthering the dreams begun by Martin Luther King Jr. and then
will follow that up in the spring with a college expo.

"A Call to Action: MLK Young Leaders Weekend" will take place at Calvin from
January 16-18, while the Pre-College Expo is slated for March or April. Both
new programs at Calvin owe their start to funding from the college and a $5,000
grant from Bank One.

For the MLK Weekend, 50 local high school students will be selected to live in
the Calvin residence halls during the weekend of events. Among the activities
will be group games to teach team-building and cooperation; seminars on such
topics as civil rights history; workshops on social justice, leadership and
civic responsibility; a service-learning, volunteer experience; Sunday-morning
worship at Tabernacle Community Church; and a closing ceremony that will
include parents.

At Calvin the multicultural student development office will partner with the
pre-college programs office to match Calvin students with high school students
who are part of the college's Pathways to Possibilities program. That program
works with youth in grades four to twelve and especially targets those who live
in the inner-cities of Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Holland, helping them to
think seriously about education and especially to consider college as a
possibility within their grasp rather than an impossibility.

Director Rhae-Ann Booker says both the MLK Young Leaders Weekend and the
Pre-College Expo will be ways in which the college tries to inspire local high
school students.

"One of the four components of Pathways to Possibilities," she says, "is a
campus visit program which brings 4th through 12th graders to campus. It
exposes the students to career opportunities and connects them with college
students. It also exposes the college community - students, staff and faculty
- to ethnic minority youth and their communities. The Bank One award allows us
to expand our existing program by adding two more important events."

Booker says that Bank One also awarded Calvin $9,115 for its Discovery Club
Fellowship, a semester-long, pre-college program that pairs ethnic minority 9th
through 12th graders with Calvin College students as together they explore the
steps and strategies necessary for academic success and college enrollment.

"Bank One," says Booker, "has really been an important partner in our efforts
to help high school students think about a life of the mind after high school.
We have had success with our pre-college programs. Partners like Bank One will
ensure that we continue to have success down the road."

Contact Booker at 616-526-6749

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Received on Wed Dec 17 09:12:45 2003