Calvin Announces First Director of Campus Wellness

September 5, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin has hired a veteran wellness expert to lead its expanding
programs for faculty and staff.

Full story, including JPG, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/zuidema.htm

Calvin College has hired an alumnus and specialist in exercise science as the
college's first-ever director of campus wellness.

Roy Zuidema, a 1979 Calvin grad with 23 years of experience in delivering
health promotion programming to corporate clients, will oversee Calvin's
Healthy Habits program for faculty and staff and help administrate the new
fitness centers in the college's $49.5 million Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex,
currently under construction.

Zuidema wants to encourage the Calvin community to a new level of fitness.

"Calvin has gotten high marks as an academic institution," he said. "I'd like
to see that we're also known as being one of the healthiest campuses in the
country."

Despite the debris and difficult access currently surrounding the Spoelhof
Fieldhouse Complex construction -- which, when completed, will feature a new
arena and expanded fitness center, a track and tennis facility, an aquatic
center, and a health and recreation center -- he is enthusiastic about the
facility's possibilities.

"The next year-and-a-half, we're going to be dealing with some disruption.
Construction is going to throw us some curveballs, and we'll have to do some
creative programming," he said, laughing. "But we’re also looking at the
opportunities we're going to have with the new facility."

Zuidema, who earned a degree in physical education, is impressed with the
growth of what is now the health, physical education, recreation, dance and
sport (HPERDS) department. Following his graduation from Calvin, he earned a
master’s in exercise science from the University of Michigan and worked for
two years at Floyd Junior College (now Georgia Highlands College) in Rome,
Georgia.

Zuidema then moved to the corporate world, working for the next 23 years for
the Wellness Center, helping to deliver healthcare promotion programs to over
500 clients, including Alticor Inc., Bissell, Inc., and Steelcase. He developed
screening programs for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and health,
exercise, weight loss, stress management and tobacco cessation classes for his
corporate clientele.

He's excited about delivering wellness programming that's in tune with his
alma mater's mission.

"We are called to be good stewards of God's creation," he said, "and our
bodies -- our temples -- are a part of God's creation."

Contact Zuidema (ZIGH DUH MA) at 526-8408 or raz4@calvin.edu

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Received on Wed Sep 5 10:37:30 2007