Calvin Names Top Teacher

February 7, 2008 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin College this evening named the 2008 winner of its top teaching award.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/exemplary-teaching-award.htm

A Calvin College professor of speech pathology and audiology is the college's 2008 recipient of the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching.

Judith Vander Woude (pronounced VAN DER WOOD) was named the 16th winner of Calvin's top teaching honor this evening at a special dinner on campus.

Fellow members of the communication arts and sciences department at Calvin say that Vander Woude is deserving of the recognition.

Department chair Helen Sterk notes that Calvin's speech pathology and audiology major makes the college one of only three Christian colleges in the country to offer the degree. And, she adds, under Vander Woude's leadership, Calvin's program has grown from only a handful of students in the mid 1990s, when the program almost went defunct, to some 70 majors a year now.

In addition Calvin's placement rate for students who go on to graduate school is close to 100 percent over the last decade.

"Most years," says Sterk, "everyone of our graduates who applies to graduate school gets in. That's a wonderful testimony to the curriculum that Dr. Vander Woude has developed at Calvin and the real-world experiences she provides for her majors."

Those experiences include an on-site stroke clinic in the DeVos Communications Center at Calvin, as well as speech pathology programs for school-age children, audiology testing and much more.

Vander Woude said she just loves to teach.

"When I walked into the classroom the first day of second semester," she said, "I was thinking 'yeah this is fun.' You can talk about serious things, you can push students, but you can have fun too."

But there's more to it than fun she is quick to add.

"Making a difference in the lives of students is very satisfying," she said, "and I know that's not just true for me, but also for my colleagues across the campus. It's why we do what we do."

-end-
Received on Thu Feb 7 18:00:23 2008