Calvin graduates the Class of 2019
On Saturday, May 18, 2019, nearly 900 students will participate in Calvin College’s 99th Commencement ceremony, held at 2 p.m. in the college's Van Noord Arena. The graduates represent more than 60 majors within the arts and humanities, social and natural sciences, and professional programs. The Commencement address will be given by Gayle Ermer, chair and professor of engineering at Calvin College.
Established in 1876, Calvin operated first as a prep school and then as a junior college before conferring its first four-year degrees during the 1920-1921 academic year. The Class of 2019 represents the last cohort to graduate from Calvin College. The Class of 2020 will be the first class to graduate from Calvin University.
Today, Calvin is one of the largest Christian colleges in North America and is internationally recognized as a center for faith-anchored liberal arts teaching and scholarship where students are challenged to think deeply, act justly, and live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. The college’s 2018-2019 enrollment of 3,732 students represents nearly every U.S. state, many Canadian provinces, and about 65 other countries around the globe.
In 2018-2019, Calvin’s high-quality education was praised in prestigious rankings guides, including receiving the #1 ranking in the Regional Colleges Midwest category in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges Guidebook. The college was also included in places like Princeton Review’s The Best 384 Colleges, the Fiske Guide to Colleges, and America’s Top Colleges published by Forbes, to name a few.
Calvin graduates have high placement rates to graduate schools, medical schools and law schools. In a survey of recent grads, 99 percent of respondents reported having either secured a job or begun graduate school within nine months of graduation. And this year’s class appears to be headed in the same direction, with students heading around the corner and across the globe to pursue career opportunities.
During 2018-2019, students studied on the beautiful 400-acre campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and also on six different continents and in more than 30 different countries. The most recent Open Doors Report, which is published by the Institute of International Education, ranks Calvin among the top ten of all baccalaureate institutions for total number of students who participate in a study abroad experience.