News

Little acorn to great oak
Speech pathology and audiology program to offer master's degree. January 17,2011

Interim: Sight, Sound and Smell
Students are chopping cabbage, sniffing beakers and missing the gorilla in an interim titled "Sight, Sound and Smell." January 14,2011

Amazing Race: Calvin-style
Re-live the Amazing Race interim through photos, videos and commentary. January 12,2011

Interim: Crime and Detective Fiction
Students are meeting everybody from Miss Marple to Sam Spade in an interim class on detective fiction. January 11,2011

Students reflect on the January Series
An interim class is giving their insights on the many speakers and topics covered in the January Series. January 7,2011

Interim: Sports in Film and Fiction
Students are evaluating—and voting on—the best in sports film and fiction. January 7,2011

Mustard Seed School
Emmy award-winning filmmaker and CAS prof Brian Fuller will be offering an exclusive screening of a documentary he worked on with some of his students during 2010 interim. On Friday, February 11, 2011, “A Shared Space: Learning from the Mustard Seed School,” will be screened at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Covenant Fine Arts Center Recital Hall. January 7,2011

A chorus of old men
A Calvin professor of classical languages has written a new book about the role of old male choruses in Greek drama. January 6,2011

Q&A: Wikileaks
Two professors—one of computer science and one of political science—discuss Wikileaks. December 13,2010

Book on Chinese grammar
Qin and Larry Herzberg, professors of Asian Studies, recently co-authored "Basic Patterns of Chinese Grammar: A Student's Guide to Correct Structures and Common Errors." The book serves as a quick-reference supplement to any course of Mandarin Chinese language study. The text helps learners avoid the most common errors non-native speakers make when translating from English into Chinese. Stone Bridge Press published the book earlier this month. December 10,2010

Always a phenomenon: a new book on "Messiah"
A new book from a Calvin music professor emeritus traces the history and impact of Handel's masterpiece. December 9,2010

Media Showcase: superheroes on deck
The annual Media Showcase has gotten so big, it's shifting venues. December 8,2010

Shakespeare on the move
A Calvin theater class is staging Shakespeare all over campus: in a classroom, in a tunnel, on the climbing wall. December 2,2010

GEO duo wins award
Senior geography majors Seth Kenbeek and Abbie Belford were awarded the best student presentation award for a regional academic conference of the Association of American Geographers (East Lakes Division of the AAG) last month. The students presented their summer research, which is funded by ISRI, on geospatial techniques for dune analysis. November 19,2010

Students win Innovation Encounter
Six Calvin students from several disciplines bested the tech schools at this year's Innovation Encounter. November 18,2010

Remembering Johan Westra
On Sunday, November 7, 2010, Johan Westra, age 88, passed away peacefully at his home. Westra ’52 taught at Calvin College for 27 years. He was the college's first full-time political science professor. November 12,2010

Elevator Pitch
Ten students representing four academic majors pitched their bright ideas in Calvin's first-annual Elevator Pitch Competition. November 11,2010

The Wednesday Wars comes to life
A 1995 Calvin alum is adapting English professor Gary Schmidt's Newbery Honor-winning book as a play. November 11,2010

Doug Koopman - previewing the midterm elections
"You really have to be a consensus builder and move forward ... " November 11,2010

Founders Award
Corwin Smidt, director of the Paul Henry Institute and professor of political science at Calvin, was awarded the “Founders Award” at the 42nd-annual meeting of the Michigan Conference of Political Scientists held October 21-22. November 11,2010

Art Partners
Two Calvin departments are teaming up to launch a new giving circle for lovers of art. November 9,2010

Letters to a Young Calvinist
Philosopher James K.A. Smith has written a "less grumpy," more "winsome" portrait of Calvinism. November 9,2010

Innovation Encounter
A team of six Calvin business, engineering and computer science majors took first place in the 2010 “Innovation Encounter”—an inventive problem solving competition hosted by Lawrence Tech University. Calvin competed with five other colleges and universities in developing a new idea for a smart phone application to interface with vehicle systems. November 5,2010

Chimes wins nine MCPA awards
Last year's Chimes crew garnered nine MCPA College Newspaper Contest awards from the Michigan Collegiate Press Association. November 5,2010

An award-winning design
Calvin senior interdisciplinary major Joe Salowitz placed second in "The Yardsticks," a design competition open to local college students majoring in advertising and design. October 29,2010

A gift to the Meeter Center
A Reformation scholar donated his entire research collection—more than 2,500 volumes—to the Meeter Center. October 27,2010

Climate change lecture series
On Thursday, October 28 and Thursday, November 18, Calvin College will be hosting a pair of lectures on climate change. October 26,2010

Sins, virtues and big fish at gallery debut
Sins and virtues hang side-by-side at the opening exhibition of the New Center Art Gallery. October 19,2010

A new front door: CFAC opens
The pianos have moved in. The art has arrived. The Covenant Fine Arts Center, under renovation since May of 2009, is set to open. October 18,2010

Two Shoes
It all started one summer afternoon when Calvin juniors Ahna Terpstra and Kayla Rosendale were comparing their shoes. October 13,2010

Marketing the Browns
Calvin Junior Sarah Orndorff spent the summer learning about "fan avidity" while working for the Cleveland Browns. October 8,2010

Composing for ArtPrize
When Fuentes, a Calvin professor of music, heard about the gold fingers that were coming to Grand Rapids for ArtPrize, he saw his second chance. September 23,2010

Go Green, Go Dutch, Go Bike
Henk Aay plans to see the moving elephants and the birds' nests while pedaling. September 21,2010

Jack Kent Cooke Scholar
First-year student Jennifer Lyu is a 2010 Jack Kent Cooke Scholar. September 21,2010

Q&A with Jamie Smith on Pentecostalism
Calvin professor of philosophy James K.A. Smith has recently written two books focused on the subject of Pentecostalism: Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Theology and Science and the Spirit: A Pentecostal Engagement with the Sciences. He recently discussed the tradition's contributions to theology and science. September 17,2010

Intern at the GRAM
Tatjcha Huberts, a Calvin senior art major, is picking through ArtPrize entries as part of her internship at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. September 17,2010

Recycling Pioneer
A professor's vision comes full circle September 10,2010

AIA funds virtual museum of Umm el-Jimal
You used to need a passport to visit the ancient site of Umm el-Jimal in Jordan. Now, thanks to a grant from the AIA, all you need is a modem. September 7,2010

Faculty Profile: James Skillen
In an ideal world, Calvin professor James Skillen says, his job description would be simple: backpacking. "Unfortunately, though, that’s not how it works," he joked. August 31,2010

Interning at Berlin Raceway
When Brent Schuster was a little kid, he dreamed of playing for the Denver Nuggets; he still dreams of being on the professional basketball team’s payroll—but in a slightly different capacity. August 30,2010

The Forgotten Woman's Bible
Around the turn of the century, Katherine Bushnell, an American doctor working as a medical missionary in China, noticed what she thought were mistranslated passages in the Chinese version of the Bible. August 24,2010

Felch honored for book
The Society for the Study of Early Modern Women has honored Calvin English professor Susan Felch with the 2010 Translation or Teaching Edition prize for her book Elizabeth I and Her Age (2009) August 19,2010

Calvin earns high marks from U.S. News & World Report
Calvin College ranks near the top of the list in a handful of categories in U.S. News & World Report's 2011 edition of Best Colleges. August 18,2010

Atop St. Adalbert's Basilica
On a recent Friday evening, Michael Rodriguez left his keys behind at work. His workplace was locked. It was also 150 feet in the air—at the top of the scaffolding that currently runs alongside the south bell tower of the Basilica of St. Adalbert. August 16,2010

Faculty Profile: Randall Bytwerk
Randall Bytwerk is a professor of communication arts and sciences. He is also the creator and maintainer of the German Propaganda Archive, the number one hit in a Google search for "Nazi propaganda”—a hit that even appears above Wikipedia’s entry on the subject and draws in over a million visitors every year. August 11,2010

Lew Klatt wins Iowa poetry prize
Lew Klatt thought that completing his latest poetry collection was the start of a long process... August 9,2010

Interning at Airbus
Traveling abroad was never something Steven Brink found particularly appealing. August 9,2010

Putting media with ministry
A passion for ministry and for communication have landed soon-to-be Calvin College senior Brian Speelman with summer internships with ReFrame Media—the English-language ministries of the Back to God Hour Ministries International, located in Palos Heights, Illinois. August 2,2010

Hampton honors CICW
In early June, John Witvliet and Charsie Sawyer stood onstage before a throng of African-American and white church leaders to accept an award for excellence in church music. July 28,2010

Faculty Profile: Douglas Vander Griend
Calvin inorganic chemistry professor Douglas Vander Griend makes shapes with molecules. July 26,2010