Q&A with Entrada grad Beau Holmes
Beau Holmes ’30 is from Cedar Springs, Michigan. A graduate of Northview High School, Holmes is undecided on his exact major but hoping to do something in the business field. He chose Calvin because he would have the opportunity to continue to pursue his passion for swimming alongside his studies.
While he didn’t know much about what to expect through the Entrada Scholars Program, he figured the $4,000 a year renewable scholarship was enough incentive for him to try it. “That’s more money that I can make working for two weeks,” said Holmes. What Holmes discovered during the two-week program paid far higher dividends than he anticipated.
Before coming to Entrada …
I was excited for the school year, and I was not prepared at all.
Because of Entrada …
I feel more prepared for academics by seeing what a college class is like, I’ve learned my way around campus, and I’ve gotten to know at least 60 other people here.
Something that surprised you about this Entrada experience?
I got to meet a lot of awesome new people who are all coming to Calvin next year. Our RA was awesome, all the people here were super cool, our professor was such a great man. And our class was Core 100. I had no idea what that class was going to be about at all, but it ended up being a super amazing experience overall. The academics were really fun and that was a huge part of it, but then also the community that Entrada built and now coming into Calvin this fall I’ll already know at least 60 other people.
Greatest takeaway from Entrada?
I think just community, making sure that coming to Calvin, I’m wrapping myself in a good community that’s going to push me to be the better person that I want to be every day. Because I know that the people you surround yourself with that’s who you are going to become, so it’s just super important to be around the people that you want to be more like.
Coming from a public high school, what did you think of Calvin’s integration of Christian faith within the learning environment?
Our professor started off every class with a devotional. And that was so cool that they could just do that, because it would never fly at a public high school. And we could wrap that into our essays, could wrap that into every conversation we had around class. And that was just a given, that that would come up in our discussions, that would come up in our papers, maybe that would even be one of the main points of our papers. So that was really cool.
How did your experience at Entrada confirm that Calvin is the right choice for you?
I’ve talked a lot about the community, but really that’s a huge part of it. Also, faith integrating into your learning wasn’t a huge decision factor for me, but now that I’ve had a taste of that, it’s really cool and I like that a lot.
