Collegiate Scholars are motivated to excel academically and serve and lead in the larger community.

Are you a motivated student that is looking for opportunities to grow as a scholar and engaged citizen? Does the thought of learning off-campus, conducting research with a faculty-mentor in your discipline, developing your capacity as a leader and engaged community member, and examining challenging topics with students from other disciplines excite you? Welcome to Collegiate Scholars.

As a Collegiate Scholar you will complete four advanced academic or co-curricular activities. These activities could include participation in a musical ensemble or the Calvin Theatre Company, earning a second major, or studying abroad for a semester. Collegiate Scholars take upper-level Honors colloquia courses, designed to offer interdisciplinary engagement with big questions. The Collegiate Scholars track aims to inspire academic excellence while anchoring those achievements within the larger collegiate community.

If you’re going to shape the world with your art, you need a university where you'll hone your creative voice and master your craft.

That university is Calvin.

Calvin's BFA program will stretch you in ways you never expected, and prepare you for careers you never imagined. In a supportive, tight-knit community, you'll build a portfolio that highlights your work. You'll forge relationships with experienced Christian faculty who want you to succeed. You'll take advanced art courses and get personal guidance from your professors.

You'll cap all this with an exhibition that showcases your best work. You'll step into the world with a career-making portfolio and confidence in your creative skills.

Connect. Collaborate. Create.

Step into a community where art becomes a way of seeing, shaping, and serving the world.

The Arts Collective is a cohort for you to explore your creative calling—whether through visual art, music, writing, theater, or other forms of expression. You don’t need to major in the arts to join. You just need a desire to listen, create, and problem solve within Calvin's arts-invested community. You’ll take courses together, travel to places rich in the arts, and participate in events that stretch your imagination and deepen your understanding of the arts as a force for renewal.

Who Can Apply?

• Those entering Calvin as a first-year student in Fall 2026
• Students from any major who are eager to engage who want to engage in arts-based learning and community
• Creatives who are curious, collaborative, and eager to grow

If you are starting Calvin after 2026, please send us your information (see form below) and we'll invite you to apply when the application is open to you. Email cohorts@calvin.edu with questions.

Important Dates

Application opens on August 1. The deadline to apply is January 15. Find all dates and deadlines below!

Apply to the Arts Collective

Learn more about Cohorts at Calvin

Ask big questions with humility, explore with wonder, and pursue advanced academic opportunities in community.

Do you get excited about connecting ideas across science, society, and the arts? Want to use your city as your classroom or conduct impactful research and projects alongside a faculty mentor? That’s what Honors Scholars is all about.

Who Can Apply?

• Students from any major and background, with a wide range of academic interests and passions

• You can also double major, play varsity sports, or study abroad as an Honors Scholar—it just takes some extra planning

   

Apply to Honors Scholars

Learn more about Cohorts at Calvin

The end. As the credits roll, you blink back into reality and stretch out of your seat. For two hours, you’ve walked in someone else’s shoes.

To create that immersive experience requires visionaries whose technical skill matches their storytelling drive. It requires you.

At Calvin, you’ll have the opportunity to do real filmmaking, gaining practical experience in directing, acting, editing, and more. In media production classes, you'll learn how to guide an idea to its full expression. You'll learn what separates a merely good screenplay from a world-changing one and how to manage cameras and audio tools to best tell a story. When you graduate, you’ll have all the skills and experience you need to make your mark.

Take a look at this webpage. Or find a t-shirt, book jacket, poster, or logo. Are your eyes drawn to it? Do the images, colors, and typography work together effectively? How can a simple font choice reinforce—or undermine—a message?

At Calvin, you’ll ask these kinds of questions in a small classroom setting, where your professors know you personally and give you individualized attention. You’ll work alongside classmates where you'll collaborate and learn from each other. You’ll learn why centuries-old typefaces are still relevant. You’ll draw connections between traditional letterpress materials and pixels on a screen.

You’ll do more than just make something look good. You’ll learn to solve design problems in the world, and that will open up a wide range of possibilities.

In this program, you'll understand great art by making it. You'll feel the heat of the kiln in a state-of-the-art ceramics studio. Watch people moved by a photograph you developed in the darkroom. Help organize an annual arts festival (with your own paintings on view).

Those experiences add up to much more than artistic skill. Yes, you’ll master painting, drawing, photography, or ceramics. You’ll get guidance from expert Christian faculty and encouragement from peers. But you'll also learn to think creatively, critique effectively, and communicate thoughtfully to any audience.

When you graduate, you'll have what you need to thrive in a wide range of careers: a wealth of experience, a rigorous education, and a supportive network of friends and fellow artists.

Calvin graduates solve problems in the real world. And in an energy-hungry society, one of the ways you’ll make a significant difference is by solving those problems sustainably.

Adding a sustainability designation to your degree means you’re committed to a bigger vision of what you can do as a student at Calvin. It means everything you do takes into account the impact it will have on the people and places around you. It means you’ve immersed yourself in courses that analyze the most pressing environmental challenges and opportunities. And it means you embrace Calvin’s unique understanding of renewal as a way to serve, heal, and restore God’s creation.

It also means you’ll be well-suited for the job market. As more and more companies understand the importance of efficiency and sustainability, you are sure to stand out from the crowd.

Ready to turn your passion for music into a powerful teaching career? Calvin’s music education BME program equips you to lead and inspire in PK–12 classrooms. You’ll dive deep into music theory, technology, history, and education—while sharpening your performance skills through private lessons, ensemble experiences, and a recital. Whether you’re into strings, brass, percussion, voice, or piano, you’ll find your place and grow as both a musician and educator.

This isn’t just about mastering music—it’s about learning how to teach it with purpose. You’ll gain hands-on experience through guided teaching and a full semester of student teaching. Along the way, you’ll explore how Christian faith shapes your approach to education and leadership. From conducting and curriculum design to inclusive teaching and classroom management, you’ll graduate ready to build and lead vibrant music programs that make a lasting impact.

This program is part of the School of Education's Pre-K to 12th grade major program. For full details on this program, including a course list and other information, visit the Education program page.

Education (Pre-K to 12th Grade) Major