Sociology & Social Work Students
Participate in Faith in Action Conference

Brittney Stelpstra, Janelle Vandergrift, and Paul Vliem give presentations on Social Welfare, Project Neighborhood, and Service-Learning Activities at the Faith in Action Conference, held at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, in January 2006.

Calvin Student Holly Padding Receives Award

Andre Daley and Holly PaddingThe award is in recognition of the three way partnership between Mosaic Life, South East Academic Center and Calvin College Service Learning Center.

Social Work Program Reaccredited for Eight Years

On July 10, 2005, the social work program received official notice that the program has been reaccredited for the full 8 years, with no contingencies, and no interim reports required. The social work faculty offers a hearty thanks to our students, our practicum instructors, our adjunct professors, our advisory committee, and the college for meeting the accreditation challenge so ably and for generously supporting the program throughout the process. [More...]

Lessons from the Schiavo Case

Calvin Social Work and Sociology professors Cheryl Brandsen and Jeffery Tatum participate in a panel discussion on issues surrounding Terry Schiavo featured in the Calvin Spark magazine.
"American Health Care System" by C. Brandsen
"Law at the End of Life" by J.Tatum

Jim Wallis Speaks at Calvin

"God's Politics: How the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It"

Jim Wallis is the editor of Sojourners Magazine and the President of Call to Renewal . Co-sponsored by the Student Activities Office and the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics.

Peter DeJong Receives Calvin's Highest Faculty Honor

Congratulations go out to Dr. Peter DeJong, the 2003 recipient of Calvin's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching. Along with stellar current and former student recommendations and a rich research and scholarly record, DeJong was selected because of his authorship of "Interviewing for Solutions," a book that has had a world-wide impact on the social work profession. In this text, DeJong and co-author Insoo Kim Berg revisited the relationships between a social worker and the client. He turned the old social work model, in which the social worker tells the clients what they should do, upside down. He advocates a solution-focused approach that views clients as competent, helps them to visualize the changes they want, and builds on what they are already doing that works.