Larry Nyhoff, Calvin professor of computer science, is the 2002 winner of Calvin's Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching, Calvin's highest faculty honor. The award includes a one-of-a-kind medallion and provides the winner with a significant financial stipend, thanks to the George B. and Margaret K. Tinholt Endowment fund.

The following remarks are excerpted from Nyhoff's acceptance address at a recognition dinner held this spring at Calvin:

"It is indeed such an honor to be added to the list of names of people who have received this award: my good friend Ken Kuiper, the very first recipient, someone we all admired and miss very much; and my colleague in the math department, Paul Zwier, renowned for his antics in the classroom but even more so for his deep insights into the foundations and philosophy of mathematics.

"They and the other recipients have raised the bar very high and I certainly don't claim to have reached it. Because, basically, all I've tried to do is to teach and write in the same way that my parents taught me to do any task—work hard at it and do your best. I remember my mom saying, 'That's all the Lord expects of you.'

"And for whatever may be exemplary in what I've done, the credit goes to God. He's the one who called me to teach here and who dropped one surprise after another in my lap as he charted my course to Calvin.

"God takes people—even shy country kids without much promise—and charts a course through history that brings them exactly to where He wants them to be. I'm here tonight because of what He has done.

"But what is even more incredible is that He now rewards ME with this [teaching award]. . . for something HE has done. Talk about amazing grace!"

94% full-time
82% tenured or tenure track
83% Ph.D. or other terminal degree
51% full professors
32% female
  5% ethnic minority

• 14 Faculty Calvin Research Fellowships
  
  
• 32 External Grants awarded totaling $11,474,773
  
  
• Academically-Based Service Learning
       - 40 courses offered in fall, 28 offered in spring
  
  
• Cooperative Faculty-Student Research Projects
       - 28 projects in science
       - 10 in humanities and social sciences

• News re: Larry Nyhoff's award
• Past Exemplary Teaching Award Recipients
• Computer Science Department