Calvin-Parents E-Newsletter: March 16, 2010

Spring break trips

Many students are preparing for their spring break trips for and with the college.  Join us in praying for safe travels and please welcome them if you see them in your town! 

Campus ministries is joining in a college-wide initiative to share the message of faith and learning at Calvin. The Worship Apprentices will be on tour that takes a group to each coast (British Columbia/Washington, New Jersey/Washington DC area) to lead worship and teach workshops in schools and churches, and another group will be in Ann Arbor, Mich., to lead worship at the University of Michigan Chapel as part of preparation for Holy Week.  See the alumni calendar for the listing of these events taking place from March 21 through March 26.

The students that signed up to go on service-learning trips will be working on a variety of jobs around the country (in Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia) as part of a long tradition of service-learning trips sponsored by the Service-Learning Center.

Three music ensembles will be on tour.  The Wind Ensemble will be touring Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin from March 20-28, 2010. Capella will be touring Florida, Georgia and Indiana from March 20-28, 2010. And the Women's Chorale will be in Troy, Michigan on April 24 and 25, 2010.

Many sports teams will be traveling south to train and compete during break.  The women's track and field team and the men's track and field team will be going to Gulf Shores, Alabama, competing in Tennessee on the way down. The softball team will be in Tucson, Arizona, and the baseball team will be in Vero Beach, Florida. The men's tennis team and women's tennis team will be in Orlando, Florida, and men's golf is going to Hilton Head, South Carolina. The schedules of each sport are found on the respective team pages (as linked above).  However, bookmark the sports site which is always the best source of information about all these teams and the latest news from competition.

2010 census information

The 2010 United States census will be conducted during April, and all students currently studying and living here in Michigan will be counted.  The residence life department (housing@calvin.edu, 616-526-6120) will be partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau to distribute and collect the forms for all current on-campus students.  Off-campus students will receive their census forms via mail.

Calvin students should fill out the form for Grand Rapids, Michigan, as it is the place they live and sleep "most of the year."  Out-of-state parents should NOT count students on their forms as the students will be counted individually in the city and state in which they are studying.  International students studying in the United States will be counted as the census is a snapshot of who resides, and where they reside, in the United States on April 1, 2010.  Students who are studying abroad this semester will NOT be counted in this census.  For more information, visit http://2010.census.gov/campus/.

Community Service Honor Roll

Calvin has been named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees are chosen based on the scope and innovation of service projects, the percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers academically based service-learning courses. Calvin students logged more than 40,000 service-learning hours this past school year, an increase of nearly 14 percent from the year prior

Festival of Faith & Writing 2010

The Festival of Faith & Writing (FFW) will take place at Calvin from April 15 to 17, 2010. Presenters will include Eugene Peterson, Mary Karr, Wally Lamb, Kate DiCamillo, Richard Rodriguez, Stephanie Kallos, Parker Palmer, Luci Shaw, and Stephen Carter, among many others. For a complete list of presenter and the schedule of events, visit the FFW site. Online registration is available at http://ffwreg.calvin.edu/ but registration will close on March 31. Please feel free to contact us at ffw@calvin.edu if we can assist you with your registration in any way. Please note that there are scholarships offered by the Calvin Alumni Associaton for recent alumni.

If you want to prepare for the FFW by reading some of the books from presenters who will be at FFW, visit the Festival Favorites page.  There is also a Recommended Reading page with a list of recommended books from all the presenters.

Student health insurance

Nursing pin

Our senior year is well under way, and as many of you may have heard, we are keeping very busy!  While we still have much work ahead of us, it is exciting to think that, come May 20, we will be celebrating all of our efforts and our journey toward receiving a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) at the Pinning Ceremony.  The Pinning Ceremony is a longstanding tradition in which all of the graduating nursing students, along with their family and friends, join together to celebrate their success in nursing school.  In this ceremony, each student is traditionally and proudly “pinned” with Calvin’s own nursing pin, as a special signature of completing a baccalaureate degree in nursing and being eligible to take the state RN licensure examination.  

Thinking ahead to graduation, perhaps you would like to consider purchasing a nursing pin for your son, daughter or grandchild.  Information about cost and ordering this pin can be found at www.terryberry.net  (use security ID: 36095; password: Nurse).  While your child would not receive the pin until the Pinning Ceremony, this could be a special gift and keepsake for them, as many nurses continue to wear this pin throughout their career.

Again, receiving a nursing pin is not required, yet it is a special and proud moment for the nursing student at the Pinning Ceremony.  Although your presence and support is the most important, please consider sharing in this special day with the gift of a Calvin nursing pin.  You can find out additional information about the Pinning Ceremony on the nursing department site.

We are looking forward to seeing you and celebrating with you in May!

Sincerely, 
Nursing Pinning Committee, Nursing Class of 2010

Wire tuition payments to Calvin

For those families sending payments to Calvin via wire transfer please take note that Calvin is now banking with Chase Manhattan.  Calvin will continue to keep its account open with Huntington through the spring semester but by next fall all payments should be directed to Calvin's account at Chase Manhattan. To get the current information for wiring payments to Calvin please contact the financial services office at finserv@calvin.edu or 616-526-6127.

The Summer Academy

The Summer Academy is a real life "Calvin try-on" for ninth through 12th graders looking for an early or pre-college experience that will test and improve their academic readiness for post-high school studies.  Real college credit, real campus life---all in Calvin's distinctively Christian learning and living environment.  See all the pre-college programs that are offered, such as ACE International, Entrada Scholars Program, and Pathways to Possibilities to name a few. To apply, complete the application, for which there is no fee, available online and return it with the required documentation by April 30, 2010.

-Julie Veeneman, program manager

Exciting indoor track and field results

The Calvin women’s track and field team placed 11th at the NCAA III Indoor Track and Field Championships with 18 points. The Knights accomplished the 11th place berth behind two individuals as junior Rachel Boerner captured the national title in the 400 meters with a time of 55.95 while junior Sarah Reasoner was second in the shot put with a throw of 46-4. Senior Jed Christiansen also competed in the men’s 5,000 meters, placing 10th with a time.

The Calvin men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will send a combined total of nine individuals to the NCAA III Swimming and Diving Championships March 17-20 in Minnesota. The Calvin Sports Information office caught up with head coach Dan Gelderloos to preview Calvin’s chances at the national meet in the following audio interview.

ReCommend Calvin!

Check the Parent Calendar for important dates

Bookmark the Parent Calendar page to keep track of important dates throughout the year, including:

Mar. 16:  Tuition, room & board payment due
Mar. 19:  Spring break begins 5 p.m.; residence halls close at 10 a.m. on March 20; First half semester courses end
Mar. 29:  Spring break ends 8 a.m.; residence halls open at 12 noon on March 28; Second-half semester courses begin
Apr. 1: Miscellaneous charges payment due (1st of each month)
Apr. 2: Good Friday; no classes
Apr. 5: Last day to add second-half semester courses
Apr. 9: Last day to drop full semester courses; last day to change full semster courses from credit to audit
Apr. 20: Tuition, room & board payment due
Apr. 21: Honors Convocation 7:30 p.m.
Apr. 27-28: Academic Advising (no classes scheduled)
Apr. 29: Registration for Fall 2010 begins
Apr. 30: Last day to drop second-half semester courses; last day to change second-half semester courses from credit to audit