Caring for God’s Creation
A semester spent in Belize put Jordan on a course to discovering God’s world and the role he can play in sustaining it.
Jordan discovered his passion for the environment when he spent a semester in Belize as a Calvin sophomore. He and his classmates lived near an ancient Mayan temple that towered over a rainforest and filled him with awe. During the semester, they explored issues related to God and nature, tropical ecosystems, and sustainable development.
Jordan is an engineering major at Calvin and plans to use his degree to improve the environment. He helped start the Renewable Energy Organization at Calvin, whose faculty mentors are all electrical engineers. The group recently received a $6,000 grant from the state of Michigan to install a wind turbine that will generate clean electricity on campus.
Summers and breaks are spent working for a hydroturbine company in Canada, Jordan's home country. He loves his work and says his Calvin classes have helped him do it well. “They make me feel like I’m a genius. It always amazes me that I’ve learned so much at Calvin.” Jordan also is an e-mail moderator for the Common Place EcoVillage, a Canadian pilot project to build inexpensive and environmentally sensitive houses as alternatives to unsustainable suburban developments.
His summer job gave him an appreciation for Calvin’s emphasis on liberal arts, too. “A job like engineering involves talking with people, writing well, thinking clearly. The liberal arts teach you how to think and write. And you also learn ethical principals, like how to treat your clients and what your responsibility is to the community and the world.”
“We are called to care for and tend to creation. I really believe Christians should be at the forefront of conversations about sustainable systems and use of power. Engineers can play a strong role in that movement.”