Digging Deeper
A summer at Harvard can teach people lots of things. As a junior in high school, it taught Rob Zandstra that he needed to go to Calvin. “The culture there just didn’t feel right. The competitive focus shut out more of the world than it let in. At Calvin, my mind has been opened in a way that wouldn’t have been possible at an ivy-league school.”
Rob took full advantage of the opportunities at Calvin. He’s studied in China twice. He’s been the editor of Dialogue, Calvin’s literary journal, as well as the only person to graduate with a History of Religion degree. “It all comes together here: art, theology, literature and science, all swirling around in a friendly community of students.”
Politics and religion has been another compelling combination for Rob. As part of Calvin's Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics, he went to Washington, D.C. to lobby with an environmental group. “As students, we are challenged to look critically at the rhetoric and ask, 'Where is the spiritual in politics?' There is a social justice aspect that proceeds directly from religion.”
“I’ve learned so much about the faith I come from,” he says. “At Calvin, professors teach in the reformed tradition, but they also say, ‘There’s more than just this tradition.’ They challenge students to understand their faith in a global context. Everything at Calvin encouraged me to go deeper. And if you dig deep, that’s when you find true Christian meaning.”