| Kat Vinson is grateful that she found Calvin
College. “It was definitely a ‘God-thing,’” she
said. “We had never heard of Calvin until some students from Calvin
came to our church during interim a few years ago. My mom talked to some
of them and thought Calvin sounded like a great place. She went right
home and looked it up on the internet, and we added it to the list of
schools to consider. In the meantime, God changed my heart and mind in
what I wanted in a school, and I found Calvin was the right place for
me.”
But Calvin is a long way from Kaneoho, Hawaii, Vinson’s home.
That’s why she is also thankful for cell phones.
“I talk to my mom a lot,” she said. “Being away has
been hard,” she said. “My mom and dad came to everything in
high school.”
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| Kat Vinson (Kaneoho, Hawaii) |
This year the Vinsons were not able to see their daughter’s success
on the swim team, though they did check swim meet results regularly on
the Web site.
“My mom feels like she knows the other swimmers, too, because I
talk about them so much,” she said.
It was her mom, Mary, who also suggested that Vinson participate on
the swim team.
“I have been swimming since I was eight years old,” said
Vinson, “but I mainly played water polo in high school. My mom encouraged
me to fill out the recruiting form for the Calvin swim team, and then
[coach] Dan [Gelderloos] called me. Now that I’m doing it, I know
this is exactly where God wants me to be in my life.”
That statement, made on a snowy February morning in Michigan, might
be hard for some to comprehend, Vinson admitted. “I’m not
bothered by the weather and the snow, though,” she said. “I
expected it to be colder.”
Vinson also was not expecting the kind of success she experienced on
the swim team this year.
As members of the women’s 400-meter freestyle relay squad, Vinson
and her teammates, Stephanie Duncan, Abby Johnson and Becky Weima, set
a school and MIAA record in the event at the MIAA championship meet. Their
time of 3:31.48 also qualified them for the NCAA Division III national
championship, held in Holland, Mich.
Vinson also qualified for the 50-meter freestyle event and swam the
200-medley and 200-freestyle relay.
At the national championship the team’s 400-meter freestyle relay
tied the best-ever finish by a Calvin women’s relay team (set the
night before by the 800-meter freestyle relay team) with a fourth-place
All-American finish.
“Kat’s biggest attribute is her competitive side,”
said Gelderloos. “She likes to race and beat people to the wall;
she proved that time and time again this year. Out of the water, Kat is
very strong in her faith, supportive of her teammates and always encouraging.
All in all, Kat has been a great addition to our swimming family.”
While the swim team proved to be a nice fit for Vinson, she is even
happier with the way swimming fits into her whole experience at Calvin.
“I am so happy to have the time to explore other things at Calvin,”
she said. “Swimming is taken seriously, but I don’t have to
eat, sleep and breathe swimming. I have had time to build relationships
with friends and to study and do many of the other things associated with
college life.”
In addition, Vinson is grateful for the opportunity to grow spiritually,
she said.
“In my group of friends in high school, I was the only Christian,”
she said. “It’s nice to be supported in my walk with Christ;
there are people here who keep me accountable. I like being with people
who believe in the same things I do.” |
