Career Exploration: It’s not just for college seniors

Thursday, March 15, 2007

By Jim Van Wingerden

I had a conversation with a parent this week who was concerned that her first-year student, though doing well in his studies, seemed to be “drifting” through the first year without a definite career path in sight.  As best she knew he had not yet selected a major or a program at Calvin.  “Should we be concerned?” Several times she had suggested that he visit the Career Development Office and talk with a career counselor, but fears that her nagging has had a reverse effect.

I assured this parent that many first-year (and 2nd and 3rd year) students and parents are having similar conversations, and she need not be overly concerned.  The Calvin curriculum, with its’ many core requirements, allows students to sample and browse many choices of majors and programs during the first couple of years at Calvin. In fact most first-year students arrive on campus undecided, and many of them who have a specific direction in mind end up choosing a different path. 

I like to think of these students more as “explorers” than “undecided.” Explorers are embraced at Calvin.  A liberal arts education is ideally suited for just such a student, providing a bountiful smorgasbord of choices and possibilities. 

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(0) Comments • Academic • Career Development • Parenting • The First-Year Experience • Permalink

5.6 percent

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

By Jim Van Wingerden

In 1985 Calvin College adopted a governing document which was quite unique amongst its peers in higher education: The Comprehensive Plan for Integrating North American Ethnic Minority Persons and Their Interests in Every Facet of Calvin’s Institutional Life.  The Comprehensive Plan, re-written and re-embraced in 2004 as a new document entitled From Every Nation (FEN), continues to provide guidance as Calvin’s principal road map towards becoming a genuinely multicultural Christian academic community.

The original Comprehensive Plan set an aggressive goal: that by 2003-2004, 15 percent of the student body, roughly 600 students, would constitute North American minority, or AHANA students. AHANA is Calvin’s designation for students of African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, and Native American descent.

Today, AHANA students comprise 5.6 percent of Calvin’s student body--235 students to be precise. (This percentage does not include any of Calvin’s 315 international students). The AHANA percentage is slightly higher for faculty and staff at 6.5 percent, equaling 56 faculty/staff members.

Why has Calvin fallen short of the goal of 15 percent?  To be sure, the reasons are numerous and complex. 

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(0) Comments • Academic • Student Life • Permalink
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