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51�� Celebrates Homecoming & Family Weekend 2026

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:02:53 +0000

51�� Celebrates Homecoming & Family Weekend 2026 msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 09/16/2026 - 08:02

On Friday, September 25 and Saturday, September 26, 51�� welcomes alumni, family, and the broader community to campus for Homecoming & Family Weekend. The weekend festivities include a race around 51��’s beautiful campus, a fall music festival, an artisan and farmer’s market, and the inaugural football game in 51��’s new football and lacrosse stadium.

See full schedule

Opening a new stadium

Headlining Homecoming and Family Weekend is the first-ever football game in the university’s new football and lacrosse stadium.

A tailgate for students prior to the event will take place just outside the stadium and include free food and Knight Nation T-shirts, lawn games, and music.

“This is an exciting day for 51�� nation,” said Jim Timmer, director of athletics. “We are hoping to create a college gameday environment that matches the moment – the opening of a new beautiful stadium during our Homecoming & Family Weekend.”

An alumni tailgating tent is also offering free ice cream from Huddy’s Ice Cream, an ice cream shop in Hudsonville, Michigan owned by alumni Matt ’06 and Gina Van Woerkom ’08.

Saturday events

While football is quickly becoming a staple of Homecoming & Family Weekend, the 51�� Classic 5K & Youth Fun Run is one of the longest running traditions. The event allows runners, walkers, and hand cyclists of all ages and abilities to race for a medal or to simply enjoy a brisk stroll with family and friends around the beautiful campus. Registration is still open and includes a free T-shirt.

Other Saturday festivities include men’s soccer, women’s rugby, and men’s lacrosse games, a life and career studies alumni open house, an artisan and farmer’s market, improv show, and a free screening of Toy Story 5.

Friday events

The weekend of activities kicks off on Friday night with Grand Prix bed races, a celebration cookout on the Commons lawn (including lawn games and family Bingo), and the 51�� Music Festival – an annual collage concert showcasing the incredible talent of all eight of 51��’s concert ensembles.

“Homecoming & Family Weekend is a special time here at 51��—it's when we get to remember and celebrate a place that has shaped so many of us. It is a time to welcome alumni and their families back to a campus that is still cheering them on,” said Becky Bagnall, director of alumni, parent, and donor engagement. “Whether you're into the arts, athletics, food, or reconnecting with old friends, September 25 & 26 is the place to be here as a Knight.”

A weekend of fun

Throughout the weekend, guests will also have opportunities to climb the 40-foot-tall rock wall, swim in the Olympic-sized pool, and enjoy open gym time in the Hoogenboom Health & Recreation Center. There are also opportunities to view exhibits in the Center Art Gallery, examine hundreds of unique mineral specimens from around the world at the Dice Mineralogical Museum, and take in activities at the Ecosystem Preserve & Rock Garden.

For a full schedule of events and registration information, visit /homecoming

Wednesday, September 16, 2026 - 12:00

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New student art gallery space opens on campus

msk23@calvin.edu — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 18:29:01 +0000

New student art gallery space opens on campus msk23@calvin.edu Sat, 11/22/2025 - 13:29

As you walk through the 51�� campus, you’ll notice art everywhere—including outside. Drive from one side of campus to the other under the East Beltline and even on the underpass is a large piece of artwork that came to be thanks to a proposal submitted by then-student Christine Vermeer ’20. Now, seven years after painting that mural, Vermeer is on staff at 51��, where she is continuing to open up space for students to showcase their art.

We recently met Vermeer in the newest exhibition space for student art—the Spoelhof Student Art Gallery—formerly the home of Spoelhof Café. The space came to be after Vermeer put in a proposal for how to use the recently vacated space. With a little bit of reconstruction of the space, the gallery hosted its first official show in October.

What’s the goal for this space?

We see it as a co-curricular opportunity for our students. It’s really great for them to learn how to apply for shows, to put themselves on the line for their work to be juried. For this show specifically, we had all the staff and faculty jury the pieces and decide which pieces got to be in the show, so that’s a great learning opportunity for our students. When they graduate, we hope they are applying to shows and if we want them to do that, we have to show them how to do that first. So, it’s just a good professional development opportunity for our students.

We also wanted a place for them to showcase their work. There’s Dialogue, of course, and they have their senior show (in the Center Art Gallery) their final year, but what if they don’t get into Dialogue or they want to practice showing their work before their senior show, we wanted another opportunity for them. So that made us think a student gallery would be ideal. So, it really supports the curricular work that we do in our department.

What vision do you have for this space throughout the year?

We have three other shows that will go up this year. After Thanksgiving we’re going to put ceramics work up, so that will be kind of curated by our ceramics professor and I think I’ll help with that. Early spring semester we’ll have another juried show for our art and design students to submit to and then near the second half of the semester we’ll put up work from an off-campus program that our graphic design students are doing. So, they’ll go to London in January and then the second half of that course will be on campus where they’ll make work responding to what they did and learned about in London. That show will go up starting in April and will be up for the rest of the semester. It coincides with the Spring Arts Festival, which is on April 16.

What do you love about the space?

I personally love how iconic 51�� architecture it is, with the pink brick, the kind of warm wood accents with the doors. People might not know this, but this used to be an outdoor walkway and then in the 1970s or 80s, I think they enclosed it to make the Spoelhof Café. That’s why there’s brick on the entire wall because there was an outdoor element. So, I kind of like that it feels a bit like an alley.

My favorite thing about it is the windows. Art and design are housed in the basement of the Spoelhof University Center, which is nice because we have really big spaces and we can do with them what we want and make as big a mess as we need to, but the bad thing about that is there aren’t any windows. So, having a little space to come above ground, show off what we’ve been doing … it’s really my favorite thing about the space.

What was your greatest takeaway from your experience as an art student at 51��?

Working on the outdoor mural I think was the biggest learning experience for me. I put that proposal together and worked with staff members on campus to kind of make that work. That was a project about learning who to ask for help. I also learned that I could do big projects. I think that being able to do that equipped me to know and understand that I could put together a proposal for something like this and I can support the next generation of 51�� art students coming through. Maybe somebody has a really huge installation idea that they can’t conceive of until they know that we have a student art gallery, and they can say, ‘oh, I can put together a proposal for a specific installation in that space.’ It really excites me to know that I could foster that. And I learned a lot of that through my experience as a student.

What is it like to stand in this space seeing something you drew up come to fruition?

It feels incredible. It’s really exciting. During the reception, it was just so fun to have the students who have their work on display come and be so excited to show their work. That just feels like, first of all, a really professional thing for them to experience and learn, but also a really exciting thing. As artists, we want to show our work; we make it for a reason and that’s to show it to people and hopefully to have our audience experience something. So, it was really exciting that I got to share that with them. And some of the students even invited their parents and grandparents and they invited their friends. It felt like a real community event. I’m just excited for more of that.

Saturday, November 22, 2025 - 12:00

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Student takes art to new depths

msk23@calvin.edu — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 20:14:29 +0000

Student takes art to new depths msk23@calvin.edu Mon, 11/17/2025 - 15:14

When Elizabeth Ayers ’27 was finishing up high school, she couldn’t figure out where to go to college. So, she turned to the internet for help.

“I searched for colleges with good art programs and colleges with good business programs,” said Ayers. That’s when a school popped up 2,200 miles west of her hometown of Reedley, California. “I had never heard of 51��. I was like, ‘wow, this is small, how did I find this?’”

She may never figure out “how” she found it, but it wouldn’t take her long to discover “why.”

Ayers began 51�� as a double major in art and business, but soon decided to focus in on art. “I didn’t come with a clear plan of what I wanted to do after college, but I came in knowing I loved to paint,” said Ayers.

Starting small

It's a love that started eight years ago when she decided to try her hand at painting a tiny 3”x3” canvas. “I ended up falling in love with painting. The more I do it, the more I love it.”

That love would grow and expand greatly at 51��.

“I do still love to paint, but 51�� has given me more mediums to work on from ceramics to drawing to sewing,” said Ayers. “51��’s opened a lot more doors to try a lot of different things rather than what I am comfortable in.”

A year ago, an email from the head of the art department allowed her to take her artistic ability to even greater depths.

Accepting a challenge

“The assignment was to paint a landscape for something for Kent Ratajeski, the director of the Dice Mineralogical Museum,” recalls Ayers.

When she started to understand the scope of the project it was both exciting and intimidating.

“It was much larger than anything I had done before,” said Ayers.

The assignment was to create a backdrop for a display of a fossil octopus that depicts the oceanscape in the Lebanese Sea where it would have lived so that someone coming to see it could immerse themselves in an environment way before their time.

“When this project was presented to me, I knew it would be an oceanscape, so I know how to do that,” said Ayers. “But they wanted prehistoric fish swimming around which presents a challenge of ‘how do I paint something that doesn’t exist anymore?’ and so that led me to go back and forth with Kent and with the Dice Museum resident archaeologist.”

Showing off her work

Now, almost a year after the project was first assigned and with well over one hundred hours committed to it, Ayers is bringing a fossil octopus to life in the Dice Museum.

“It is so cool,” said Ayers of now seeing the approximately 3' x 4' landscape she painted affixed to the back of the fossil display. “Kent seemed really excited and I’m excited for everyone else to see it too. To have a hand painted landscape be part of the display allows you to connect more with the piece, it helps the fossils come alive a little bit more.”

The exhibit is now on display in the Dice Mineralogical Museum on the 51�� campus.

Monday, November 17, 2025 - 12:00

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Elizabeth Ayers '27 created an approxmiately 3' x 4' backdrop for a display of a fossil octopus that depicts the oceanscape in the Lebanese Sea where it would have lived so that someone coming to see it could immerse themselves in an environment way before their time.

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Beyond the Classroom: Picture-Perfect Summer

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:52:48 +0000

Beyond the Classroom: Picture-Perfect Summer msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 08/27/2025 - 08:52

When summer hits, professors practice what they preach—leaning into areas of interest that oftentimes go beyond their immediate field of study.

This summer, Otto Selles, professor of French, featured his best black and white photography prints at Lowell Arts. They are still on display through October 4. He is also hosting solo exhibitions at Monroe Community Church (October – December 2025) and Church of the Servant (January – February 2026).

“I decided to feature my best black and white prints at Lowell Arts (13 pieces) and color prints at Art Prize (7 pieces), with everything coming together at the solo exhibitions (25-40 pieces total). Over the summer, I did as much portrait and event photography as I could to help cover printing and framing costs,” said Selles.

How did this opportunity come about?

While the Center Art Gallery exhibition was running, I looked for other opportunities to show my work. I learned that Lowell Arts has regular juried exhibition calls. I applied last March to its “Solo Seven” show and heard in April that my proposal had been accepted. For ArtPrize, I signed on through its somewhat complicated online system and made connections with Monroe’s CC, which agreed to host my work for ArtPrize and afterwards. During ArtPrize I will be one of many contributors at Monroe CC: my co-worker Christine Vermeer (Art and Design/ Arts Collective) will also have a piece there.

What was your favorite aspect of the experience?

The opening reception for the Solo Seven exhibition at Lowell Arts (August 3, 2025) was a great event. I am grateful to family and friends who came to show their support. I enjoyed talking with visitors from the Lowell community, the staff at Lowell Arts, and the other artists. I got to answer questions about my work and learned what visitors found most interesting.

How did you develop this interest outside of 51��?

In high school, I became interested in photography, taking pictures for the yearbook and learning how to use a darkroom. Over the years, I always took pictures of family and while traveling. My skills only really developed, however, by taking many, many pictures to promote our semester in France program. The real push to become a better photographer came in 2018 when a friend asked me to take senior portraits of her daughter. I took the plunge and bought my first professional-level camera and lens. Finally, at the start of the pandemic, I decided to use the confinement to see how far I could take my photography. I continued to upgrade my equipment, set up a website, and offered portrait sessions. I bought manuals and watched countless YouTube videos by favorite photographers. At the same time, I took my camera along during family walks in Kent County’s parks, which gave me the idea of developing a landscape project. I chose to focus on Roselle Park (Ada, MI) as it is only a dozen minutes form my home.

Any way to apply what you are learning through engaging in photography outside of 51�� to your role as a professor?

As I am self-taught as a photographer, I see more clearly how I need to promote as a professor the importance of curiosity and independent learning. That may seem ironic as I am paid to teach in the classroom. However, given the constant change in today’s workplace, students need to be able adapt to new situations. As independent learners, they will be able to build on their 51�� education and pivot to new opportunities. In that context, I always recommend that students have a side interest that gives them a break from their studies and may lead to new opportunities, as I am discovering late in my own career.

Wednesday, August 27, 2025 - 12:00

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Summer Faculty Adventures: Exploring Passions Beyond the Classroom

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:42:08 +0000

Summer Faculty Adventures: Exploring Passions Beyond the Classroom msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 08/27/2025 - 08:42

When summer hits, professors practice what they preach—leaning into areas of interest that oftentimes go beyond their immediate field of study.

This summer, a French professor put his photography on wide display, the director of student success traversed El Cap in Yosemite in one day, and a nursing lecturer was on set of a groundbreaking TV series. As they head back to campus and the classroom for the fall semester, we asked them to recap their summer adventures.

Kyle Heys – Epic Climb on El Capitan

Ashley Woldman – On Set of The Chosen

Otto Selles – Picture-Perfect Summer

Wednesday, August 27, 2025 - 12:00

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A Path to Speech Therapy

lbl3@calvin.edu — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:17:09 +0000

A Path to Speech Therapy lbl3@calvin.edu Wed, 04/30/2025 - 12:17

When Samantha Vasquez graduated from college, she had a degree in Philosophy and was planning on law school. However, serendipity landed her in the field of remedial literacy intervention, where she worked for five years, developing a passion for the language aspects of literacy. Working collaboratively with speech pathologists and observing their interdisciplinary practice helped her decide that speech pathology was the right career for her.

When COVID-19 hit, her path shifted. With a child in kindergarten, Samantha opted to stay home to facilitate her daughter's schooling. And soon after, she gave birth to a son, adding to her family.

Returning to School

As life got back to normal, Vasquez decided to return to school to pursue speech pathology, where she could grow her skills and increase her scope of practice. Samantha discovered 51��'s Certificate in Speech and Hearing Foundations (CSHF) program, which provided the six undergraduate courses she needed to apply for a master's degree in speech pathology. With coursework online, the program fit into her busy life.

Transitioning to the Master's Program

After completing the CSHF, Samantha was accepted into 51��'s Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology.

As for the transition into the master's program, Samantha shared, "It has been seamless. The familiarity with the professors, knowing the rigor of the programs, and how well I was prepared for graduate coursework all contributed."

Samantha is thriving in master's program. "My experience has been amazing! The care and consideration poured into the courses to include up-to-date evidence-based practice, neurodiversity affirming and whole-person care, and the overall rigor of the programs has thoroughly prepared me to begin my externships. I feel confident in my clinical skills and have felt well-supported throughout the entire program. Every instructor truly wants us to succeed."

She is also benefiting from close mentorship through an assistantship with Dr. Brian Kreisman. "I have been working with Dr. Brian since I was in the certificate program when I was taking his courses in audiology and aural rehabilitation. I did a project for aural rehabilitation that we took to MSHA in 2024 as a poster presentation. After, I applied to be his graduate assistant when I was admitted to the master’s program. Now we are working together on a couple of research projects, he is my advisor for my master’s thesis, and I assist with grading and providing feedback to his students in the certificate courses."

Balancing School with Life Commitments

With a husband and two young children, Samantha has a lot to balance. How does she do it? "I treat school as my full-time job; I have set hours that I view myself as on the clock and off the clock. Working from home forces me to separate the two intentionally. My children are my number one priority, so I appreciate the flexibility that being a distance education student allows."

Inspiring the Next Generation

While it's not easy to manage school and family life, Samantha knows that her kids will benefit from watching her work. "I aim to set a good example as a role model for my children to balance work and life, but I also really enjoy the work I am doing. They see that I am passionate about learning and achieving my goals, and that I am in school to help people."

Study Speech Pathology at 51��

While many undergraduate students start in a speech pathology program as freshmen, other adults come to the career later in life. 51��'s online Certificate in Speech and Hearing Foundations is designed to prepare those with a bachelor's degree in another field to be ready to apply for graduate programs in speech-language pathology.

51�� offers our own Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology with two modes - on-campus and online. Students who successfully complete the CSHF program are guaranteed admittance to 51��'s distance education master's program.

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 - 12:00

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