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The College celebrated the 10th anniversary of President Steven Timmermans, Ph.D. on Saturday, September 7, with an open house. Faculty, staff, and friends of the College enjoyed a time to personally thank the president and fellowship with each other.
During a brief ceremony in the afternoon, the College presented Timmermans with a beautiful photograph of his family and the news that the Trinity Board of Trustees has established, and funded via personal gifts, an endowed scholarship in honor of the president’s anniversary.
10 Years of Expanding and Extending
Timmermans began his presidency in 2003 with an idea, a vision to expand Trinity’s influence and extend its reach. Today he sees not only how that vision has been realized but also how it still applies to the future of the College.
A psychologist and educator, Timmermans came to Trinity with a deep commitment to Christ; an unwavering embrace of Reformed perspectives on faith, learning, and living; and extensive experience in rehabilitation, teaching, and administration.
Over the past 10 years, those qualities have helped Timmermans lead the College through times of abundance and times of economic downturn while his vision to expand and extend has come to fruition in several ways:
- Traditional enrollment has increased significantly, as has the percentage of diverse students
- The addition of master’s degree programs
- The addition of semesters in Ecuador and Kenya
- The number of endowed and outside-funded scholarships has nearly doubled
- Adult Studies enrollment has nearly doubled
- The expansion of the Adult Studies program into Chicago and Addison
- New facilities have been started or completed, including:
- Alumni Hall
- Bootsma Bookstore Café
- Art and Communication Center
- Elizabeth Meyer Memorial Student Health Center
- DeVos Athletics and Recreation Center
- George and June Schaaf Athletics Complex (Rt. 83 fields), which brings the total campus acreage to 130 acres
Of his service as the president, Timmermans said in a recent interview: “I am grateful that I have been able to help lead Trinity these past 10 years, and I trust God’s continued blessing on us—Trinity students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.”
Amidst volunteers giving out free popcorn, snow cones, and treats, students wandered through rows of tables covered in posters, fliers, and candy at the Involvement Fair on August 30. The annual event helps new and returning students relax after the first few days of classes and find like-minded people at Trinity.
Each fall student-led groups set up tables to spread the word about the work they do and the fun they have throughout the year, answer questions, and invite sign-ups of new members. Local businesses joined the Fair offering coupons and discounts for students. Over 40 groups were represented this year, over half of those being student clubs and organizations.
Our goal is to have somewhere for each student to feel welcome.
Andy Reidsma ’14
The Student Association hosts the Involvement Fair with the hope of giving students the opportunity to interact with campus groups and the City of Palos Heights.
Student Association Vice President Andy Reidsma ’14 of Wyoming, Michigan, said, “We want to show students what aspects of the community are available to them. There are so many different options and groups. Our goal is to have somewhere for each student to feel welcome.”
Convocation is a special time of fellowship and worship as the campus community gathers to celebrate the beginning of the academic year.
Wednesday, August 28, marked not only the start of the fall semester, but also the 50th anniversary of one of the nation’s most significant events: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Provost Liz Rudenga, Ph.D. welcomed the Trinity community back to campus.
Student Worship Scholar Loretta Findysz ’16 of Worth, Illinois, gave the invocation.
Professor of the Year Dr. Brad Breems, professor of sociology, noted the coinciding events of Convocation and the special anniversary of the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.
In his address, “Foundation, Vision, and Preparation: the Liberality of a Trinity Education in the Real World”, Breems chose three features of a Christian liberal arts education to discuss, including solid foundation: God as God and God revealed; vision based on a long tradition yet always re-forming; and preparation: gaining knowledge and wisdom; contextualizing; critiquing.
Dr. Craig Mattson, professor of communication arts, and Javairia Taylor ’14 of Bolingbrook, Illinois, led the audience through the litany reading based on Psalm 50.
Prior to the benediction by Chaplain Willis Van Groningen, Ph.D., Provost Rudenga, Dean of Students Mark Hanna, and Student Association President Nate Tameling ’14 of Burr Ridge, Illinois, offered prayers of thanksgiving for faculty, staff, and students.
Foundation, Vision, and Preparation: the Liberality of a Trinity Education in the Real World
Convocation Address by Brad Breems
Sociology Department, Trinity Christian College
August 28 2013
President Timmermans, Provost Rudenga. Students, former and new. Colleagues fresh and ready. Today we convoke –called together to begin our renewed work together. Though dressed differently, faculty, students, and staff have a common vocation to begin this year before God and with our collegiate purpose defined. In this title, I chose three features of a Christian liberal arts education” Solid foundation: God as God and God revealed. Vision based on a long tradition yet always re-forming. Preparation: gaining knowledge and wisdom; contextualizing; critiquing. Preparation, not regimentation. Done well; not forever. Some think preparation is wasteful, even harmful. Late 19th-Early 20th Century social reformer Jane Addams called preparation a snare. Can we sit and prepare when, in spite of dreams, inequality still flourishes in the United States and certainly in the world? 5,000 shooting deaths in Chicago since 2001; Syria and Egypt in turmoil, with deliberation about U.S. and British involvement occurring today. Ongoing genocide in Darfur. And the globe warms as we continue to use vast amounts of fossil-fuel-power to keep our privileged life. We must be careful to not be seduced and snared by comfortable mere preparation.
Don’t come here, students, to escape the “real world” for a few years, or to merely get ready for reality. We are the real world, too. True, there are different slants of and on reality, but its basis is singular. Our curriculum is designed to authentically integrate us with the Author, the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Origin and Upholder of the web of reality.
A liberal arts institution is different from a professional school, vocational school, technical institute in which specific knowledge is taught more or less by itself. A BA institution embeds such knowledge in the full context of: the visual, written and performing arts; knowledge of mathematics and science; social and psychic awareness; theology and philosophy.
We seek not only to know and do; but to compare, analyze, and critique. Liberality of thought emerges in two ways: first it urges the freedom to think independently. Second, it professes to free all people from the imposition of power, wealth, or tradition by exposure to liberating ideas and options.
Liberation of any sort is ripe for misuse and elitism. After all knowledge is power.
Without a foundation outside the liberal arts themselves, nothing prevents knowledge and cleverness to bypass those people who are burdened and chained to provide the products demanded by the liberal elite.
So who provides a way out of the liberal dilemma of free thought in an unequal world? What can give another model that pursues free thought while wary of creating vastly unequal worlds? It has to be one with a foundation outside of human invention and with a vision for serviceable preparation.
Sounds like a job for the religion of Jesus Christ, Son of God.
This August 28th convocation falls auspiciously on the 50th anniversary of one of this nation’s most significant events: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
And this is where we turn for today’s featured mode of liberating foundation, vision, and preparation.
Today, I can only focus on the iconic one that bears directly on the theme of the liberality of foundation, vision, and preparation for service.
To show inequality as the distorted, apathetic banality it really is, we turn to the most-known portion of the speech (from among other good ones) associated with that March on Washington.
[Video clip:] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs 12:22-15:05
[“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” Martin Luther King Jr.]
Lest this be a distortion, I quote three contextualizing points from the speech:
When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent works of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Was Martin Luther King’s dream unreal because it was a visionary, founded on the Word of God and teachings of Jesus Christ? Was the racism, segregation, political and economic exclusion of the United States of America the real world? And was the counter vision unreal?
This visionary “dream”, built on a foundation of faith, hope, and love, through years of careful preparation – the liberal arts education of people like W.E.B. DuBois, Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, Whitney Young, John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King — bore fruit. But it was not merely the well-rounded formal education – it was a disclosive, critical, experiential, and reasonable view, even without formal education – as in the eloquence of Frederick Douglass, the guts of John Brown, tenacity of Harriet Tubman, or the toughness of Fannie Lou Hamer.
But sometimes more knowledge of wider contexts and more strategic preparation would have driven the point even further if poorly or mis-educated people had not been kept out of political and economic positions. And we applaud the educational achievements of many non-European Americans that led to the assumption of many positions otherwise unattainable, including the U.S. Presidency and many members of state and federal congresses.
Essential to the success of the March on Washington was a firm faith in God and the biblically derived principles of justice propelled and supported many civil rights people and activists. Indeed at the March on Washington, of the 10 people who spoke, six were outspoken Christians, including Patrick O’Boyle, John Lewis, James Farmer, Martin Luther King, Benjamin Mays, and Mathew Ahmann, with two Jewish rabbis, Marian Anderson and Mahalia Jackson who sang and Eva Jessye, who led a Christian choir.
When Martin Luther King uttered his phrase “I have a dream” and echoed it 10 times, was he mouthing what he believed to be a vain illusion? No, he preceded it by heavy references to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and followed it with a nearly identical repletion of the redolent phrase from the hymn; “My Country ’Tis of Thee:” “Let freedom ring!”
And when he said that, he specified the exact places where it rang: New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California, followed with coy unequivocality by a short list of hot beds of segregation where it did not: Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi …
As the crowd roared and amenned to his “free at last!” he turned and strode off the podium. The very next day, he and others met President Kennedy to lay out their demands. A year later, the Civil Rights Act, two years later, the Voting Rights Act, and three years after that the Fair Housing Act were signed. The real world of yesterday still lived in the minds and actions of opponents, but a new reality, was built on the foundations of vision and preparation.
Trinity Christian College, 2013. Not the drama and significance of a pivotal moment in American history, but we have the urgent mandate of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to make our work count.
The books we read, the ideas we toss about, develop, support, or refute. Those are real. Yes, it is true that when you make a business plan – or a lesson-, treatment-, concert-, or urban plan in a classroom, it does not have the same immediate result as when you employ it in an investment firm, city planning department, hospital, concert hall, police force or school, but it is of the same piece with work that will rise or fall with the market, neighborhood, heart rate, crime rate, or classroom learning. This time of foundational, envisioning preparation is reality too.
Do we believe that the only real world is outside of academic reach? No! We do not!
We do not because so much of what passes for reality is pseudo-real, hyperreal, surreal, unreal and it takes true vision – not merely liberal thought – to critically expose those illusions.
Let me give a brief explanation, as a Christian of a Christian view of humanity. With our larger brains we humans developed symbol systems and language and to have enough intelligence to be able to actually apprehend the Creator as divine, as Logos/The Word and the giver of symbol and word by which to reveal a divine existence beyond this creation and who is its Origin. The empirics by which we know this Logos, revealed as Yahweh, are of another order and we know it primarily by faith.
Deep Christian study of God’s Word in the Bible and creation – with the occasional direct revelations of the Creator – is rewarded by coming to know something of the laws of the universe.
We note that God did not reveal in the form of merely physical or biotic creatures but as a transcendent being who, in the fullness of time, incarnated and dwelled among us, changing the way we act. But also the way we think, feel, and relate to God – no longer as children of Israel, but sons and daughters of the Most High. This God, in Christ and by the ongoing reality of the very Spirit of God – calls us to walk in the divine way. In the Spirit, God calls us to know the laws of the universe as directly, empirically as we can.
As culture, itself, evolves, we participate with God in forming human-based structures such as relationships, alliances, and eventually religion, society and all their institutions, norms, laws, and obligations.
Here, our relation to God becomes especially important because God has revealed words and principles by which we are to norm our relation to the creation, each other, and to God.
Christian sociologist David Lyon gives us the term here: critical integration – integrating a believing faith in God and divine power with the ideas and methods of science to empirically learn about the world – about reality. The academy – Trinity, for example – and researching professors, like those honorably dressed folks here, have an eminent role. Through place and time, benevolent and repressive regimes, capitalist and collectivist economies, the academy has been a thread of human intelligence that has stayed the course – a source and repository of human knowledge. (To acknowledge that, we dress like this, lest we forget.)
Such critical integration it is vital to the kind of perspective Trinity offers. Here we urge you to be moral, but more: We take our faith in God as Origin, Saviour, and Spirit-Power and Presence into the world. From that perspective, we study number and order; energy and force; physics and materiality, life and biotic components; sensitivity, feeling, and mentality; logical order and knowledge; creativity and making; symbol, nuance, and meaning-cognition; sociality, mutual regard and patterns of association; knowledge and stewardship of resources; allusiveness and imaginativity; justice, fairness, and authoritative law; morality, respect, and trustfulness; faith, worship, spirituality, openness to divinity, and confession.
From the simplest evidence of reality – number and space,
through the existence of things and life,
and through our human abilities to form culture and product,
to the most complex of all reality – the belief in God, in divine power, and that which we cannot fully comprehend but can only believe,
– this college teaches us that all things hold together under the mighty power of God, whom we must always seek to know intellectually and with our whole beings, with whom we work cooperatively, stewardly, and faithfully, and who both has made and continues to eternally and progressively make this world. Here, in these halls, you learn the depth and abstraction of facts – facts that you perhaps will never learn as deeply, comprehensively, and integrally as you learn them in the reality of this world.
And you learn to integrate your knowledge and action into a perspective, as I alluded above.
Because God is;
because God creates, upholds, and continues to create;
because God posits laws by which this universe operates;
because we humans live in this universe
and because we apprehend, interpret, and work inventively with or against it;
because we have the power of rationality and live creatively to form culture, its products and societies
– because of all that, we do well to remain in intimate and willing touch with God, so that we may live long in the land the Lord our God gives us.
Before I conclude, let me say that both the vision-dream of Martin Luther King and of Trinity Christian College do not always come to fruition. Large swaths of inequality linger long after King gave his speech. They linger today!
Therefore, in order that these two narratives that I have compared today on the basis of their common use of Foundation-Vision-Preparation do not remain separate, let me say this. We at Trinity, living as we do in the real world –must continue to struggle for greater acceptance and development of ethnic diversity here on this campus, finding ways to bridge gaps and open friendships, partnerships, and scholarships by which our Christian vision can continue to coalesce with a legacy like Dr. King’s. Beyond our walls and our times as students here, let our minds and action be bent toward a nation in which not only technical legal freedom rings, but our hearts also ring with common opportunities, the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts and the love of our neighbors in our actions.
This real world is God’s world and we are at our best in its service when we take up a vocation – a calling within that world, always seeking to resonate with the divinely given laws of reality, sensitive to the creation particularly because we are open to the Creator, whose very Spirit we know, feel, and with whom we commune.
May we the students, faculty, staff, and administers of Trinity Christian College, always be authentic to our Author and authority. And may we, be “full of all joy and peace as we trust in God so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.” (Romans 15:13)
A beautiful late summer day, a manicured country club, and 108 golfers combined to make the 27th annual Trinity Athletics Club Golf Classic a success. The event raised over $40,000 in scholarships for Trinity student athletes.
At the outing on August 19, at Calumet Country Club in Homewood, Illinois, many of the scholarship recipients were on hand to personally thank the golfers for their support.
“This event has been blessed over the years with the tremendous support of the greater Trinity community, and this year was no different,” said Dennis Harms ’89, coach of the Trinity golf team.
Golfers had many opportunities to win prizes throughout the day, including a 2014 Toyota Camry courtesy of Oak Lawn Toyota, as well as a chance for a $10,000 hole in one, courtesy of Legacy Insurance.
The low foursome for the day represented Schaaf Window Co. and consisted of Bob Schaaf ’93, John Dieck ’92, Barb Schaaf ’87, and Rich Deckinga, with a winning score of 59.
The Athletics Department would like to thank Ozinga Bros. and Providence Bank for their generous sponsorship of the event.
Preparation for the new semester begins long before the end of summer, but for faculty, an important part of that preparation is the Fall Retreat.
On August 22, professors came together for a time of conversation, reflection, and worship, participating in presentations and breakout sessions under the retreat’s theme “Formed and Being Formed: Responding to God’s Call as Christian Scholars and Teachers.”
“The day provided a wonderful time to think about how we as faculty are engaged in the process of formation as we respond to God’s call on our lives as Christian teachers and scholars,” said Dr. Mackenzi Huyser ’97, dean for faculty development and academic programs. “The opportunity to reflectively think and share how we approach this work was a true joy.”
Huyser also expressed her gratitude to the faculty development committee for casting a vision for the retreat and for each colleague who contributed.
Long-time Trinity colleagues welcomed new faculty members Janet Chaney, nursing; Dr. Eric Goddard, history; Dr. Jeff Nyhoff, computer science; Dr. Ben Ribbens, theology; Marianne Schallmo, nursing; and Darren Zancan, communication arts.
A special time was devoted to recognizing and celebrating the scholarly activity professors engaged in through conference participation, exhibitions, performances, presentations, publications, and awards.
Breakout sessions led by professors covered a wide array of topics and disciplines:
Mindfulness, Dr. Mary Lynn Colosimo, Psychology
Where do we begin? Preparing for a Hospitable Welcome, Tina Decker ’06, Nursing
The Cycle of Academic Life: How having a good summer makes for a good year and vice versa, Dr. Michael DeVries ’74, Psychology
My syllabi are done, but my students are not; oh, and neither am I, Dr. Karen Dieleman, English
Renewing the Mind and Spirit for the Academic Year, Dr. Derrick Hassert, Psychology
A Contemplative Framework for Our Work as Worship, Dr. Mary Webster Moore, Education
Generation or regeneration? John Bakker, Art & Design
What’s So Great about Interim: Using Interim to Collaborate, Envision, Innovate, and Rest, Dr. Bill Boerman-Cornell, Education
Imagining and Reimagining the Classroom, Cini Bretzlaff-Holstein, Social Work, and Dr. Abbie Schrotenboer, Biology
Strategies to Promote Student-Faculty Research, Dr. Bob Boomsma ’77 Biology
Catch You on the Flippity Flip! Rebecca Harkema, Education
Research on First Generation and Pell Grant Students at Trinity: Refining our Success, Dr. Sharon Robbert, Mathematics, and Dr. Keith Starkenburg, Theology
One of the most exciting days on campus is Move-in Day.
Freshmen were welcomed to campus on August 23 by an energetic and helpful Move-in Crew, wheeling shopping carts back and forth from family vans to residence hall rooms.
This year, students were also greeted upon their arrival into town by welcome signs posted by local businesses. In addition, the city of Palos Heights set up a hospitality tent on campus, offering free samples and services from Tastee Freez, Aurelio’s Pizza, Lucano’s Pizza, Great American Bagel, Jimmy John’s, Multicare Health Center, and Archer Bank.
As part of this Welcome event, businesses are offering discounts to students through September 30.
That same day marked the beginning of First Year Forum (FYF), a program in which first-year students are mentored as they learn more about living in this Christian academic community.
As part of that program, students completed a service project at the nearby Children’s Hunger Fund, wrapping gifts for needy children.
The College also welcomed transfer and returning students a few days later as classes began Wednesday, August 28.
As part of a first-time Welcome initiative led by the City of Palos Heights and community business people, Trinity students enjoyed special greetings and offerings from local businesses when they returned to campus for the fall semester on August 23, the College’s official move-in day.
Signs with words of welcome were posted throughout Palos Heights and around campus for students and their families to see as they arrived. Students also appreciated the hospitality tent set up near the residence halls where local businesses shared complimentary treats and services.
Extending that welcome through September 30, over forty local businesses will offer special discounts to Trinity students, faculty, and staff (with Trinity ID). The city has posted a comprehensive list of these participating businesses on its website.
Move-in day greeters from the city of Palos Heights included Mayor Bob Straz, Business/Economic Advisory Committee Chairman Bob Grossart, committee member Rick Powell, and owner of the local Tastee Freez, Diane Goerg.
Some of the goals of this initiative, as outlined by the committee, include helping students feel welcomed back to the Palos Heights community, encouraging a significant number of businesses to participate in the student discount program, and continuing the efforts of Palos Heights and Trinity to strengthen the relationship between community and college.
“The warm hospitality and visible welcome Palos Heights provided our students has been superb,” said President Steve Timmermans, Ph.D. “While the Palos Heights community has always been a great partner, the welcome this year has brought that relationship to a new level.”
Read the local news article about the Welcome initiative here.
This year’s Alumnus of the Year Award recognizes Rich Schutt ’76, CEO of Providence Life Services.
Also being recognized are this year’s honorary alumni award recipients. Congratulations to:
Howard and Verna DeHaan, friends of the College
Marsha Wolterink, office manager for Trinity’s Physical Plant
Dr. Derke Bergsma, former professor of theology and one of Trinity’s first faculty members
Rich Schutt ’76
Rich Schutt remembers discussions around the family dinner table about philosophy and theology that were prompted by his sister Bonnie Heirendt ’72, a then student of Trinity. Although Schutt hadn’t planned to go to college, his mother encouraged him to attend.
During his first two years of college, Schutt worked as a custodian at Rest Haven, eventually working his way up to CEO of Providence Life Services, which provides retirement living, at-home help, rehab, skilled nursing care, hospice, and elder care. Schutt said the word “providence” is a good fit for how his career has played out.
Preparation for his career began in high school and college when he worked at Rest Haven and continued in his study of business at Trinity. While finishing his education, Schutt was approached by then CEO Rich Mulder and offered the opportunity to administer the new Rest Haven South in South Holland, Illinois. Since then, Schutt has helped grow the company, eventually branching out to add ProviNet Solutions, a full-service IT company.
“Trinity prepared me well for the business experience that I’ve had,” said Schutt. “It also helped frame how that business experience related to God’s calling for my life.”
As an alumnus, Schutt doesn’t believe a person’s connection with Trinity should end at graduation. “Alumni can help make sure that educational opportunity exists for future generations,” he said. “And alumni can help find opportunities for graduates.”
Schutt has also served as a member of Trinity’s Board of Trustees. “To have the privilege of the board experience reinforced everything I thought about Trinity as a student, but it was great to see the current leadership and how they’re committed to living out the College’s values,” he said. “At Trinity, we don’t require you to share our worldview, but when you leave you will clearly understand what it is. It’s more than an intellectual endeavor, it’s an endeavor of the soul.”
Schutt holds a master’s degree in health administration from Governors State University and has more than 30 years of leadership experience in serving seniors. He has served as chair of the board of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and has chaired the Life Services Network Association and the Health Resources Alliance boards. He has spoken extensively on issues affecting aging services. He currently serves as a member of the owner/operator advisory board of the National Investment Center. He also serves on his local church and school boards.
Schutt and his wife Linda ’98, vice president of education at Providence, have three daughters.
Dr. Derke Bergsma
Dr. Derke Bergsma began his time at Trinity at the prompting of then Professor Calvin Seerveld, professor of philosophy. Bergsma’s Latin class had the honor of being the first class held at Trinity, following the first Trinity Convocation. He continued to teach Latin for three years.
When Trinity expanded to a four-year college, Seerveld once again invited Bergsma to serve as a faculty member in the theology department. He remained active in the College for 14 years, and served as acting president for one year between Dr. Hoekstra and Dr. Van Groningen.
Bergsma refers to Trinity as an “affection” that remains with him. “Trinity has had a significant role to play in Christian higher education,” Bergsma said. “I don’t know of any other similar school with the connection opportunities like Trinity has in Chicago.”
All of Derke and Doris’s children and two of their granddaughters graduated from Trinity, and family members remain involved in their support of the College. “It is very encouraging that their presence in the constituency and program is an affirmation of my shared loyalty to Trinity,” he said.
In 1997, after 32 years, he retired from Westminster Theological Seminary and taught as an adjunct at Trinity in the theology department as well as in the Adult Studies program. He also preached on behalf of the College in area churches seeing this as “Trinity’s service to the church community.”
Howard and Verna DeHaan
Beginning in 1970, Howard and Verna DeHaan worked side by side in the restaurant business in Michigan, expanding the original Russ’s restaurant in Holland to six of their own restaurants throughout the Grand Rapids area, the last of which they recently sold.
The DeHaans became very involved with Trinity when their granddaughter Mackenzi Huyser ’97 enrolled. Huyser now serves as dean for faculty development and academic programs and professor of social work at Trinity.
In honor of Huyser, the DeHaans began the DeHaan Family Social Work Scholarship. The scholarship aids a junior or senior social work student who is committed to leadership and social justice.
Committed to Christian higher education and helping students gain access to that education, the DeHaans live that out through their love and support of the College. “When you really have a heart for something, you go all out for it,” said Howard.
That support has included gifts toward the development of the Ozinga Chapel, the Bootsma Bookstore Cafe, the Art and Communication Center, and Phase 1 and 2 of the gymnasium expansion project.
Their grandson Patrick DeHaan spoke at a Trinity Business Network event this past spring.
Marsha Wolterink
Marsha Wolterink began working at Trinity in 1979 in maintenance and continued in that job for nine years until she had to stop for health reasons. She was then offered an administrative position in the physical plant and eventually became the office manager, a role in which she still serves.
Wolterink explained that it is important for her to work in a Christian institution where people are dedicated not just to a paycheck but to honoring and glorifying God through their work.
“Knowing that I’m working at a Christ-centered college where faculty and staff want to praise God and continue his kingdom means everything,” she said. “I see this every day in the physical plant in the work that is done here.”
Receiving the honorary alumni award came to Wolterink as a “total shock,” but she said of her longtime commitment to the College: “Whether reserving vans or processing invoices, all of these things have eternal value if we use them to be the best witness for the Lord that we can be.”
Wolterink and her husband Ron have been married for 52 years, and they have four children and 15 grandchildren. All four of their children graduated from Trinity and two met their spouses while at Trinity. Their grandson Ryan Wolterink, son of Dan and Barb, will be a sophomore this year.
The summer before the first year of college is exciting…and stressful. Trinity offers these tips to help students make the most of the last weeks of summer and transition into college life.
Tip 1: Take a deep breath. Yes, starting college is a big change. Get in the habit of learning to relax your mind through prayer, journaling, or scheduled quiet time. Continue this habit as you enter a busy and exciting college life. The Ozinga Chapel, wooded Trinity Trail, and the comfy couch in front of the Bootsma Café fireplace are favorite spots for relaxation and renewal.
Tip 2: Get organized. Lots of positive experiences await you, so start using that phone calendar and learning to be a good steward of your time. Trinity freshmen spend a lot of their day in class and studying but also make time for nurturing new friendships, growing in their faith at chapel and Outcry, and volunteering to serve others.
Tip 3: Make plans in advance for visits with family and friends from home. One of the biggest challenges for college freshmen is being apart from loved ones. Even if you live close to campus, you may choose to move into residence halls rather than commute. Scheduling visits ahead of time gives you, and your loved ones, times to look forward to throughout the week and the semester.
Tip 4: Stay healthy. Exercise not only keeps your body healthy, it helps maintain mental and emotional health, too. That’s important with all the life changes—and studying—you’ll be doing. Activities that relieve stress while strengthening the body include Zumba, yoga, intramural sports, and regular workouts. Trinity’s new fitness center will be open to students this fall and provide spaces for cardiovascular conditioning, weight lifting, and even “rock” climbing on the climbing wall.
Tip 5: Don’t bring the kitchen sink. Talk to your roommates about what each of you is planning to bring and what you might possibly share. And be aware of what your college permits; for instance, most colleges don’t allow microwaves or other small appliances in dorm rooms. Being located in the suburbs and close to Chicago gives Trinity students tons of opportunities to shop for what they need throughout the semester.
Tip 6: Budget for the extras. Despite the activities and amenities on campus, you may decide to check out local shopping, restaurants, and movie theaters. Chicago is a favorite place for many Trinity students who enjoy the city’s lakefront, dining, museums, theaters, and sporting events.
Tip 7: Look for a job early. If you’re planning to get a part-time job, keep an eye on your Trinity’s student worker postings, so you can apply as soon as possible. Students have a variety of choices for employment in computer services, administration, and food service. Many students also find work at nearby businesses.
Tip 8: Engage in social media. Facebook and Twitter are great ways to stay connected with Trinity, future roommates, and fellow Class of 2017ers during the summer. Trinity’s official Facebook page is a great place to see what’s happening on campus, ask questions, and talk with fellow freshmen, current students, and others from the Trinity community.
We hope these tips help you get ready for the first day of class on August 28. If you have any questions before you arrive, call the Student Development office at 708.239.4704. We’re looking forward to seeing you on campus!
A common sight around campus is Professor Michael Vander Weele on this bike. Next week, he heads out on a ride that will take him much further than his usual route from Trinity to home after classes.
Dr. Vander Weele, professor of English, and his wife Mary McKinstry will begin their three-week leg of the bike ride Sea to Sea, Cycling to End Poverty.
The 3,900-mile ride serves to raise awareness and funds for those living in poverty around the world. Hosted by the Reformed Church in America, Partners Worldwide, and World Renew, the ride enables individuals, groups, and congregations to actively serve the poor in a new and interesting way.
The Vander Weeles will pick up where Financial Aid Coordinator Kyle Wigboldy, who rode the Coralville, Iowa, to Grand Rapids segment, left off. They depart from Grand Rapids on Monday, heading to Hamilton, Ontario (week one), then Montreal (week two), and then New York City (week three).
To follow the Vander Weele’s journey, check out their blog Mike and Mary on a Bike.
For more information on Sea to Sea, visit the website.