Student Life cultivates co-curricular learning experiences that disciple, develop and equip students to thrive as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world.
At Calvin, the approach to your education is both academically excellent and distinctively Christian. It’s also comprehensive and integrative: from classroom to residence hall, soccer field to engineering firm, your education is happening.
Engage it.
Seek out conversations with students and faculty from six continents and 48 states. Learn about statistics and social justice, American government and student senate, music theory and pop culture. Practice what you learn through internships, campus leadership, and Service-Learning opportunities. Prepare to graduate with a purpose and vision for your work...
...participation with God and others in the renewal of all things.
- Christian Identity - our thoughts, words, actions and interactions are governed by a desire to manifest Christ-in-us.
- Partners in Education - we value our role in the education of the whole person.
- Collaboration - we value team work and unity of purpose.
- Inclusive Community - we celebrate diversity, pursue practices that combat injustice, and practice hospitality.
- Professional Excellence - we want to provide the highest calibur of professional service to students, their parents, faculty/staff colleagues, and the visitors we encounter.
- Innovation and Creativity - we are open to new ideas, even as we appreciate learning from the past.
- Wellness - we want out lives to embody God's shalom - right relationships with God, family, work, and others.
Our programs are designed with the hope that students will:
- Practice regularly the spiritual disciplines required to become increasingly aware of God's presence, power, and love, thus to model more and more the life of Jesus Christ (faith formation & Ecclesiastical development).
- Make sense of their pre-college lives and develop patterns that increase self-understanding and whole health (emotional & physical development).
- Understand and cultivate relationships of integrity with other humans made in God's own image, including family members, friends, neighbors, strangers, and those different from themselves in any way (relational development).
- Discover and profess what they believe as true in the midst of what others, past and present, believe and profess as true (cognitive development).
- Frame their future working lives in the context of calling and vocation (vocational development).
- Cherish their obligation to be citizens in the public square whose importance and impact must count for justice and shalom (political/communal development).
- Practice wisdom in spending and giving as well as caring for local and world environments (stewardship development).
- Experience with revelry and wonder the delightful nuances inherent in God's good creation (aesthetic development).
Ten things the Student Life Divison hopes for Calvin students:
- That students love God more after four years here and remember every day how much God loves them.
- That students feel they are known by others and know others well.
- That students know they have a home here and are eager to leave.
- That students are challenged to “let go” and to “hang on tight.”
- That students identify things of value and reject that which is counterfeit.
- That students hunger for justice and stand with the oppressed.
- That students are lifelong learners and inspire others to be.
- That students experience joy while at Calvin and are eager to replicate it.
- That students believe that their lives will influence the kingdom and do whatever it takes to prepare for it.
- That students exhibit a level of confidence that is commensurate with the story of God’s goodness in their lives.