Claire Van Noord

If you're just starting off at Calvin, Claire Van Noord '16 suggests you get involved with the Festival of Faith and Writing.

Current role: ELA Teacher at West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science

What opportunities did you have as an English student that prepared you for finding a career?
Being an editorial assistant for Professor Holberg’s literary journal helped give me an “inside look” at the process of getting published in higher education. While it was really interesting to take part in that world, it helped me realize that perhaps I did not want to be a college professor as I had once thought; writing and publishing articles was not really my passion in English.
The English education courses, open even to non-education majors, gave me a taste for high school English teaching and helped me realize that secondary ed was the path for me.

What’s one thing you would want to tell someone starting their journey at Calvin?
Volunteer for the Festival of Faith and Writing! It’s a fun time, with unique opportunities to interact with authors and just have hospitality fun with your fellow Calvin students (and you don’t even have to be an English major to join!). Along those lines, try to take advantage of the events and opportunities that Calvin offers, especially within your major’s department. You might feel busy with schoolwork, but fitting in those other things can be really rewarding.

What about Calvin specifically prepared you for this next step in your journey?
Calvin was an amazing place to help me blend my faith into all aspects of my life—to learn to discern how to be faithful in all circumstances. After graduating from Calvin, I went to the University of Michigan for a master’s program, and I found ways to use the critical thinking I had cultivated at Calvin in my new (secular) setting and seek renewal and grace in the academic and social situations there. And, bonus: the academic rigor of Calvin definitely prepared me for grad school!

What part of Calvin’s mission resonates with you, and why?
I really appreciate that Calvin promotes the idea that we can serve Christ no matter what we do. All of us have a role to play in building the kingdom of God. The world is incredibly broken, but we also have hope and strength from God not to be utterly overwhelmed by all the brokenness. In days where we hear depressing things on the news, where I see the hurt in my own and my students’ backgrounds, where there is a lot of negativity in culture, I think it’s vital to cling to that hope and strive to be light where we are.