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Charting a Greener Future for Students and Grand Rapids

msk23@calvin.edu — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 11:15:18 +0000

Charting a Greener Future for Students and Grand Rapids msk23@calvin.edu Thu, 09/11/2025 - 07:15

“What would it take for the city of Grand Rapids to establish and operate a green revolving fund?”

That’s the question Professor Matt Heun posed to his engineering students on the first day of class.

“It's a huge question, right? And then it’s funny, Matt has several other bullet points beneath the main question. One of them is ‘are you going to include non-municipal buildings?’ Right there is probably its own project,” said Mike Troupos, a 2012 engineering grad of Calvin, who was in the room as the students first heard the question.

A Big Challenge

The question Heun asked is the student’s semester project. And it’s not hypothetical. The Mayor of Grand Rapids, David LaGrand ’88, seated next to Troupos in the back of the classroom, is the client.

“I thought ‘woah,’” said Dafna Heule, a senior mechanical engineering major, upon hearing of the project.

“My first thought is ‘Calvin? This is happening at Calvin and not a bigger school?’” said Jude Veldboom, a mechanical engineering major.

The students were initially shocked by the scope of the project. But Heun says, “I know what the students do not yet know: Calvin students are ready to address big questions. Calvin students can change the world!”

Learning “Soft Skills” Through Asking “Hard Questions”

“What I love about this in general, and Matt does this every year, is it’s such a big project and such a huge question that there’s a lot of narrowing of the scope over the course of the semester,” said Troupos. “And I think that’s really good. We all have to do that in our own lives. You have a million things you can do when you’re young and at some point, you decide I’m closing these doors so I can open these other ones. It’s a metaphor on life but it’s also good discipline as a human being to understand that I can do anything, but what should I actually do? And then to keep chiseling down so at the end of the semester the students actually have something to show for it.”

Mike Troupos '12 will serve as one of the advisors for the engineering students as they work through the semester-long project.

Troupos, who is now vice president of Foresight, an energy and sustainability consulting firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was in these students’ shoes about 15 years prior. In fact, he was one of the first interns for the Calvin Energy Recovery Fund (CERF), a green revolving fund established in 2009 at ��Ƶ. During his time at Calvin, he helped install motion sensors in Science Building bathrooms, implement a lighting overhaul in North Hall, and investigated low-flow showerheads in the dorms, a project implemented after he graduated.

Invested in, Now Investing

Now, Troupos is one of the advisers Professor Heun has brought back to help students navigate this huge question.

“It’s really cool and it makes me proud to be a Knight,” said Heule. “I think he said he graduated in 2012, before sustainability was trendy. So, it’s cool to see the effect of a genuine Christian university that’s trying to take better care of the Earth. So many people have been invested in sustainability at Calvin before it was trendy.”

For Troupos, he wasn’t looking to go into the field he’s in. He credits the investment professors like Matt Heun made in him, including as his mentor during his time as intern for the Calvin Energy Recovery Fund.

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at personally or professionally if it wasn’t for the opportunity to be the CERF intern,” said Troupos. “So, it’s a joy to come back because I want to pay it forward. I really learned and found my footing on what I want to do, what my calling is in life because of this opportunity, and so my hope and dream is that some students here understand that energy efficiency and sustainability are real viable career paths and also paths where you can find joy in what you do and feel good about the impact that you can make.”

Building Excitement, Expanding Imagination

As the students began to ask clarifying questions and hear more from the advisors and Mayor LaGrand about the project, the weight of the project didn’t go away, but an excitement started to build.

“I’m excited, but it also feels very daunting. I’m mostly looking forward to how we can break this down,” said Veldboom. “I think that’ll be the biggest lesson coming out of this.”

“This is really cool, because it’s so tangible and can actually make impact,” said Heule. “When we started talking it was exciting to hear about all the ways we are going to be able to be creative and I’m excited to use our brains in unique ways to come up with solutions.”

Proven Value of a Calvin Education

Troupos says trusting ��Ƶ students to propose a solution for an entire city is a testament to how community leaders view the value of a Calvin education. And he says his experience pays witness to that.

“I’ve always loved that Calvin’s interdisciplinary. When I was in high school deciding on an engineering school, I liked that Calvin was a liberal arts school first and not a technical school. And it ended up paying out,” said Troupos, who over the past five years transitioned from an engineering and technical role to a leadership and sales role with his company.

“There’s a lot of engineers in the world that don’t just sit in the room and run calculations, they have to deliver presentations, they have to solve big problems, they have to get buy-in from a lot of different stakeholders,” said Troupos. “So, I think the skills you develop in unpacking questions like the students will do in this class are a lot more powerful for somebody like me who isn’t working in an engineering role for their entire career.”

The engineering class will have the next few months to come up with a proposed recommendation, which they will present on December 9 to their client Mayor LaGrand in an event open to the public.

Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:00

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The mayor of Grand Rapids, Mich., David LaGrand '88, is the client for Professor Matt Heun's senior engineering class. He's entrusting ��Ƶ students with answering a big question that could have a major impact on the city's sustainability efforts.

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Trio of Calvin students receive Michigan Sea Grants

msk23@calvin.edu — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 21:12:15 +0000

Trio of Calvin students receive Michigan Sea Grants msk23@calvin.edu Tue, 06/24/2025 - 17:12

This summer, five students across the state of Michigan are doing research funded by the Michigan Sea Grant, an initiative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Calvin students Moses Huang, Andrew Slagter, and Naomi Dykstra are three of the grant recipients.

“The fact that Calvin secured more than half of these grants among all schools in the state is pretty remarkable,” said Dave Warners, professor of biology.

Categorizing trash

Moses Huang and Andrew Slagter’s research projects are through the Plaster Creek Stewards (PCS). Huang’s project is focused on gaining insight into what types of trash are heading downstream. Through installing a litter boom, a floating barrier designed to prevent litter from continuing to head downstream, Huang is biweekly cleaning up and categorizing the trash. The goal is to improve community awareness to enact change.

“I am very interested in the microplastic issue in the oceans, so doing this research relates a bit to what I’m interested in,” said Huang, a junior from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania double majoring in environmental health and conservation and biology. “I love opportunities like this because it gives me a field base of research.”

Assessing biodiversity

Through a Michigan Sea Grant, Andrew Slagter is doing research in the Plaster Creek watershed.

Slagter is doing a biodiversity assessment of larger green infrastructure in the Plaster Creek watershed. His research focuses on areas that used to be quite urbanized but have more recently been restored to a more natural state through flood plain restoration and bioswale projects. While it’s well known that these projects are beneficial to improving the area by reducing stormwater runoff, Slagter’s research is more novel—looking at what birds, insects, and small mammals are in these areas compared to grass lawns.

“The more we understand about green infrastructure projects and their benefits, the more we can implement them and have the ability to back the funding for future projects,” said Slagter, a junior from Grafton, Wisconsin double majoring in biology and strategic communication.

Creating a plant inventory

Dykstra is adding a layer of research to the Emma Cole Project, which was started 150 years ago by Emma Cole, a scientist, high school teacher, and botanist in Grand Rapids. Cole did floristic inventories in the Grand Rapids area. For the past several years, Calvin students have been creating their own inventories of Grand Rapids city parks. This summer, Dykstra is continuing that work as she inventories the diversity of plants today and compares them to the past.

“Every day we go out into the woods at nine different sites, and we collect any flowering plants, bring them back to the lab, ID them, and write down all the data,” said Dykstra, a senior from Grand Rapids, Michigan majoring in environmental health and conservation. “Eventually later this summer, we will give all of this information back to the city so that they know what’s there and can therefore have a better idea of how to manage the parks.”

Ripple effects of research

While Huang, Slagter, and Dykstra’s projects will all have an impact on their communities, they also see the potential ripple effects.

“Having localized research can serve as a model framework or study that can then be expanded into the greater region, into the Great Lakes,” said Slagter. “The more information we can grow at Calvin, we are able to propagate through other partnerships and can be adopted by surrounding communities.”

Naomi Dykstra (left) collecting flowering plants with her fellow student researchers.

“Growing up I struggled with seeing the amount of brokenness between humans and the environment and that made me pretty sad,” said Dykstra. “I think working with PCS gave me so much more hope and an understanding of what my role could be, that even though these are really big issues, I can personally help and be a part of a bigger project and a bigger group of people to benefit the environment. This gives me a lot more professional hope.”

Researching alongside experts and mentors

The trio will finish their research projects in late July and have all valued the ability to learn alongside their professors—something they admit is fairly unique.

“I’d say the biggest draw for me is having the small class sizes, direct mentorship, and relationships that extend beyond the classroom. You don’t feel confined to just talking about an assignment or a project but feel the ability to talk about your career interests, to ask broader questions, and to have an open dialogue with your professors,” said Slagter. “A great thing about that specifically for the summer research project so far is because I’ve had a number of bio profs, I’m able to freely consult with each of them in accordance with their specialties.”

“It makes the job so much easier to have experts in the field with you. Calvin is surrounded by people who are experts in the field, and they are working directly with you,” said Dykstra. “I’ve done so many different things at Calvin that I don’t know would have been possible in a larger school.”

Tue, 06/24/2025 - 12:00

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Students lead largest on-campus solar project to date

msk23@calvin.edu — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:11:14 +0000

Students lead largest on-campus solar project to date msk23@calvin.edu Tue, 04/22/2025 - 10:11

Last week, Jack Klop and Sofie Schumerth, juniors at ��Ƶ, were on top of the facilities building on ��Ƶ's campus helping to assemble and mount a 35-kilowatt solar array—the largest ever on-campus solar project.

“It’s not just an environmental win—it’s a financial one too,” said Klop, a junior from Pasadena, Calif., who is studying civil and environmental engineering. “We estimate it will pay for itself within seven years.”

Investing and then reinvesting

The installation should replace between 45 and 60-percent of the energy used by the facilities building. Better yet, the project is fully funded thanks to the Calvin Energy Recovery Fund (CERF)—a green revolving fund started 15 years ago that takes the monetary savings generated from student-led energy projects and reinvests them in future sustainability initiatives.

“For years, students have come up with great ways to generate energy savings on campus and once those projects pay themselves back, the money saved goes into this revolving fund,” said Klop. “We are able to install these solar panels thanks to the work done by students before us.”

Led by students

And Klop and Schumerth, both interns with CERF, are just two of the many students who have played an integral part in this idea becoming a reality. In fact, three engineering classes and a physics class spent this past fall digging into what it would take to design a solar farm on Calvin’s campus.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, ENGR 333 students presented a summary of their solar farm design findings and recommendation to their client, Calvin’s CFO Dirk Pruis, during a public event.

“Jack and I attended their final presentation to hear their perspective,” said Schumerth. “This happened while we were looking at installing this array. Their momentum has catapulted us to this point. It’s really exciting to see the quick turnaround of their ideas and them coming to fruition here.”

For both Klop and Schumerth, they are thrilled they are able to play a critical part in helping Calvin live into its commitment to becoming carbon neutral.

“Being able to take the leaps we have so far this year toward the carbon neutrality goal and it being a tangible step toward that versus a nice idea that gets thrown around is really exciting,” said Schumerth, a junior from Appleton, Wis., who is studying civil and environmental engineering.

“This is such a great hands-on experience for us as students to see a project through, from looking at what it would cost us to getting up on the roof and installing the solar panels,” said Klop.

Rooted in faith

And while it’s a great opportunity for the students, they also see it as living out what they believe.

“It’s definitely rooted in our values and Christian traditions of wanting to steward the environment and the creation that God has given us and wanting to use those resources wisely and using solar panels and renewable energy is a great way to harvest energy from the sun that might not be utilized,” said Klop.

More on the horizon

In addition to the solar project, CERF is also supporting additional energy-efficiency upgrades, including variable frequency drives (VFDs) on HVAC systems. The goal is to install a total of four VFDs across the system — which together could reduce energy consumption by around 45% —the specific VFD going in this spring will contribute an estimated 10% reduction in campus energy use and generate up to $80,000 in annual savings.

The current Calvin Cares campaign provides another way to continue to fund high-impact sustainability projects and support student learning.

“Gifts given to CERF through Calvin Cares are actually going double the length of most gifts because they are going toward student development and they are funding projects that will in turn fund future projects with their energy savings,” said Klop.

If you are interested in learning more about about the solar array and other green initiatives happening at Calvin, stop by the Chapel at 4 p.m. on May 1 for the Sustainability Showcase.

Tue, 04/22/2025 - 12:00

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Trio of Calvin students earn nation’s most prestigious STEM research award

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 11:25:49 +0000

Trio of Calvin students earn nation’s most prestigious STEM research award msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 04/02/2025 - 07:25

Aerin Baker (Saugatuck, Mich.), Maggie Grabill (Ada, Mich.), and Ava Tatko (Grand Rapids, Mich.) have been named 2025 Goldwater Scholars. The scholarship, awarded by the Barry M. Goldwater Foundation, is widely considered to be the most prestigious award for undergraduate students in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering in the United States.

More than 1,300 students from 445 schools applied for the award, but only 441 students received it. This marks the second straight year that three ��Ƶ students earned the distinction.

“To have multiple students most years earning this distinction is a testament to the strength of our students and the strength of our research programs here at Calvin,” said Chris Hartemink, professor of engineering and Calvin’s campus representative for the scholarship.

Personalized research experiences

Common to all three students’ experience is they were invited into research during their first year at Calvin. One thing they discovered was they would have incredible access to their professors and be seen as partners in the research.

“The professors are so intentional about connecting with you as an individual, as a person, and that grows during the research,” said Baker, a junior studying chemistry. “You are working alongside your professor, not under them.”

“Whenever I had advice to give or a research-related question to ask I could walk into my research advisor’s office anytime and sit down and have a conversation,” said Tatko, a junior studying engineering with an energy, environmental and sustainability concentration. “At a larger university, where you have more of an impersonal relationship, that is not an option.”

Impressive outcomes

While the students have felt like partners in the research, their names being listed as co-authors alongside their professors in major journal articles validate that feeling.

“We’ve published four papers and we are working on a fifth now,” said Baker, who also presented her research at the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting in Denver, Colorado this past summer. “My advisor [Professor Doug Vander Griend] and I are also working on a collaboration with a university in France.”

Grabill, a chemical engineering and chemistry double major is only a sophomore, yet she already has two publications to her name.

Maggie Grabill '27 earned the Goldwater Scholarship as a sophomore. Most awardees are juniors.

As for Tatko, she’s already seeing the tangible benefits of her research on a global scale. She’s been working on getting a manuscript published about centralized chlorination for rural communities in the Andean mountains in Ecuador. While she says the water disinfection systems in the U.S. are well proven, they aren’t necessarily available to other countries because of material needs and regulation restrictions.

“So, the engineering department at Calvin is partnering with an engineering and missions organization in Ecuador and we are working with them to do design for specific communities. So, I have been organizing and doing design for 18 different communities over six years of data and organizing that into a formalized paper to get it published to share the design so others can do it for other countries.”

Practical applications

In Spring 2024, Tatko got to travel with her research advisor and two other student researchers to install the design they had created as a prototype in their lab during her first year of summer research.

Ava Tatko (left) in Ecuador with her fellow student researchers and her research advisor, Julie Wildschut (center).

“It was so very interesting to have my research directly applicable. It was novel research, and we then had the opportunity to install it and do ‘real engineering’ and work with the community and make sure they knew how to do maintenance and installation themselves so they could operate it once we had returned to the U.S.,” said Tatko.

Support leads to success

While Baker, Grabill and Tatko realize the research experiences they received at Calvin helped them earn the prestigious Goldwater award, they also credit their professors and advisors who invested countless hours to help their students stand out amongst their peers.

“All the applicants worked closely with Professor Hartemink during the month of January to do essay writing and drafts and reviews and to make sure this application was as polished as it could be,” said Tatko.

“I had been told as a sophomore you’ll put your best foot forward, but know that you can’t be as competitive as the juniors because you only have one year of experience,” said Grabill. “So, I thought I’d be applying next year. But I’m super grateful that despite the odds, Professor Hartemink and other professors at Calvin had enough confidence in me to take the time to write letters of recommendation.”

“I think Calvin provided me a lot of support to win the Goldwater,” said Tatko. “My application wouldn’t have been as strong without Chris Hartemink’s and Julie Wildschut’s, my research advisor, guidance and support throughout the process.”

Made the right decision

While the three still have time to decide their next step after Calvin, one thing they all agree on: they made the right choice in coming to Calvin.

“100%! I thought my idea of research was pretty solid coming in, but as I’ve gone through Calvin, it’s a lot deeper than I originally thought. You get to connect with so many people, collaborate not just in your own lab, but across departments and with people from other schools who have knowledge of what you are working on,” said Baker. “Calvin is a great place in the research community and a lot of great opportunities come out of that.”

“I don’t think I’d be where I am if I wasn’t at Calvin. I think it’s been a really great experience,” said Grabill.

“The longer I’m at Calvin the more grateful I am that I chose to come here,” said Tatko. “It’s really worked out for me in every sense I wanted.”

Interested in learning more about Calvin and the opportunities available to you? Get started.

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 12:00

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Chemistry professor Doug Vander Griend researches alongside Aerin Baker '26. At Calvin, students have opportunities to work 1-on-1 with professors on important research projects. Baker's research experience has already led to co-authoring multiple papers for journals and presenting at a national conference.

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��Ƶ Partners with Consumers Energy to Commit to 100% Clean Energy

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 14:00:23 +0000

��Ƶ Partners with Consumers Energy to Commit to 100% Clean Energy msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 01/15/2025 - 09:00

��Ƶ has announced a groundbreaking 20-year partnership with Consumers Energy to meet 100% of the university’s annual energy needs with renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power. This agreement demonstrates Calvin’s steadfast commitment to environmental sustainability and the transition to a cleaner, greener future for Michigan.

Consumers Energy has pledged to match 100% of ��Ƶ’s annual electric energy consumption—21 million kWh—with carbon-free energy. By committing to this initiative, ��Ƶ is accelerating the development of new clean energy projects in Michigan and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 8,124 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimations. This reduction is comparable to removing 1,895 gasoline-powered vehicles from the road each year or offsetting the energy use of 1,091 homes for a year, according to the EPA.

“This partnership reflects ��Ƶ’s deep dedication to creation care and sustainable flourishing for all,” said Greg Elzinga, president of ��Ƶ. “As a Christian liberal arts institution, we see this as a joyful response to God’s call to steward the Earth responsibly. Through our collaboration with Consumers Energy, we are not only reducing our environmental footprint but also serving as a model for how institutions can lead in the fight against climate change.”

Lauren Snyder, vice president of customer experience for Consumers Energy, highlighted the partnership’s importance in advancing Michigan’s clean energy goals. “��Ƶ’s leadership in choosing 100% renewable energy under our program underscores the critical role institutions play in shaping a sustainable future alongside us. This partnership will have a lasting impact, driving the growth of clean energy infrastructure and reducing carbon emissions across our state,” Snyder said.

Why It Matters

This agreement has profound environmental and social implications. By transitioning to 100% renewable energy, the EPA estimates ��Ƶ: Reduces greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 914,179 gallons of gasoline consumed or 9,024,608 pounds of coal burned annually;
Supports the carbon sequestration efforts of 134,336 tree seedlings grown for 10 years or the preservation of 48.5 acres of forest annually;
And avoids waste emissions comparable to recycling 2,871 tons of waste, the equivalent of 690,619 trash bags of waste kept out of landfills annually.

Calvin’s Sustainability Legacy

��Ƶ integrates environmental sustainability into every aspect of campus life, from academics to operations. Through initiatives like the Plaster Creek Stewards program, a nature preserve education center, and a sustainability-focused curriculum, the university is equipping students to lead in addressing global environmental challenges. This new partnership with Consumers Energy represents a significant milestone in Calvin’s ongoing mission to foster a more just, equitable, and ecologically healthy world.

About ��Ƶ

Founded in 1876, ��Ƶ is a top-ranked, liberal arts institution that equips its 3,600 students from 48 U.S. states, 66 countries, and five Canadian provinces to think deeply, to act justly, and to live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. Calvin offers 100+ majors and programs, including a growing portfolio of graduate-level offerings. Calvin students engage in intensive internships, community-based service learning, and significant research that results in publishing and presenting alongside world-class faculty. The university’s 400-acre campus is in the vibrant city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Discover more at www.calvin.edu. 

Wed, 01/15/2025 - 12:00

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Students Design Calvin Solar Farm and Develop Soft Skills

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 14:02:51 +0000

Students Design Calvin Solar Farm and Develop Soft Skills msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 12/11/2024 - 09:02

This semester, students in four different classes (three engineering, one physics) were confronted with a big assignment: design a solar farm for ��Ƶ.

On Tuesday, December 10, 2024, the team presented a summary of their findings and their recommendation to their client, Calvin’s CFO Dirk Pruis, during a public event in the Covenant Fine Arts Center’s Recital Hall.

The recommendation, which will cost less than $4 million in upfront investment, includes
adding solar panels to roofs of Van Noord Arena, Venema Aquatic Center, DeVos Communications Center, Prince Conference Center, Hekman Library, and Hiemenga Hall. It also includes ground installations at the Lake Drive entrance and near the Seminary. The solar farm would eliminate about 10% of Calvin’s CO2 emissions from electricity consumption (and about 5% of the university’s total CO2 emissions). The internal rate of return for the investment would be approximately seven percent per year.

“I think this is very compelling, to say I can take less than $4 million of the endowment and lock in a seven-percent return for the life of the solar panels,” said Pruis. “Most investors, given today’s elevated equity market valuations and lower expected returns in the medium term as a result, would say, ‘yeah, I’d lock in seven percent in a heartbeat.’”

Valuing both the financial and environmental impact

While Pruis is clearly interested in the numbers, what impressed students most was his equal concern for Calvin’s other commitments, and that came through throughout the semester as Pruis listened to progress reports and offered feedback.

“I’m really impressed by Calvin’s commitment to sustainability,” said Nick Heuker, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration). “I presented on the financial side of things and that’s really where I was thinking, but Dirk came back with questions like ‘what’s our carbon offset look like? How can we reach our sustainability goals regardless of what makes the most financial sense?’”

Learning along the way

While the students gained a deeper appreciation for the professors and administrators who entrusted them with such a large project and they now know far more about solar panels and everything that goes along with installing them, they say their greatest takeaway from the project was learning soft skills that will translate to any job, any career, and all of life.

“When we first started this project, it was hectic,” said Heuker. “We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have any structure.”

“We definitely began without a full understanding or grasp of what the project would look like at the end of it,” said Rory Marco, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration).

The classes would be divided into smaller teams, and each began digging into various aspects of the project. But while they thought this would move them to a solution faster, it also presented its own challenges.

“During our first in-class progress report presentation time, everyone had different templates, everyone spoke on different pieces of information. There was a lot of duplicate work being done,” said Marco.

Discovering a sustainable path forward

“We had to establish lines of communication, and it was a struggle,” said Heuker.

So, prior to the second in-class presentation, a small group of students stepped up and led efforts to get communication lines better established. “I think that really helped our project,” said Heuker. “It gave us a lot more guidance and made us work much more effectively together.”

In the process, the classes learned how to work smarter and not harder, not trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead seeking out existing expertise and data.

“It was all about talking to the right people to make sure we got the right information,” said Aiden Ehmann, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration). “It’s really easy to be sat learning in a class where you are taking notes, but here we had to actively seek to learn what we needed to learn.”

Intentionally designed project

According to Matt Heun, who has been architecting these kinds of projects for 20-plus years, all of this is part of the pedagogical design. And this year he says having four different classes across multiple disciplines work together on a project of this magnitude only enhanced the learning opportunities for students.

“The beauty of this kind of project is that neither students nor professors know where it will lead! That can be scary, but it can also be invigorating,” said Heun. “I wish you could see our students transform as I do from September to December. In September, they are filled with uncertainty and insecurity. However, throughout the semester, they work together toward the common goal of building a sustainable future. By December, they see that their work can make our campus more sustainable. By December, they fill me with hope for the future!”

The attendees on December 10 witnessed a rich and polished presentation. But to get to that point, students needed to develop skills that will serve them into their careers and for the rest of their life.

“I think a lot of unknowns and chaos earlier in the semester has come to harmony at the end of the semester,” said Ehmann.

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:00

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Students Tasked with Designing Calvin’s Solar Farm

msk23@calvin.edu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 14:48:26 +0000

Students Tasked with Designing Calvin’s Solar Farm msk23@calvin.edu Wed, 09/18/2024 - 10:48

It’s the first day of class, students had just taken their seats, and literally within 30 seconds, Professor Matt Heun spoke these words to his Engineering 333 class.

“The project this semester is we are going to design Calvin’s solar farm.”

After a few-second pause, one student said, “sweet.”

A few seconds later, another student started to clap, which spread slowly throughout the room. The room seemed filled with nervous excitement, something acknowledged multiple times over the course of the next hour.

An Intentionally Designed Daunting Task

“From where you sit right now it probably seems quite daunting,” said Heun.

Heun knows it’s daunting, because that’s the point. His teaching pedagogy is to use creative problem-based and team-based strategies to assist student learning. It’s something he brought to Calvin 20-plus years ago. “I teach that way because I have a background in aerospace where we are always doing something new, always challenging ourselves to take a step that’s never been taken before,” said Heun. “That’s what we want with education, young people full of enthusiasm and energy, paired with older and wiser practitioners who provide guidance. That’s a cool combination.”

An Invested and Supportive Community

Heun is one of those advisers, but he spent a portion of his first class introducing students to a number of other guides, from director of facilities Jennifer Ambrose to electronic shop technician Chuck Holwerda to the client for this project: Dirk Pruis, the university’s chief financial officer. Interim president Greg Elzinga was in attendance to emphasize the importance of this work.

“There are all these journals that talk about the future of higher education, and one of the biggest challenges you’ll see in some of those are campus infrastructure and energy for the future,” said Elzinga. “So not only is this project important from a learning aspect for all of you, it’s also important to the future of Calvin for some very practical reasons, but also for our creation care commitment as a university community.”

“This is who we are at Calvin, how we think about creation care as Christians. We have a responsibility to the environment, and that’s who we are at our core. We signed onto that at Greg’s level a couple of presidents back,” said Pruis, referring to the 2017 signing of the President’s Climate commitment.

Lots of Questions and A New Twist

As Heun continued to outline the project, students asked questions about the weekly rhythm, the scope, and the details needed in project deliverables.

What was also revealed to the students in Heun’s class is that one of those deliverables would be needed by mid-semester. For the first time in the 20-plus years Heun has been creating novel projects for his students, the two sections of his ENGR 333 classes are partnering with both a structural design class in the engineering department and a physics class, to help answer the question.

“At the middle of the semester, we have a deliverable for the physics class and the structural class to provide information so we can all work together,” said Heun.

So, there was no time to waste. Heun’s first assignment due the evening of the first class was for the students to apply to be part of one of four teams who would each be digging deep into a particular type of mounting option for the solar panels. They were expected to present their initial findings two weeks later.

Diving In

“I think it’s a big project and I’m very excited about the prospect of working with other students from across departments and across concentrations,” said Rory Marco, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration) from Sacramento, California.

“I’m honestly really excited because it can be easy in school for projects to just feel like it’s busywork or just examples, but this feels like it’s actually helping people and our university, which is amazing,” said Aiden Ehmann, a senior engineering major (mechanical concentration) from Durham, North Carolina. “I think I’m just excited for working with the administration for deliverables and all the aspects of creatively approaching this project.”

While the students are presenting their work and receiving feedback from the client throughout the semester, their final presentation with their recommendation for Calvin’s solar farm will take place in early December.

Wed, 09/18/2024 - 12:00

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On September 17, students in ENGR 333 were already presenting their initial findings to their client, CFO Dirk Pruis. The students were introduced to the project two weeks prior.

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Committed to excellence on, off, and under the fields

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:24:40 +0000

Committed to excellence on, off, and under the fields Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/17/2024 - 01:24

Over the next couple of years, Calvin’s outdoor athletic fields are getting major upgrades. On the northwest side of campus, the men’s and women’s soccer teams both won their initial contests on the new turf Zuidema soccer field. On the east side of campus a new track will be completed within weeks. And this is just the beginning.

But perhaps of equal importance to future stadiums, locker rooms, and training facilities is what’s not in plain sight, what’s hidden underground. The fields below the fields.

A deeply rooted commitment

“If this project is successful, I think it will allow us to move our carbon neutrality delivery date earlier, which aligns with President Boer’s desires,” said Matt Heun, professor of engineering at Calvin.

The project Heun references is the installation of two small geothermal fields—one to the northwest of the future soccer stadium and one just east of the future football building, “which ironically is slated to be underneath the future football field,” said Dirk Pruis, the CFO at Calvin.

Faculty and student advisors

“I didn’t dream this up,” said Pruis referring to the possibility of adding geothermal to Calvin’s campus, “others have been thinking about this for a while.”

Thinking about caring for creation and sustainability? Yes. ��Ƶ faculty and staff have produced scholarship and pushed the university to lean into this commitment for nearly half a century.

Thinking about geothermal solutions? “The student project for my Engineering 333 class last fall was focused on how to decarbonize campus heating,” said Heun. “They looked at lots of options. The one they landed on was geothermal.”

The client for that class project was President Boer. Pruis, who serves on the president’s cabinet, acknowledged the students’ work “helped inform our thinking around this.”

And it’s not the first time that student work helped inform sustainability initiatives on campus. Look no further than the Bunker Interpretive Center, where a group of senior engineers’ design project involved fitting that building with solar panels. That building is LEED-certified.

Piloting geothermal

While every building on campus outside the Bunker Interpretive Center is heated and cooled with a loop of hot and cold water, the university is “not putting these new athletic buildings on that loop,” according to Pruis.

The administration’s decision is encouraging to Calvin faculty, like Heun, who share in a deep commitment to caring for creation.

“I’m thrilled that the decision was made to go geothermal for the new buildings. They will be a great test case for us,” said Heun. “As the electricity supply gets decarbonized, they will emit less and less CO2 as we heat and cool them. That’s such a good, forward-thinking step for the university.”

While the plans are to install the two new geothermal fields, university leaders are still awaiting results from a 500-foot deep test bore that was done a couple of weeks ago before moving forward. Pruis says he “anticipates those results will determine that we can move forward with these plans.”

Tue, 09/12/2023 - 12:00

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Professor's research impacts coffee roasting on six continents

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:24:40 +0000

Professor's research impacts coffee roasting on six continents Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/17/2024 - 01:24

On a late September afternoon, you’ll find Ren Tubergen in the doghouse.

But make no mistake, the engineering professor at Calvin put himself there.

“It’s called the doghouse, because it’s her place,” said Tubergen as he pets Ronin, his 3-year-old German Shepherd.

The doghouse is a 600-square-foot outbuilding on Tubergen’s residential property in Cascade Township. While Ronin likes to accompany him there, it’s where Tubergen’s doing some of his scholarship these days.

An unexpected research lab

In one corner, there are a handful of 125-lb. bags of coffee beans, on the other side of the space, a pair of coffee roasters. “This one is capable of roasting 100 pounds of coffee per hour,” said Tubergen, pointing to the newest addition to his setup.

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But Tubergen isn’t in the coffee distribution business.

“I’m in research and development,” said Tubergen.

Tubergen is “the RND center” for an organization called VortX, which is based in California. What Tubergen’s been doing for years is helping the company solve a problem—reducing the detrimental effect conventional coffee roasting is having on the environment.

“If you’ve driven by a coffee roaster that doesn’t treat their exhaust, you can smell it, and it can hurt your eyes because of the pollutants, the oils in the coffee that get boiled off during the roasting process,” said Tubergen. “An afterburner, while it’s a great cleaning process, is very energy intensive and produces CO2. It was a great solution in the 1970’s.”

Not settling, aiming higher

But Tubergen and his colleagues at VortX knew settling for a solution that worked 50 years ago wasn’t good enough. So, they got to work, and came up with an idea and a prototype: a device that removes a lot of the smoke from the coffee roasting process—about 85-percent—and puts that smoke into water instead of the air, keeping the environment cleaner in the process.

Their idea entered the patent process and after a few years of peer review, it achieved patent status. Over the past five years, the company has installed the patented product, a VortX EcoFilter, in about 200 locations on six continents.

Tubergen isn’t surprised by the success of the product given that the customers they’re selling to share their values.

“Coffee roasters are generally very environmentally conscious. They are selling a part of the Earth, that’s the way they truly think about it,” said Tubergen. “And at the core they are providing coffee and that makes them extremely hospitable people. For small roaster’s there’s no obligation for those people to be treating their exhaust, but they want to be good neighbors. They are doing that out of love for creation, and a love for the neighbor next door.”

Benefitting students

Tubergen has also seen this research process as a great opportunity to involve students.

“One area I’ve been teaching since I started at Calvin is machine design. In some sense, that’s a machine,” said Tubergen, pointing at the 25-lb. roaster in his outbuilding. “It encompasses a ton of great things about mechanical engineering, the thermodynamic process, the cooling of the exhaust, the water recycling, the water flow and the plumbing, they all tie into the thermodynamics side, but there are a lot of machine design issues too.”

He also sees this scholarship as keeping him in the process of learning, making him a better teacher of the concepts.

“I can write about it, but you won’t find your mistakes when you write about it,” said Tubergen. “I mean peer review is supposed to check if your work is valid, but really, reality is how you figure out if it’s valid, peer review doesn’t tell you that.”

And while Tubergen spends a fair amount of time in the doghouse, he’s also excited to share the space and his experiences with his students.

“I think that’s important in living that out with students, having them see your values, having them see how you are spending your time, and where you’ve chosen to be a resource to the community.”

Sat, 09/30/2023 - 12:00

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Removing Parking and Discovering Place

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:24:40 +0000

Removing Parking and Discovering Place Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/17/2024 - 01:24

A couple dozen parking spaces on the ��Ƶ campus are out and a large bioswale has now moved in.

“It’s kind of like a bowl full of plants,” said Haley Weesies, a 2022 ��Ƶ graduate who is in her first year as program coordinator for Plaster Creek Stewards, a collaboration of ��Ƶ faculty, staff, and students working with local schools, churches, and community partners to restore the health and beauty of the watershed.

The construction and planting work on campus creates a beautiful space alongside the parking lot for the Prince Conference Center and features a diversity of native plants and pollinators.

“It’s an extension of the natural spaces we already have on campus,” said Julie Wildschut, assistant professor of engineering.

A natural filter for stormwater

The construction work on the new bioswale kicked off in late spring and is supported by a 319 grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy's Non Point Source Division.

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“This used to be just parking lot, which obviously doesn’t soak up water,” said Weesies, “and now it’s like a sponge, a sink for that dirty runoff that’s coming off of what’s in the parking lot (when it rains) and then the plants are soaking it up so that instead of it going down the drain, it’s being naturally filtered through the ground and absorbed by the plants.”

Without bioswales like these, the stormwater runoff would head down the drain, then into Plaster Creek, the Grand River, and eventually into Lake Michigan. Weesies says understanding these ripple effects is crucial and why education is one of the three pillars of the Plaster Creek Stewards’ work.

“All of the dirty water that would have been flowing off this parking lot would have been carried to our neighbors downstream and that’s impacting their health, their homes, and it’s making the place they live and play in dirty and gross,” said Weesies.

From awareness to appreciation

Sophia Ferenczi is a high school senior and a member of the Green Team, a group of high school students who work with the Plaster Creek Stewards each summer.

“We know the plants are important, but this is the on-the-ground restoration piece of our work. We also focus a lot on research and education, so learning and doing is what we like to pair together,” said Weesies. “And the high school Green Team Program is a great example of that, where students learn about our watershed, tour it, they see different places in it, they learn about things like environmental justice, about hydrology and ecology, and how water moves and how plants grow and what are good plants and what are invasive plants. So, they are learning about their place. Because these students all either live or go to school or both in our watershed.”

All that Ferenczi has learned being a part of the Green Team over the past two years has her taking greater responsibility and action.

“I think when you know about the space you are inhabiting you feel more like it’s a place you need to care about it,” said Ferenczi. “We are a part of the ecology of this land and of this place and we’ve had such a massive impact on it, and I think knowing that and understanding that, especially in a group of people, you feel like ‘oh, it’s my responsibility to start changing this and being better for this land that I’m a part of.’”

From appreciation to action

Cherith Pickett, now a sophomore, chose ��Ƶ because it was “the only small Christian liberal arts school with a strong environmental science program that was affordable for me.” She’s deepened her appreciation for and commitment to caring for creation through her time at Calvin and working with Plaster Creek Stewards this summer.

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“God has given us this beautiful planet and we are called to be stewards of it in Genesis,” said Pickett, “and when we’re not stewarding it, it’s just sad to see the effects of our human impact on creation. And when we can do our part, it’s so rewarding to see the life we can help propagate and generate.”

From student to steward

For Weesies working on this project is a bit of a full circle moment. “I worked on the Plaster Creek Stewards summer team after my sophomore year, so I worked on the curb cut rain garden team and got to do exactly what these guys are doing, installing green infrastructure projects, learning about native plants, being out in the community,” said Weesies.

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A living lab

Wildschut is excited about the additional research and experiential learning possibilities this newest project will open up for current and future learners.

“From an engineering perspective you design the bioswale to do certain things, and since it’s right here on our campus, it gives us the opportunity to say, does it do those things?” said Wildschut. “And there’s a widespread adoption of green infrastructure, but there’s not always a willingness to push the boundaries, engineers like to play it safe sometimes. So, when we are doing this work on Calvin’s campus, we can push those boundaries, try new things, and then monitor to see what happens and works well. If something doesn’t work well, we maybe adjust it, figure out what needs to be different. If something does work well, then we use it as a demonstration so hopefully we can spread these techniques elsewhere.”

Because the work happening on Calvin’s campus has ripple effects.

“One of the things that Calvin wants to do is demonstrate the commitment we have to sustainability and the research and the knowledge we’ve been accruing over these years. We really have an extensive research connection to sustainability efforts, from energy to stormwater to land use, so many different areas,” said Wildschut. “We’ll put signs up about this project and just point to what we are doing and why, so everybody who comes here will be able to see it. They’ll be able to benefit from the beauty of it and the increase in biodiversity and pollinators, but they’ll also be able to see and make that connection of what Calvin is doing for sustainability, and then be able to use Calvin as a resource. We want to take that place in our community, that we are a resource, and we can help other people with their sustainability efforts.”

Tue, 08/01/2023 - 12:00

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