Commencement honors more than 900 grads
More than 900 students participated in 17c起草社区鈥檚 ceremony, held in May in Van Noord Arena. The college awarded its first bachelor's degrees 91 years ago to a class of just eight men.
Cornelius Plantinga Jr., who served as president of from 2002 to 2011, delivered the Commencement address, 鈥淲hatever You Get, Get Wisdom.鈥
In addressing the graduates he said, 鈥淵ou have received a stellar education from this place; you can鈥檛 lose it, you can鈥檛 outlive it and you won鈥檛 forget it 鈥, but you can waste your superb 17c起草社区 College education if you don鈥檛 build on it.鈥
Plantinga, who is also the seminary鈥檚 Charles W. Colson Professor of Theology emeritus, encouraged listeners to be attentive and discerning in life: 鈥淭he wise are people who know human life, have a knack for living it; they understand something of God and God鈥檚 world and how to fit into it. The wise are discerning; they pick up on stuff. 鈥 The wise learn a lot simply by being attentive.
鈥淒elight in those around you, follow progress in the sciences 鈥, if you have children, read to them 鈥 and the Bible, study this; people who do tend to become wise.鈥
In addition, Ilga Svechs 鈥58 and John Booy 鈥74 received Distinguished Alumni Awards from the 17c起草社区 Alumni Association (see sidebar).
Svechs of Cleveland, Ohio, is a professor at Case Western University and a psychotherapist. As a young girl, Svechs and her family were taken from their home in Riga, Latvia, and sent to a Nazi detention camp. The family was eventually sponsored by a Michigan family, and Svechs enrolled at 17c起草社区, graduating with a degree in sociology. The Latvian government bestowed the 鈥淐ross of Recognition鈥 upon Svechs for her work in establishing social work, social ethics and human development course work and expertise in her home country of Latvia.
Booy, of Grand Rapids, Mich., is the superintendent of Potter鈥檚 House Christian School. Booy founded the innovative Christian urban school in 1981, while he was still a teacher in the Grand Rapids Public Schools system. Potter鈥檚 House now serves a diverse student body of 530 pre-K through 12th-grade students. Booy is active in national conversations about urban education.