Aero Engineering Takes Off at Calvin

Starting this fall, an aerospace engineering concentration is being offered at Calvin University. The addition adds strength to an already nationally respected engineering program, which recently rose to its highest ranking (#38) on U.S. News & World Report’s best undergraduate engineering programs list. 

Since the program was announced a year ago, it has drawn a lot of interest from both incoming and current students.

“I was looking at other, smaller Christian schools, and a lot of them didn’t have engineering in general, and I specifically wanted to go into aerospace,” said Kyle Chakery, a first-year student from Grand Prairie, Tex. “So Calvin’s program drew me in, and knowing it was the first year was really exciting.” 
 
“I think it’s the first Christian college to have an aero program,” said Juan Moon, a junior who grew up in South Korea and Thailand. “Tying aerospace engineering and Christian values together is so valuable when you go into industry, because it helps set your heart posture to appropriately focus on the right things.”

While the program is just starting up, aerospace engineering majors at Calvin are encouraged that the professors they are learning from have wide industry experience. Ken Visser, for example, spent a decade at NASA and at Boeing, including work on the design of the Boeing 767-400ER. His groundbreaking contributions to the field of aerodynamics led to his being honored as an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics earlier this year. 

While Visser assumes a leading role in the launch of Calvin’s aerospace engineering program, he is part of a team of several faculty colleagues with aerospace experience, including Matt Heun, who worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before teaching at Calvin, and Fred Haan, whose specialty is experimental aerodynamics. 

“I am excited about learning aero here because the profs who are part of the aero program have a lot of experience up their sleeves. They’ve been everywhere, done everything,” said Ava Ibrahim, a sophomore from Whitinsville, Mass. “The education I am going to get is going to be valuable, which is a solid foundation.”

But students say it’s more than just being prepared with all the technical skills they’ll need.

“There are a lot of profs here who I believe are overqualified, based on what they’ve achieved in industry, but they are here because they found God was calling them to be here in the first place—and I feel that’s a gift for the students,” said Moon. “They teach more than just technical things. Yes, the profs are qualified to teach those aspects, but they go beyond to relate these technical aspects to Christian values, showing us how to live in industry guided by what you believe in.”

What the students in the aero program find most valuable is something common to all disciplines at Calvin—professors who are passionate about their field and committed to personally knowing their students.

“I really appreciate the passion of the professors that I have,” said Michael Liggett, a junior from Rockford, Mich. “They care a lot about the material, and it’s easy to follow along with lectures when you can tell they have a passion in what they are doing and a lot of real-world experience to share with the class.”

“On my visit to campus last year,” said Chakery, “I got to have a one-on-one visit with Ken Visser, and we chatted for 20-30 minutes. He was amazing to talk to. We talked about planes and some of the Apollo missions, and it was really exciting. You could see the passion he has for aerospace. I love that he has a major passion for exploration, design, creativity, and critical thinking. Now, as a student, I feel the professors are very easy to talk to, specifically Visser, and I’m not afraid to ask questions if I’m confused.”

Beyond the proximity to professors who serve as both industry experts and mentors, students in Calvin’s aero program also see the value of a liberal arts education.

“I think a lot of engineering requires good written and verbal communication, and I know that the liberal arts education I’m getting at Calvin will be most helpful in those areas: reading, writing, and speaking,” said Ibrahim. “It’s been so good to have an oral rhetoric class for engineers.”

Ibrahim is also grateful for the opportunity to take sociology and psychology classes. “Learning the way people around you think is really helpful, and I think some people would miss out on having that knowledge, how to integrate into society without a liberal arts education.”

A liberal arts education “just expands your broadness of thought,” said Chakery. “You get a wider scope of what is out there theologically and philosophically, which I think is unique and important in understanding engineering design as well. We talk about moral norms in engineering design, which means stuff has to be up to code morally, ethically, and physically. Because some of the stuff you build will have an impact on other people, you have to build with a broad scope in mind.”