Calvin College Names Top Teacher for 2008

A Calvin College professor of speech pathology and audiology has been named the college's 2008 recipient of the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching.

Judith Vander Woude, the 16th winner of Calvin's top teaching award, was honored Thursday evening at a special dinner on campus.

Fellow members of the communication arts and sciences department at Calvin say that Vander Woude deserves the recognition.

Department chair Helen Sterk says that under Vander Woude's leadership, Calvin's program has grown from only a handful of students in the mid 1990s to some 70 majors a year now. In addition Calvin's placement rate for students who go on to graduate school is close to 100 percent.

"Most years," says Sterk, "every one of our graduates who applies to graduate school gets in. That's a wonderful testimony to the curriculum that Dr. Vander Woude has developed at Calvin and the real-world experiences she provides for her majors."

Those experiences include an on-site stroke clinic in the DeVos Communications Center at Calvin, as well as speech pathology programs for school-age children, audiology testing and much more.

Vander Woude says she loves her job because "making a difference in the lives of students is very satisfying.”

For more, read the full story from Calvin College.