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photo by McGarey Ken Bratt is the director of the honors program, which is making changes to the Honors Convocation to make it more ‘user-friendly’

“Calvin’s Honors Convocation is the one time of year when students’ academic achievements are honored by the entire college,” says Professor Ken Bratt, director of the honors program.

Specially honored at the upcoming April 22 ceremony will be seniors who are graduating with honors or who have made the Dean’s List for eight consecutive semesters. In addition, all students who have achieved a grade point average of 3.5 in both of the previous two semesters, while maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.3, will also be honored

The Honors Convocation has been held annually for a little more than 40 years. In recent years the format of Convocation has received a major overhaul. It all began when the Convocation planing committee decided that change was necessary to stimulate waning student interest in attending the event. One of the first changes implemented was the addition of students to the planning committee.

“The goal of this ceremony is to celebrate academic accomplishment, especially the seniors’,” remarked Halle Novak, a student member of the convocation planning committee. With the help of student input, the planning committee has made several major changes which have helped give Honors Convocation a more celebrative atmosphere.

Two years ago, medallions were presented, for the first time, to those seniors graduating with honors. In addition, seniors who had made the Dean’s List for all four years were presented with certificates. Another major change is that in the past all students being honored were required to dress in gowns. This year, however, the requirement has been dropped for most of the students, except those graduating with honors.

The planning committee also worked hard on shortening the length of the ceremony: The Convocation will last no more than a hour this year. The planning committee also made an effort to get more student involvement. As a result, instead of one long speech by a faculty member as in the past, there will be two shorter speeches — one given by a faculty member, the other by a student.

The planning committee has high hopes that these changes will encourage the student body to put aside their projects and papers to come and celebrate the academic accomplishments of over 400 fine Calvin students.

This year’s Convocation will be held on Thursday, April 22 at 8:00 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center. A reception will be held following the ceremony where parents and friends can congratulate those honored. Come and join the administration and faculty in honoring some of Calvin’s finest scholars.