2002
The Voice: Summer 2002
Alumni Scholarship winners
Each year the alumni board awards three alumni scholarships to students in their
junior year at Dordt. Applicants are asked to write an essay that describes
their personal background, their experiences at Dordt and how they have been affected
by them, and their personal and career goals. The alumni board then interviews
selected applicants to make the final decision on awards.
This year’s recipients are Kraig Bleeker, Michelle Contant, and Beth Vander Ziel.
Kraig Bleeker, from Sioux Center, is majoring in theology and minoring in missions
and evangelism. Following graduation next year, he hopes to work with a local
church or para-church organization in an inner city ministry that reaches out to
a broad range of people. Bleeker says he
is open to church planting or other urban ministry and is content to
see where God leads him next year.
Bleeker is particularly grateful for the opportunity he’s had to study with people
from different places who have come to
Dordt. He believes that diversity in the body of Christ is something to
cherish and learn from. He’s grateful that Dordt encourages
such diversity and hopes to expand his
horizons much more in the years ahead.
Michelle Contant is preparing herself for a career with at-risk young people in
an outdoor, physically-challenging recreational setting. She is majoring in social work and HPER
(health, physical education, and recreation) and pictures herself working with groups of kids,
teaching them about themselves, others, and the world around them.
One of the highlights of her Dordt
experience has been her semester in the Netherlands.
“Learning about another culture while living in it has given me more of
an appreciation for my heritage, while also expanding my view of the world.
It has provided the opportunity to see North America from another perspective,” she
says. She’s thankful for good friends, Shamar canoe trips, worshipping with peers, practical
classes, and
the way they have all contributed to her
education.
Beth Vander Ziel will also leave Dordt with a double major, in accounting
and computer science. Following graduation she hopes to attend graduate school to earn
either an MBA or Ph.D. in a business-related field. She also plans to
sit for the CPA exam and would like to work in a public
accounting firm for a few years.
Beth says she’s appreciated the variety in her Dordt education and “the way
Dordt asks us to weave it all together.”
“I love the interaction with people,
the late night discussions, the challenging class work, the stress-releasing study breaks, plays,
and concerts,” she says. “Dordt presents us with options and then lets us
play in them, teaching us to enjoy our lives for what they are—a
colorful praise collage to the Lord.”
