Calvin will be adding an Aerospace Engineering concentration to its engineering program starting in fall 2025. The addition comes as a response to the growing interest in aerospace from current and prospective students alike, says Fred Haan, an engineering professor involved in developing the concentration: “We’ve got a lot of inquiries from prospective students who are very interested in aerospace.” 

“We’ve got a nice core of aerodynamics expertise on campus, and we feel like we can address this demand that’s coming to us,” Haan continued.

That new expertise will be spearheaded by an addition to Calvin’s engineering faculty, Professor Ken Visser. Visser, who has worked for NASA and Boeing and taught aerospace engineering at Clarkson University for 26 years, said he “really felt God reaching out to me and saying, … I’ve given you the opportunity to work for [these companies]. And so now it’s time to refocus and provide the opportunity of aerospace engineering to students seeking an education at Calvin.” Visser’s focus is to help create an aerospace concentration that fits within Calvin’s American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited program. 

The concentration will include courses on aerodynamics, propulsion, aircraft performance and flight mechanics, as well as an aerospace senior design project. It will be designed to build upon Calvin’s existing engineering program. As part of the department’s existing engineering seminar, speakers with relevant experience will be invited to give a lecture to interested students. The list of potential guests is sure to include Calvin alumni who’ve been successful in industry, along with speakers from places like NASA.

Additionally, a student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will be set up by Visser in tandem with the concentration. This aerospace professional society will give students connections to people working in industry, as well as unique extracurricular opportunities. AIAA’s annual Design/Build/Fly competition has students “design, fabricate, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio-controlled aircraft” whilst competing against teams from top schools across the country to complete a specified objective. 

As Visser aptly puts it, “it’s a terrific opportunity for students to find out that airplanes fly really well on the computer, but it’s a little harder in the real world.” Practical experiences with developing a deploying aircraft will be invaluable to students interested in all things air- and space-related. Aerospace expertise is not limited to airliners and rocket ships however, with applications in contexts as varied as creating a smoother driving experience to designing buildings to be resistant to natural hazards like tornados. 

Calvin students interested in aerospace engineering will not be without precedent in having successful careers in industry, as the new concentration also coincides with a surge in excitement within and around the aerospace industry. NASA’s Artemis Mission plans to see humans return to the moon and establish a sustainable settlement there. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are also revolutionizing the industry playbook and making space travel more accessible to civilians. 

Many Calvin alumni have been able to flourish in the aerospace industry with concentrations in mechanical or electrical engineering, with Calvin grads repping the University in industry heavy weights like NASA, Boeing, and GE Aerospace. Michael VanWoerkom is a Calvin grad and the founder and CEO of ExoTerra Resource LLC, an aerospace company working to develop the “infrastructure necessary to reduce the cost of gravity.” Another alumnus working at Northrop Grumman worked on the launch for the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Professor Matthew Heun, who has worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is also involved in developing the aerospace curriculum. He is confident in Calvin’s ability to nurture students, not just as engineers, but as believers. Quoting the Christian writer Dorothy Sayers, Heun deeply believes that as Christians, “People, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.” For aerospace engineers that ethos intersects with the onus they bear to their employers, communities, and especially the lives entrusted into their care.

Aerospace is a field that is almost intrinsically always on the frontier of current possibilities. That Calvin is adding an aerospace concentration is a reflection of its commitment to expanding its frontiers, if slower than many would like. “It just demonstrates,” Visser commented on this development, “that we need to get involved in every aspect of God’s world.” As a high school student who knew he wanted to pursue aerospace, Visser remembers looking for an institution that would give him the ability to chase that dream in a Christian community and coming up empty-handed. He ended up at the University of Calgary instead. Now, Calvin has a chance to become the institution at the intersection of a passion for space and a love for God.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated for clarity.