By the time you’re reading this, the Calvin community will have welcomed about 1,000 new Knights to the Knollcrest campus. (That’s counting first-time-in-any-college and transfer students.)

We’re thrilled these young people decided on Calvin as the place they will encounter God’s world, meet lifelong influencers (friends, faculty and staff) and discern God’s calling for them in the future.

And what a smart and diverse bunch this class represents!

Ninety-two percent of the Class of 2019 are merit scholarship recipients. Ten years ago, there were 719 new students in that category. This fall, there are 835.

Twenty-five percent of the Class of 2019 are North American students of color or international students. Ten years ago, there were 94 incoming Calvin students in these categories. This fall, there are 223.

But there are other, more challenging statistics reflected in the enrollment numbers.

The number of alumni children (those with at least one parent who attended Calvin) has decreased over the last 10 years, from 388 to 300. That trend has caught the attention of the Calvin Alumni Association board.

For students who are members of the Christian Reformed Church, the numbers are more arresting: 464 10 years ago; 268 in this year’s first-year class.

The college is determined to address these trends with a revised Legacy Scholarship program that will affect high school seniors who are alumni children or Christian Reformed members in the coming year.

However, the demographics show that to reach 1,000 new Knights each year, Calvin College must reach beyond well-worn paths of admissions connections and into new national and international corners of God’s kingdom.

Calvin alumni are everywhere, on every continent, doing God’s work in places where churches and schools with traditional ties to the college have not been established. We’re going to need every Calvin grad to tell their Calvin story and point high school students and their families to the college.

I am confident that alumni, working in partnership with our fine enrollment team, can get Calvin to the 1,000 mark for first-time-in-any-college students by May 1 of next year (the national “college declaration” day).

The alumni association will lead this endeavor and will mark our progress along the way. The “ReCommend” program—which asks alumni, parents and students to identify one high school student to the admissions office and then encourage that student toward enrolling at Calvin—will be energized and strongly promoted.

Take time—today—to ReCommend a young person to the college at and continue to mentor that student throughout the year.

One thousand Knights by May 1. We’re on the clock!