As Calvin College heads into its 2007 Commencement ceremonies this Saturday, May 19, the school's are celebrating not only the end of a grueling senior year, but also an amazing run of job offers.

Calvin officials announced this week that 91% of its graduating students in engineering have received a job offer.

Of the 58 students majoring in engineering 13 are either going to graduate school, pursuing opportunities such as the Peace Corps or returning to Calvin for a fifth year. Of the remaining 45 job seekers, 41 have received an offer. And, Calvin officials note, the other four may still land a job in the coming few weeks.

Calvin professor of engineering Gayle Ermer says the college believes this to be the best placement rate it's ever had this early. This despite a Michigan economy that is not exactly red-hot.

She notes that some of the Calvin students are headed out of state for their jobs, but that many are staying here in Michigan and have landed good jobs at good companies.

Among the local companies hiring 2007 Calvin engineering graduates are Johnson Controls, Gentex, Wolverine Construction and Progressive Technologies, while national companies who have hired this year's grads include Lockheed Martin, V3 Companies and Rockwell Collins.

Department chair Steve VanderLeest says those students are well-prepared thanks to their Calvin education.

"Our graduates are highly sought after," he says, "not only because they have great technical skills, but also because they are great communicators due to the strong liberal arts component of our engineering curriculum."

Calvin offers an accredited Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree (BSE) with concentrations in: Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Some 85 percent of its engineering students graduate in four years and each year 20 to 25 percent of the engineering graduates go immediately to graduate school. The Calvin program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).