Helen Hulstein

This scholarship was established by the estate of Helen (Bouma) Hulstein to give financial assistance to students in the field of primary or secondary education. Helen Hulstein was a life-long supporter of Calvin College. She graduated from Calvin College in 1924 at the age of 18 being one of only three women in a class of twenty-four graduates. She went on to teach in Christian schools for 11 years, first in Holland, Michigan and then in the Chicago, Illinois area. At Ebenezer Christian School in Chicago she met her future husband, Neal S. Hulstein, a 1928 graduate of Calvin College, who was teaching across the hall from her. When they married she was not longer able to teach, as was the practice in the ‘30s. The young family, now with three children, moved to Denver, Colorado in 1943 where Helen Hulstein was an active supporter of the Denver Christian School system and taught various classes there as needed. She was also an accomplished Bible teacher in her church and, as a volunteer, taught English as a second language to immigrants in the Denver area for many years. At the time of her death in 2011 at 105, she was the oldest alumnae of Calvin College.