Dr. Scott VanderStoep of the Hope College psychology faculty has been elected national president of Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology.
VanderStoep is an associate professor of psychology and chairperson of the department at Hope. He will serve as president-elect during the coming year, beginning this summer, and will then serve a year as president beginning in the summer of 2008 and another year as past-president.
He has been active with Psi Chi in a variety of ways through the years. He was vice president of the society's Midwest Region from 2002 through 2006, was a member of the Midwest Region's Steering Committee from 1997 through 1999, served as an ad hoc reviewer of the "Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research" from 1998 to 1999, and was a program reviewer for undergraduate presentations made through Psi Chi in conjunction with the Midwestern Psychological Association from 1994 through 1999. He is also advisor to Hope's chapter of Psi Chi, and chartered chapters at the two institutions at which he previously taught, Calvin College in Grand Rapids and Northwestern College in Iowa.
VanderStoep joined the Hope faculty as an associate professor in 1999 and has chaired the department of psychology since the summer of 2006. From 1999 to 2004 he was director of the college's Carl Frost Center for Social Science Research. He was also at Hope from 1992 to 1994 as a visiting member of the psychology faculty.
He specializes in courses in developmental psychology in addition to teaching about psychology and religion, and advanced data analysis. In addition to numerous articles in scholarly journals, his publications include the book "Learning to Learn: The Skill and Will of College Success," which he co-authored with Dr. Paul R. Pintrich. The second edition of "Learning to Learn" is scheduled for release this summer. He is also editor of "Science and the Soul: Christian Perspectives on Psychological Research."
An involved member of the West Michigan community, Vander Stoep is currently serving on the West Ottawa Public Schools Board of Education, is an elder at First Reformed Church in Holland and ran for the Michigan State Senate in November 2006.
He graduated from Hope in 1987 with majors in psychology and religion. He completed his master's degree in social psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, and his doctorate in psychology and education at the University of Michigan in 1992.
VanderStoep was an assistant professor of psychology at Calvin College from 1996 to 1999. He was a member of the psychology faculty at Northwestern College from 1994 to 1996.
The Psi Chi national honor society was founded in 1929 to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in scholarship, and advance the science of psychology. Psi Chi has chapters at more than 1,000 senior colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since its founding, the honor society has registered more than 500,000 members.
Psi Chi chapters are grouped within six regions: Eastern, Midwestern, Rocky Mountain, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Hope has had its chapter of Psi Chi since 1965 and is in the Midwestern Region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.