Headed in a Northwestern Direction

Vaughn Donahue ’07, who provided the graphics for this story, conducted his college search from Monmouth, Maine, with the help of the Internet. When he Googled “Northwestern College,” sometimes he got us, and sometimes he got Northwestern College in Minnesota. That’s the one he thought he applied to. Oops. He ended up accepted at Northwestern in Iowa instead and thought, “Why not?” Why not, indeed. Regardless of how you got here; we’re just glad you came.

Trucked to College

As a senior, I was looking for a strong Christian college with a dance team. My boyfriend attended the University of Northern Iowa, so I had my heart set on Wartburg College, just 20 miles from UNI.

Northwestern also fit my criteria, so I checked it out too, and from the moment we visited, my parents loved NWC. At the end of a day on campus, they were convinced I should enroll, and I was in tears.

I wanted to be near my boyfriend, but God wouldn’t let me off the hook about Northwestern. I ended up being so confused about my college choice that I finally told God, “You’re going to need to hit me over the head with the right answer.” Later that day, sitting in the library at my high school, I looked up and a truck for the Northwestern Electric Company was parked outside—white with red lettering.

“OK. I get it,” I told God, and the next fall I packed for Northwestern, where I met my four friends for life.

My boyfriend and I survived too; we’re getting married in September.

Kiley Seligman ’09
SPIRIT LAKE, IOWA

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A Different Track

Half of my high school class went to Dordt, and I needed a change! I also like Northwestern’s track program.

Jeremy Van Engen ’99
PELLA, IOWA

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Excellent Choice

Academically and athletically, I had my choice of several colleges. I picked Northwestern because it was a Christian school that stood out in both those areas.

Kim (Rubsam ’80) Rodenbough
DENVER, COLO.

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Conversion Experience

I wasn’t a Christian, but Northwestern was the only college I visited. I had a music scholarship, and my favorite experience was the band tours, including the 1994 tour in the Ukraine. I became a Christian my freshman year.

Susan West ’94
ORANGE CITY, IOWA

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Best in the Northwest

On a college visit road trip, I stopped at Buena Vista in the morning and Northwestern in the afternoon. There was no comparison. I knew Northwestern was where I wanted to spend the next four years of my life, and I’ve never regretted it.

Deb (Falkena ’91) Russell
CAMBRIDGE, IOWA

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Sonny Memories

I picked Northwestern because it was close to home, there were wonderful people there, and the campus was beautiful! What I wouldn’t give to relive some of my college days. I hope someday my son chooses Northwestern and loves it as much as I did then and still do.

Gretchen (Black ’03) Engelmeyer
LEE'S SUMMIT, MO.

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Dramatic Decision

Northwestern was my third college visit in three weeks. I met Karen Barker and Mr. T [Jeff Taylor], and that evening I saw a production in the former Northwestern Playhouse. Driving home, my mom said, “So what’d you think?” I said, “I’m going to school there,” and that was the last of our visits or talk about any other colleges.

Jonathan Allsup ’02
CREEDE, COLO.

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A Winning Education

I was looking for a college where I could study to be an actuary and play sports. God picked Northwestern for me, and it absolutely changed my life.

I was reminded of that this spring as I followed the news about the women’s basketball team winning the national championship. I read a Sioux City Journal article about Kami Kuhlmann [’13], the tournament MVP, who said her top tournament memory was a player-led Bible study the night before the Final Four. The teammates hardly talked about basketball. Instead they prayed for one another’s lives off the court.

That community: That’s what Northwestern was for me.

Chad Noble ’95
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.

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Making Dad Happy

My dad, the Rev. Andrew Meyer, was devoted to the Reformed Church in America (RCA), attending Central College in Pella, Iowa, and then pastoring RCA churches for more than 55 years. The youngest of his 12 children, I was a junior when Trinity Reformed Church in Sibley, Iowa, called him to be their minister.

None of my siblings had attended an RCA college, so I told my dad I wanted to follow in his footsteps and attend Central. He told me there was another RCA college just a few short miles away: Northwestern. I got a great education and was the only one in my family to fulfill Dad’s dream of having at least one of his kids attend an RCA college.

Cindy (Meyer ’76) Jensen
DAWSONVILLE, GA.

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Following the Signs

Before my junior year, my parents organized an ambitious road trip that would take us on a tour of Iowa’s private colleges. When we arrived at Northwestern, I was unimpressed. The campus was small (not much bigger than my high school in Sterling, Ill.). It was raining, and I thought the T-shirt the admissions office gave me was ugly. But by the time we left, my parents had decided: This was the one. I’d decided to go with my friends to a state school.

During Christmas vacation, my mother said I had to make a decision by the end of break. “I won’t go there!” I shouted through frustrated tears. Not a minute later, the phone rang. On the other end was an admissions counselor who’d traveled all the way from northwest Iowa to Illinois to talk to me about Northwestern. It may as well have been God on the line saying, “Northwestern is my plan for you.”

In August 2004, I traveled more than 400 miles to Northwestern, moved into Fern Smith Hall and never looked back. Northwestern became a home where I spent the most memorable four years of my life.

Amy (Vos ’08) Smit
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA

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Course Correction

My dad works at a Christian college—Geneva in Beaver Falls, Pa.—and my older sister had been through the college search process, so when my time came, I knew exactly which schools were on my short list. Northwestern? I didn’t even know it existed.

Among my dad’s colleagues at Geneva were Brandon ’02 and Kelly (Huizenga ’02) Van Marel, who first encouraged me to consider Northwestern. Since they were nice enough to copy pages and pages of NWC information for me, I felt obligated to take a look, even though I had no intention of attending a college in Iowa that I hadn’t heard of until recently.

When Brandon, who was a Geneva admissions counselor, visited my high school, he told my classmates about Geneva, but I asked him about Northwestern. What he said convinced me to visit. After the visit, Northwestern went from “No way” to first choice.

But it wasn’t to be—yet. My sister’s college had dropped to the bottom of my list, but I reluctantly gave into family pressure and enrolled there. It didn’t feel right, but I thought maybe God was using my family to show me where I should go.

October of my freshman year, I still was wistfully browsing Northwestern’s website. For the next four months, I prayed, talked with friends and contacted a Northwestern counselor about transferring, a process that needed to include transferring the CCCU tuition waiver for employee children that I’d been granted by my current college. When Northwestern offered me a similar waiver, I knew God was giving me the “thumbs up.”

I made lifelong friends at Northwestern and found my vocation in student development through serving as an RA in Fern. Even though I got here in a roundabout way, now I’m forever red.

Katie Bell ’09
DALLAS, TEXAS