Significant Place by President Greg Christy
Minding Place events April 5–12, including the first Day of Learning in Community on April 9, were a huge success. Our featured speaker, author Kathleen Norris, challenged us to consider how place shapes us and how we shape our place.
To fully engage the campus in this endeavor, we canceled all classes and closed offices for significant portions of the day. It was a day set aside for everyone on campus to learn together—along with alumni and community members who joined us for this thought-provoking experience.
Many faculty, staff, students and guests led place-themed workshops throughout the day. There were a variety of excellent sessions to choose from, with rich discussions on topics as varied as “Our Hispanic Neighbors” and “Virtual Places.”
One of the workshops I attended, “Tulips, Windmills and Buggies: Ethno-Religious Integration in Orange City and Kalona, Iowa,” was led by Dr. Mitch Kinsinger, religion, and Dr. Michael Yoder, sociology. Both professors shared how the Amish settings they grew up in shaped them and their communities. They gave an excellent presentation on the similarities and differences between their personal backgrounds growing up in the Amish tradition, and the Dutch Reformed tradition and its influence on Orange City and northwest Iowa.
The significance of place and relationships was also a common theme at our baccalaureate service on May 9. All of the seniors who spoke during this final worship service of the year shared stories of how they grew as a result of this place and their relationships with peers and professors.
One senior said his advice to new freshmen would be, “If you feel like you don’t know anyone, and you don’t know how you got here and where you are going, you are probably in the right place.” That is how he felt as a freshman—but now, after having been impacted by relationships formed in this community, he leaves Northwestern a changed person, with a connectedness that will influence all areas of his life.
That is what we are all about at this place—the integration of faith, learning and living. We believe the holistic education we offer happens best in the context of community and personal relationships. In our students’ pursuit of wisdom, our hope is that their faith in Christ is strengthened and they are challenged to examine how they ought to live in light of what they have learned.
May we give God the glory for the transforming experiences our students have at this place.