Studies show students who are the most engaged in academic life and in their campus community are the ones who benefit the most from college. “What students do at college matters … The key is engagement, inside the classroom and out,” writes Dr. Denise Pope in the Wall Street Journal article “The Right Way to Choose a College.” Students who …
On Civil Discourse
During the 2016 presidential election season, Donald Trump stood on the B.J. Haan Auditorium stage, addressing supporters and famously saying, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Dr. Ben Carson also held public events in Dordt’s Campus Center. But Dr. Jeff Taylor, …
Groninga Lands a Christian Hip-Hop Record Deal
How did Becca Groninga, a senior mechanical engineering major, land a record deal with Enoch Flow Records, a Christian hip-hop label? Groninga’s interest in spoken word—a form of word-based performance art—and rap started when she was in high school in Green Isle, Minnesota, where she was inspired to write her own lyrics. During her freshman and sophomore years at Dordt, …
Dordt Expands Master’s Program Options
In the past few months, Dordt has expanded and revised its master’s degree programs. “I’m excited about the opportunity for Dordt to serve a wider variety of working professionals that are looking for a Christ-centered program to further their effectiveness in their field,” says Joe Bakker, director of online programs at Dordt. The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, which …
A Step of Faith to Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
In January of 2013, President Erik Hoekstra visited Grace Christian Reformed Church in Burke, Virginia. A small group of Dordt graduates who lived in the Washington, D.C., area had gathered to hear Hoekstra share his vision for what Dordt might become. At the end of the talk, Ken Verbrugge (’69), a program manager at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab …
Weather Warrants Campus Closure
On January 29, Registrar Jim Bos (’85) was sitting in his office on the third floor of the Campus Center when he saw an email from Chief Administrative Officer Howard Wilson hit his inbox. “Within seconds, I heard students cheering in the Defender Grille,” says Bos. “I didn’t need to read the email to know what the cheering was about.” …
CACE
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION REIMAGINED CACE, Dordt’s Center for the Advancement of Christian Education, began with a question: How can we make Christian schools better—how can they be places of real transformation? In 2013, Dr. Timothy Van Soelen, an education professor, and nearly 45 other school leaders gathered in Provo, Utah, for two days to talk about that question. Six months later, …
Rise and Shine
Anna Christians has had a busy senior year. During the fall semester, she co-taught first grade at Sioux Center Christian School in the morning and took Dordt classes in the afternoon. She spent most evenings creating lesson plans, doing homework, and trying to keep some semblance of a social life. As she started the spring semester and began working full …
Using Coffee to Connect
Looking for the best cup of coffee on Dordt’s campus? Stop by 55th Avenue Café in Kuyper Apartments, where you can purchase a pour-over or a pound of Laotian coffee beans, roasted and sourced by Dordt alumna-owned Pilgrim’s Coffee. Christa (Geels, ’10) and Danny Longkumer run Pilgrim’s Kitchen and Inn in Savannakhet, Laos, where Pilgrim’s Coffee is produced. “We have …
Landlords & Tenants
BRINGING LANDLORDS AND TENANTS TOGETHER As public health professionals, Stephanie Van Ruler (’08) and Angela Kroeze Visser (’01) must think about social factors that have an impact on people’s health. Many of these factors relate to where people live, learn, work, and play. “Stable, safe housing is a critical underlying factor that influences health,” says Kroeze Visser, who works as …