The Educational Task of Dordt University is an 18-page statement of purpose describing “how a Reformed confession of biblical faith impacts Christian higher education.” Students may not know much about it, but The Task is a lynchpin for a Dordt education—or, as President Erik Hoekstra says, an educational creed—a statement of beliefs that guide action. “While nearly every institution has …
Khamko’s Legacy
Dr. Bill Elgersma (’81) doesn’t award the Baccam Soccer Scholarship to just anyone. Elgersma, Dordt’s women’s soccer coach, looks for a leader who can shape a stronger team. When Anneke Tel, a freshman from Puyallup, Washington, inquired about Dordt last Christmas, Elgersma knew she possessed those intangibles and would be a good candidate for the scholarship. “She is tenacious, fierce, …
A Bit of Restoration
Dordt’s campus is quiet during the summer, but it certainly doesn’t shut down. For student summer researchers, it’s home base for building on what they’ve learned in the classroom and doing collaborative research with a professor. On campus and across Sioux County, students and faculty spend their days exploring and studying a range of projects that tackle issues in the …
Running the Race
On June 24—exactly one month after he and his 4×800 meter relay team claimed a national title at the NAIA National Track and Field Championships—junior David Temte passed away in a car accident in Montana. He and his twin brother, Benjamin, who also died in the crash, were returning to their hometown of Bloomington, Minnesota, from a two-week road trip …
Getting Stuck on Math 291
“There will be times this semester when you will get stuck, and that is okay. What is not okay, however, is giving up.” Read through the fall syllabus of Dr. Tom Clark’s Math 291 course, and you might be inspired to take the problem-solving seminar. Problem-solving, explains Clark, is at the heart of doing mathematics. No matter the type of …
Doing More at Dordt
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 …