Northwestern College (Iowa)

College community

Northwestern College is an educational institution made up of approximately 1200 students and 300 faculty and staff located in Orange City, a rural community of 6004 residents in Sioux County, Iowa. The campus itself is a few blocks south of the downtown area, centered on the intersection of State Highway 10 and Albany Avenue.

Leadership

The NWC community is governed by a Board of Trustees which is chaired by Martin Guthmiller. Approximately half of its members represent the RCA denomination. There is also a Student Government Association.

Greg Christy is the President of the college. He is assisted by a leadership team called the Administrative Council.

President Christy began with NWC in 2008. He had previously served as the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, an institution he served at for twelve years. Prior to that, he had held positions on the staffs of South Dakota State University and Iowa State University. Christy holds a bachelor's degree in management from Simpson College along with a master's degree in physical education and sports management from Western Illinois University.

Dr. Kent Eaton serves as the college's Provost in an interim capacity.

Campus culture

Northwestern College expresses its identity as a "Reformed, evangelical and ecumenical" community, viewing these three Christian theological perspectives as complementary and drawing strengths from each perspective to fulfill its mission. Chapel is offered two days a week in addition to a student-led Sunday evening praise and worship night.

As an intentionally Reformed, Christian academic community, NWC has adopted a Vision for Learning "rooted in the wisdom of the Bible" where they "view learning as worship, using our minds to better understand, serve and love God's world." An institutional commitment to engagement is an important part of that, by "participating in God's redemptive work" and seeking "to respond to God's call to share the gospel, care for creation and serve Christ in everyone." As a logical outgrowth of that vision, an education at NWC is designed to prepare students to:

Demographics

There were a total of 1205 students as of the 2014-15 school year - 709 women and 496 men. Roughly half of the student population attending NWC comes from the state of Iowa and two-thirds of its students come from the three mid-western states: Iowa (649 students), South Dakota (102), and Minnesota (90). The top six Christian denominations represented at the college are: Reformed/RCA (265), Lutheran (102), Evangelical Free (94), Baptist (81), Roman Catholic (76), and Christian Reformed (66). More than 10% (157) of NWC students are identified as ethnic minorities or international students.

Student groups and clubs on campus

Events and traditions

Academic buildings

Administrative facilities

Recognition

Spring service projects

For college students all over the country, spring break means road trips to big cities and balmy beaches. Northwestern students do that too, but some of them pack a hammer. Northwestern College annually sends more than 200 students, faculty and staff in teams to serve with ministries in the U.S. and around the world. SSP teams have traveled to Nicaragua and the Netherlands, to California, New York, Oklahoma and Florida. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities have been frequent destinations. SSP teams build and repair homes, minister in prisons, tutor at youth centers, serve in soup kitchens, live with residents in homeless shelters and more.

Spring Service Projects integrate faith, service and cross-cultural learning within a team setting that also allows for the involvement of faculty and staff. The SSP program benefits both the ministries and the students who serve: The efforts of a variety of ministries are encouraged, supported and helped in tangible ways. In addition, Northwestern students are challenged and strengthened in their faith as they see and experience the gospel being lived out in cultures different than the one in which they live.

Spring Service Projects provide students opportunities to participate in mission work taking place domestically and abroad during annual spring breaks in early March. Students have spent their ten-day breaks serving in city missions, youth hostels, construction sites, disaster relief zones, and low-income schools.

Summer of Service

The Summer of Service (SOS) program at Northwestern College challenges, prepares and encourages students to be effective Christian servants in the world. It also exists to assist and support missionaries and the communities they work in. Each year, 20 to 25 students serve cross-culturally for at least six weeks in the U.S. or overseas. Past participants have traveled to countries like Croatia, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Malawi, Russia, South Africa and Thailand to serve with mission agencies like The Luke Society, Dublin Christian Mission, Pioneers International and TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission). They have worked in hospitals, orphanages and refugee camps; taught Vacation Bible School and English as a second language; and served in sports and hospitality ministries.

Summer of Service team members return from their summer experiences more aware of the world’s problems and promises and more equipped to wrestle with biblical applications to what they experienced. Often these students remain involved in service and mission, either full- or part-time after graduating from college.

Recent sites served include

Musical opportunities

Northwestern offers ten unique musical opportunities for students. Three of these are vocal ensembles and seven are instrumental.

Athletics

Northwestern College teams are known as the Red Raiders. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), competing in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, track & field and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Outdoor sports such as football and track are played at DeValois Stadium.

National championships

The 2001 "double" (men's and women's basketball titles) was the first time that an NAIA school accomplished the feat, and at the time only the second in collegiate history (Central Missouri State, now known as the University of Central Missouri (located in Warrensburg, Missouri) previously accomplished the feat in 1984; the University of Connecticut would later accomplish the feat in 2004 and 2014).

National runners-up

Free throw record

Deb Remmerde-Leusink, a 2008 Northwestern College graduate, holds numerous NAIA records including the record for most consecutive in-game free throws in the history of organized basketball. She ended her 133-shot free-throw streak in February 2006. Remmerde later appeared on "The Early Show" where she completed 580 of 585 free-throws, live, in front of a CBS television crew.

Alumni

Staff and faculty