Northwestern College (Iowa)


Northwestern College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Orange City, Iowa. It is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and enrolls more than 1200 students. Northwestern began as an academy in 1882. It became a junior college in 1928 and a four-year institution in 1961.
Northwestern has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 1953. In addition, the athletic training, business, education, nursing and social work programs are accredited by their respective accreditation organizations.
Athletically, Northwestern competes as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, Division II, within the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

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 is a few blocks south of the downtown area, centered on the intersection of State Highway 10 and Albany Avenue.

Leadership

Northwestern College is governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by Martin Guthmiller. Approximately half of its members represent the RCA denomination. There is also a Student Government Association.
Greg Christy serves as the president of the Northwestern College. He is assisted by a leadership team called the President's Cabinet.
President Christy began serving as president of 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 12 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 and a master's degree in physical education and sports management from Western Illinois University.

Campus culture

Northwestern College identifies itself 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. There is also a student-led time of praise and worship on Sunday evenings.
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:
There were a total of 1,250 students at the start of the 2017-18 school year - 771 women and 479 men. Roughly half of the student population attending NWC comes from the state of Iowa and two-thirds of its students come from four Midwestern states: Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska. The top six Christian denominations represented at the college are: Reformed/RCA, Lutheran, Christian Reformed, Evangelical Free, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic. More than 10% of NWC students are identified as ethnic minorities or international students.

Student residences

Administrative facilities

Spring Service Partnerships

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 Partnerships 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 Partnerships 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 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. 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.
Northwestern College teams are known as the Red Raiders. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, competing in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. 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 Championship appearances

"*" indicates overtime
The 2001 "double" was the first time that an NAIA school accomplished the feat, and at the time, only the second in collegiate history.

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.

Notable people

Alumni