“It was a dream, and it was madness. Just the visual of the students, fans, and my players together on the court was incredible—it was something I will never forget,” Harmsen said. He looked to his team as they made snow angels in the confetti on the hardwood court–where they forever sealed their position as 2024 national champions.
We’ve all been there – a shiny new-to-you tattered textbook in the backpack and the throw away syllabus overview day of class. Then the terrible news hits when the professor gets to the assignments section of the syllabus. To complete the homework, one will need to spend what could sometimes be hundreds of dollars to buy the assignment software online.
Dordt University Students looking for refuge from the March rain were surprised to find a bustling atmosphere, filled with booths, prize drawings and popcorn. The Sioux Center Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual fair in the Recreation Center from March 20-21.
Starting in the Fall of 2024 Dordt University class schedules are undergoing a time shift. All classes will begin at 8:10 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. Registrar Jim Bos said an updated schedule has been in the works for the past few years to accommodate the need for more class time.
There are official agencies in Sioux County who can assist with finding housing, but those services are often focused on families and individuals facing a severe cost burden, or other barriers to finding an affordable place to live.
This semester, I am studying at VIAA University in Zwolle, Netherlands. While there, I am studying international marketing and learning more about Dutch culture. However, most students don’t study abroad solely for academic benefits. Before I left, people asked me why I wanted to study abroad. My answer: When else do you get to live in a different country for four months?
Thirty years ago, in 1994, Ben Kornelis was crowned the Dordt University concert choir Toidmaster, an important role bestowed upon the tallest member of the concert choir to distribute ‘curiously strong mints’ to its members before concerts. What started off as a joke to keep the choir’s breath minty fresh has now turned into a tradition that has lasted 30 years.
Survive. This word echoed though the Dordt University’s Recreation Center courts when over thirty women repeated it during the self-defense class held on March 19. Kamera Thompson, one of the self-defense instructors and Sioux County Deputy, asked the women what their main goal was in any dangerous situation. She wanted them to repeat back to her: “SURVIVE.”
Escaping from gang violence, and fighting for life, a Haitian refugee, Max-Soni Destine made his way out of the country and found a safe harbor in Sioux Center, Iowa. Now, he is learning how to live in a new place and culture.
Dordt University men’s track sent eleven individual competitors and three relay teams to compete in the NAIA Indoor Championship held at South Dakota State University, in Brookings, S. D. on Feb. 29-March 2. Throughout the weekend, the athletes showed determination and stamina, which contributed to their success.
Deciding to spend a semester in Spain has been one of the best choices of my life. These past few months have absolutely changed my outlook on the world and my place in it, but it hasn’t been without its challenges. Initially, the newness of everything completely captured me. Everywhere I turned was captivating: the vibrant culture, bright orange trees, and stunning architecture…. the list could go on.
Dordt University pulls in students from around the country to study agriculture. Students are enticed by the Christian education and the modern facilities at the Agriculture Stewardship Center located just north of Sioux Center. Dordt already offers a variety of agriculture majors, including agriculture, plant science, missions, agriculture technology and agri-business.
According to Derek Buteyn, associate dean of students and director of residence life, housing is a year-round process. Admissions and the registrar work alongside him and his team to predict what the student population will look like so they can have a better understanding of what housing is needed.
For the 2023 fall semester, campus pastor Sam Ashmore planned sermons to emphasize different ways of hearing God’s voice, such as through the spiritual discipline of prophecy.
Dordt University students scattered around the world on their ten-day spring break from classes. Not only did PLIA (Putting Love Into Action) and AMOR (A Mission Out-Reach) groups station themselves in different areas on the globe, but friend groups, families, and faculty also took the opportunity to get much-needed rest away from Iowa’s Northwest corner.
After classes wrapped up on Friday, Mar. 1, the concert choir members loaded onto a charter bus and headed to South Dakota to begin their tour of the Pacific Northwest. With luggage and equipment filling every available compartment and no seat left unused, the choir members were given ample time to get to know each other in the small space.
“It’s so exciting when I realize, “Oh my goodness, I did that!” said Bell. “I helped them learn something!”
The Defenders are coming off from their best season, with two seniors earning All-American status—pitcher Abby Kramer and designated player Ella Koster. In the previous season, the team finished third in the GPAC conference with a 35-13 record.
“At any level of college recruiting, it is challenging because there is always another program that wants the same player,” head football coach Joel Penner said. “They are making their case just like we are. At the Division 1 level, it’s even harder with [name, image, and likeness] and all the money with that. Unless you are the very best, it can be very difficult.”
Netflix’s new series, “One Day” stands out from other love-focused series like “Outer Banks” and “Bridgerton” with its look into the relationship of characters living in our recent time and have mostly normal lives. The 14-episode series was released on February 8, and quickly climbed to the #4 show on Netflix a week later.
Robert Taylor took the stage and began to speak to the crowd of roughly forty people. He began by explaining the placement of the new housing building, which is scheduled to be finished Fall of 2024. He and other masterminds behind developments at Dordt wanted to build it on the edge of campus because they were unsure of how or if they wanted to change anything in the center of campus.
One of the major goals of attending college or university is finding a job. The Career Development Center at Dordt University works alongside students to help them find those jobs. One way that they help is through hiring fairs.
Soon, Sioux Center will add a new-school, based on an ancient teaching method to it’s educational offerings. The Classical Academy. The soon-to-be accredited classical school was founded by Dordt professor, Geoffrey and his wife Katherine Fulkerson, Shaun and Sarah Stiemsma, and Pastor Kurt and Jennifer Monroe of First Christian Reformed Church. The Classical Academy plans to have its inaugural semester in the fall of 2024.
On Feb. 17, the Students Without Borders Club hosted their largest event of the year, the Cultural Fair. The Cultural Fair is an opportunity for both students and Sioux Center community members to come and learn about different cultures.
Digital Media students at Dordt University have the option to take the course COMM 333 “Documentary Film Making.” Students in this advanced digital media course will create a documentary over the course of the semester. This semester’s documentary film class has some exciting productions in the works, including a film about the women’s basketball team.
Brown joined Dordt in November as a business instructor and Director of Global Strategies– an unexpected part of his journey. He’d been serving as a director and pastor at his church for the past twelve years, which followed years of experience in business across the globe. Teaching was not in the picture.
The plot is a humorous tale following two sets of twins, mistaken identities, and the ensuing confusion around them. The theatre department has combined the familiar characters with modern references, putting their own spin on the old story.
On the weekend of Feb. 2 and 3, the dance and cheer teams participated in their first two competitions of the season at Midland University and Doane University in Nebraska. Both competitions were successful and the dance and cheer teams are in strong positions for the rest of the season.
Dordt University’s track and field indoor season is off to a fast-paced start.
The mens team ranked in the top five in the NAIA coaches’ poll.
Many athletes on the team have met both the automatic and provisional standards to qualify for indoor nationals at the end of February.
On cold winter mornings, kids watch the television screen with wide eyes, tracking every school that goes by. Finally, their school scrolls across the screen. The moment is exciting and cheerful for many young students: there’s a snow day.
Unfortunately, Dordt University students will not get that feeling anytime soon.
Corlin Feikema and Sharon Ammons-Feikema decided to start a indoor mini golf and restaurant business: RJ’s Indoor Golf and Bar. The grand opening is scheduled for late summer of 2024 and it will be located in Sioux Center’s South Ridge Estates Commercial Park south of the Terrace View Event Center.
On June 21, 2023, Dordt University announced that Ross Douma would be leaving his position as the Director of Athletics for a job as the President of Avail Academy, in Minneapolis- St. Paul. Since Douma’s departure in December, Trent Roose been fulfilling the responsibilities. Now Dordt has announced that Dr. Darin Keizer will be the newest Director of Athletics.
Starting Fall 2024, Dordt University will begin its new Master of Business Administration program. The program will be fully online, and the 36 required credits can be completed in two years.
The first couple of days spent at my new “home” were filled with change and acclimation: meeting all the other students, meeting my new roommate, learning what is acceptable or not in the culture, and getting accustomed to the New Zealand sun. After spending two days at our campus (Sky Hi Lodge), a couple of the other students had a genius idea of going on an overnight hike for our first weekend.
I started to see these kids not as people who made a few bad choices and got caught, but as kids who are figuring out their place in the world. These kids have hopes, aspirations, and dreams of their own that have nothing to do with their sentencing. These kids long for belonging and security. For some of them, the pain of broken families runs deep within their veins. Some may feel as if they do not belong to any one place.
Over Dordt University’s spring break, groups of students will travel across the country, helping and serving in different areas. These trips called PLIA (Putting Love Into Action) are an opportunity for Dordt students to engage with short-term missions.
“I hope that we can keep providing for years, serving the community and adapting, while keeping our core values– and having that quality coffee that people around here crave,” Dykstra said.
On a typical Wednesday night in the B.J. Haan Auditorium, a special kind of music can be heard from the band room. This is where the jazz band rehearses their set; classic and contemporary pieces, played by a select group of around 20 instrumentalists.
The main challenge for the city is to deal with the high demand for housing and create opportunities that appeal to a younger generation—one where Dordt students and graduates make up a large portion.
The Dordt University women’s basketball team started 2024 the same place they left off in 2023: on top.
Dordt University welcomes hundreds of new, talented students every year– runners, musicians, artists, and actors. But in the fall of 2024, a new group will join campus: swimmers. Joining this new group will be their new head coach, Mason Youngblood.
The Defender hockey team is comprised mostly of underclassmen, but their gameplay is anything but. The team’s record improved to 17-3 with its 9-1 win over the University of Nebraska Omaha on Jan. 21. The 2023 season has been one of the greatest years in program history, with Saturday’s win marking a 14 game win streak.
Companies like Hydro Flask, Owala, Yeti, and the recent Stanley tumbler are all growing companies and products which have all made themselves viral on social media. These companies have convinced the masses that using their water bottle is a tangible way to gain clout with their peers, both in person and online.
As 2023 drew to an end, Dordt University’s “Planting for the Future Campaign” came to a close on Dec. 31. The grand total of donations raised reached over $103 million. Over six thousand donors contributed to the capital campaign over the past several years to support new infrastructure, current facilities, and financial aid for students.
Dordt University’s business department made the addition of an entrepreneurship emphasis in 2021. The launch of the Dooyema Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation program has been popular, leading to 38 entrepreneurship majors and 15 minors in just three years.
About four and a half hours south of Sioux Center, in the small town of Washington, Kansas, a little corgi gets ready to save the day – for the third time
After a semester of learning about Dante and the Italian Renaissance, the HIST-329 class took a 9-day trip to Italy to deepen their learning experience. The course is offered fall odd years and is co-taught by History professor Dr. Walker Cosgrove and English professor Dr. Josh Matthews.
Dordt University students returned from their Christmas breaks to a campus covered in snow.
It’s not every day that one can leave the cold Sioux Center to travel halfway across the globe to the continent of Africa. A handful of students from Dordt University visited Tanzania and Liberia and experienced the culture while helping serve. AMOR (A Mission OutReach) seeks to provide a two-week experience where students can apply their gifts and specific majors to serve others.
Four Republican candidates—Ron DeSantis, Ryan Binkley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley— traded in combative quips to discuss political and personal values, reining in one single, unifying message for the Sioux Center audience: faith and family are central.
If you’re upset that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, if your March Madness bracket isn’t working out, or if you just need something to look forward to in Iowa’s fake spring and second winter, I bring good news: the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season is upon us. So here is the rundown of everything that happened in the offseason.
For the Dordt Defenders baseball team, getting to play in warm weather is a rare occurrence, especially in Sioux Center, where the winter weather continues to drag on. But the Florida sun called, and they traveled to the east coast over spring break, where they played in 9 games and finished with a 2-7 record.
In the realm of animated movies, few series have garnered as much acclaim as “Kung Fu Panda.” With its winning combination of humor, heart, and stunning animation, the trilogy has left its mark worldwide.
What are college sports really about? Is simply the experience of being a college athlete cutting it anymore? Is playing the sport you love a privilege or a job? Are athletes in it for the game or a paycheck? These are some questions that frequently come up when discussing collegiate sports.
If you have ever seen Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror classic, “Rosemary’s Baby,” you have already seen a much better version of director Michael Mohan’s new horror flick, “Immaculate,” starring Sydney Sweeney.
This year marks the third year Lambertus Verberg Prize for Excellence in Kuyperian Scholarship, has been offered and with it comes the two winners who stood out to the judges: Vincent Keane and Trygve Bulthuis, with honorable mentions extended to Beatrice Shackelford, Hadley Anderson, and Isabel Boer.
On April 25, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Science Building, many students will gather for IdeaFest to present various projects and research completed in their academic disciplines.
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