Dordt College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dordt College | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Motto: | Soli Deo Gloria |
| Established: | 1955 |
| Type: | Private |
| President: | Dr. Carl E. Zylstra |
| Faculty: | 78 Full Time |
| Students: | 1,313 (2007-2008) |
| Location: | Sioux Center, Iowa, United States of America |
| Colors: | Black and white |
Dordt College is a private, Christian, liberal arts college located in Sioux Center, Iowa, near the location where Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota meet. This community of about 6,300 is 45 miles (72 km) north of Sioux City, Iowa, and 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The school was founded in 1955 and is affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). The name is a reference to the Synod of Dordt.
The college’s goal is to help students discover God's plan for their lives and equip them for their calling. Each subject area attempts to view the world through the eyes of God and challenges the student to respond accordingly.
Dordt College annually enrolls about 1,300 students from more than 30 states, 7 Canadian provinces, and 10 other countries, with a faculty-student ratio of 15:1. U.S. News & World Report has included Dordt in its “America’s Best Colleges” listing since 1993 and in 2007 it was tied for #3 among Midwest Baccalaureate colleges.
The College was founded in 1955 and is committed to a Reformed, Christian perspective that embraces the Bible as the word of God. Since its inception, the College has grown to twenty-five buildings located on a 115-acre (0.47 km²) campus. In addition to its undergraduate degree programs, Dordt College also offers the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) degree.
Contents |
[edit] Majors and degrees
Dordt College offers two-year Associate of Arts (A.A.) and four-year Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S. E.), Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.), and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degrees. In addition to its undergraduate degree programs, Dordt College also offers the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) degree.
Dordt has more than 35 majors and 50 programs of study. The following are the largest programs of enrollment:
Other notable programs are:
Concentrations are available in many of these majors.
Dordt offers 11 pre-professional programs in architecture, dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physical therapy, seminary studies, and veterinary science. These programs lay the groundwork for further advanced studies.
Two-year Associate of Arts degree programs are available in administrative assistant studies, agriculture, computer networking, general studies, and special education aide/teacher aide studies. These two-year programs offer a wide range of educational options through professionally and occupationally designed programs or through a flexibly designed two-year sequence of relevant courses and educational experiences.
[edit] Academic programs
A core curriculum of general education courses, drawn from various academic disciplines--such as language, natural science, and social science--make up the foundation of every student’s education at Dordt. This core curriculum plays a crucial role in the integration of subject matter, through which Dordt College seeks to reflect the wholeness of God’s creation. In these courses, students are introduced to the character and scope of Christian perspective, and they learn to think more critically about choices and decisions affecting their lifestyle. Courses in the core curriculum provide insight into the nature and demands of contemporary Christian living and help students understand how various aspects of contemporary life are interrelated and how the global culture has developed. These general education courses also supply students with the basic quantitative, analytic, lingual, and physical skills that are essential to the program overall and to their tasks as citizens of God’s kingdom.
[edit] Off-campus programs
In addition to the numerous majors offered on campus, Dordt College offers more than 25 off-campus study opportunities in countries around the world through its affiliation with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. These countries include Australia, China, France, Ghana, Great Britain, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and Uganda. Juniors and seniors also have the opportunity to participate in the Chicago Semester, a semester of living, learning, and working in a major urban center.
[edit] Academic facilities
At the hub of Dordt’s campus community is a new $13-million Campus Center, open 24/7 as a gathering place for students. The upper level features enhanced-technology classrooms, conference rooms, and various offices. The entry level consists of a bookstore, an art gallery, meditation rooms, and a student lounge. An activity center, a coffee house, a dining area, a snack bar, and a mail room are located one level down. The final level of the 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m²) Campus Center features a game room complete with a four-lane regulation-size bowling alley, as well as foosball and pool tables.
Connected to the Campus Center is the John and Louise Hulst Library, which houses a collection of more than 300,000 book volumes, 16,000 print journal volumes, and 163,000 microtext units. The library subscribes to more than 600 journals, magazines, and newspapers, and has electronic access to another 10,000 titles. In addition to providing print and electronic resources, the library serves the campus media needs by offering checkout availability of audiotapes and videotapes, DVDs, projectors, recorders, camcorders, digital cameras, GPS units, VCRs, DVD players, CD players, and other media equipment. The library has a significant collection of curriculum and children’s literature materials housed in the Learning Resource Center. Other specialized collections include the Dordt College Archives and the Dutch Memorial Collection.
Dordt’s B.J. Haan Auditorium seats approximately 1,500 people and features one of the Midwest’s most outstanding Casavant pipe organs. The auditorium is used for chapel services, concerts, organ recitals, and other regional events, with a mezzanine that accommodates the International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education. Convocation and commencement exercises are also held in "the Beej," as it is affectionately called by students. It is adjoined by the Music Building, which also has rehearsal rooms, studios and classrooms, vocal and instrumental practice rooms, and music faculty offices.
The Science and Technology Center at Dordt has 180- and 80-seat lecture halls, a greenhouse, laboratories, general-use classrooms, and offices for the agriculture, biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental studies, physics, and planetary science departments. Large and small laboratories for organic and physical chemistry and two physics laboratories are available to students in the physical sciences. Agriculture facilities include animal science and agronomy labs, a surgery room, and a live-animal room. The engineering wing includes labs for mechanical engineering, electronics, electrical engineering, and computer-aided design.
The Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (HPER) facilities are located within the Rec Center and include basketball courts, racquetball courts, an aerobics room, a weight room, the indoor track, a batting cage, and volleyball courts.
Adjoining Dordt’s 115-acre (0.47 km²) campus is the All Seasons Center, an indoor swimming pool and ice rink that Dordt College uses in cooperation with the city of Sioux Center and the local public schools.
[edit] Financial Aid
98 percent of the student body receives some type of financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study opportunities. The College awards scholarships based on academic potential and performance, activities (participation in sports, theater, music, etc.), and demonstrated financial need. Dordt College awards more than $18.5 million in financial aid annually, thanks in large part to private donors and alumni who support the mission of Dordt.
[edit] Sports
Dordt College is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and plays in Region III. The Dordt Defenders play in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Dordt College offers men's baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field, and women's basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, and volleyball.
Dordt College also has several club sports. The men's ice hockey club, known as the Dordt College Blades, play in the Vernon All Season Center adjacent to the Dordt campus. There are other club sports such as soccer and lacrosse, which conduct regular meetings.
|
|||||
