Trinity Christian College

54th Convocation Celebrates Community: Photogallery

Convocation is “a calling together” of the entire campus community to celebrate the beginning of the academic year.

On Wednesday, August 29, President Steve Timmermans, Ph.D. welcomed students and faculty back to campus, adding a special welcome to 10 new faculty members, 12 new staff members, and more than 400 new students.

Student Worship Scholar Brian Haak ’15 of Zeeland, Michigan, gave the invocation.

Professor of the Year Dr. Bob Rice, now in his 30^th year of teaching history at Trinity, was met at the podium by the enthusiastic applause of the more than 600 who had gathered to reconnect, worship, and hear Rice’s message “The Year before Us.”

Rice posed the question, “How do we approach the academic year?” He encouraged all to “take up the year together” in their responses to God, in their anticipation of the wonder of a Christian liberal arts education, and in their public profession and engagement as they “raise questions, discuss, imagine, and act to renew God’s world.”

Dr. Craig Mattson, professor of communication arts, and Heather Hernandez ’14 of Mokena, Illinois, led the audience through the litany reading based on Psalm 50.

Prior to the benediction by Chaplain Willis Van Groningen, Ph.D., Provost Liz Rudenga, Ph.D., Dean of Students Mark Hanna, and Student Association President Kathryn Woodside ’15 of Kearney, Nebraska, offered prayers of thanksgiving for faculty, staff, and students.

View the Convocation program