Northwestern College to host commencement ceremony

Northwestern College will award degrees to 254 graduates during its commencement ceremony Saturday, May 14.

Twenty-four students will receive Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees, while the remainder will be granted Bachelor of Arts degrees.

The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. in the DeWitt Physical Fitness Center. The Rev. Jill Ver Steeg, a 1996 Northwestern graduate who is part of the denominational staff for the Reformed Church in America (RCA), will give the commencement address, entitled “Now, Go! Live and Lead Transformed.” A live webcast of commencement will be available at www.nwciowa.edu/commencement/live.

The college’s baccalaureate service is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 13, at First Reformed Church in Orange City. The Rev. Dr. James Mead, professor of religion at Northwestern, will deliver the homily, “Résumés and Eulogies.”

Ver Steeg serves as the RCA’s coordinator for transformational equipping. As such, she directs a team that provides opportunities for churches to learn from and with one another as they focus on different aspects of ministry. Prior to her current role, she was a pastor of Meredith Drive Reformed Church in Des Moines for 12 years. She began her career as the program director for the state of Iowa’s Muscular Dystrophy Association. Other positions included serving as the congregational care and discipleship catalyst for Christ Memorial Church in Holland, Mich.; as a teacher for Holland Christian High School; and as associate director for That the World May Know Ministries.

Ver Steeg was a chaplain at Hope College for three years while earning a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary. She is finishing her Doctor of Ministry degree, with a focus on organizational leadership, at Fuller Theological Seminary. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Hope College, on the Vermeer Corporation Leadership Alliance, and as a member of Western’s Henry Bast Preaching Advisory Team and the Fuller Youth Institute Advisory Team. She has also been a writer for Words of Hope and a featured preacher for the Reformed Church in America General Synod in 2009 and 2011.