Dordt College

Hoekstra, Brian L.

BUAD 226 / CORE 260: Personal Financial Management and Stewardship

Cain, Melody J.

CORE 110: Communication Foundations

Bomgaars, Deb L.

NURS 296: Exploring Nursing

Bosma, Michael J.

STAT 131: Introductory Statistics

Schaap, James C.

Volume 52 Number 3 Article 2 
March 2024 
Memento Mori from My Closet 
James C. Schaap 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Schaap, James C. (2024) "Memento Mori from My Closet," Pro Rege: Vol. 
52: No. 3, 16 - 20. 
Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol52/iss3/2 
This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Dordt Digital 
Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pro Rege by an authorized administrator of Dordt Digital 
Collections. For more information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu. 
16     Pro Rege—March 2024
T﻿he Buckaroo
I’d never heard of 3.2 beer until I got to col-
lege. Never was much of a drinker either. I drank 
my first cold one the summer before coming to 
Iowa for school. Pulled one from an old refrigera-
tor in the basement office of the state park where I 
worked, a fridge we kept stocked with Schlitz and 
Hamms and Kingsburys, whatever we’d confiscat-
ed from under-agers on the beach. If that fridge got 
short, we’d go on patrol some Saturday afternoon 
just to restock. It was a good, healthy system.
That first beer was so cold it slid down like a 
dream; but then, as I remember, it’d been a hot day 
on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Once quitting 
time came, the whole crew indulged. I was hardly 
a practiced drinker when I got to college. None of 
the guys who climbed in a car and drove all the way 
west to South Dakota did so because we loved beer 
or had to answer some habit. Mostly, we crossed 
the river because drinking was a sin, or something 
similar at the Christian college I attended, the kind 
of place, mid-Sixties, where doing something—be-
cause you shouldn’t—had a magic way of creat-
ing its own special blessedness. Took a half hour 
to get to the border, where the Rock and the Big 
Sioux put a few curves in the otherwise straight 
road west to a town named Hudson, a little burg 
moving past whatever prime it once may have had. 
 Decline was written in empty businesses down-
town, but Hudson had a tap, a place called “The 
Buckaroo,” where you didn’t have to be 21 to belly 
up to the bar, not as if anyone ever asked. We’d 
roll in from across the river and drink Grain Belt at 
what?—fifty cents a glass, 3.2 beer, I was told. I had 
no idea what that meant.
We didn’t go often—just once in a while on a 
Friday night, and nobody got hammered. You’d 
have to swallow a bathtub of 3.2 beer to get there. 
I remember thinking some guys seemed to need a 
snoot full. Not long into the evening and they’d 
start singing or dancing or yammering endlessly. 
Some guys wanted badly to get silly. We’d toss back 
a few and turn into Dean Martin wannabees, then 
Memento Mori from My Closet
by James C. Schaap
Dr. James Calvin Schaap is Professor Emeritus of 
English, Dordt University.
Pro Rege—March 2024     17 
leave with a six pack to road load all the way back 
home.
Who knows why some of us loved it when so 
many classmates thought such South Dakota vis-
its orgies of drunkenness, ripe transgressions of the 
strict college code. There were dark and sweet mo-
ments back then, when it just felt liberating to sin. 
Sometimes we’d watch the Buckaroo’s noisy front 
door, thinking the Dean of Students would take 
the trip west himself just to catch sinners. Rumor 
had it, he made such visits. All of that made 3.2 
beer even more a delight. The Dean never showed 
up, and we never got caught—in 1967, dorm coun-
selors weren’t armed with breathalyzers. As sin 
goes, the Buckaroo was pretty darn petty. In the 
Inferno, Dante didn’t create some distinct level of 
hell for 3.2 beer.
I’ve got a Buckaroo t-shirt. Once upon a time 
I loved it because of the story it suggests and I’m 
telling right now. I picked it up right there at the 
Buckaroo forty years or more after sneaking a beer 
or two or three at a place by the same name. Years 
later, my wife and I started some empty-nesters’ 
date nights with a visit across the river to Hudson 
for barbecue ribs, sinfully good. Buckaroo it was, 
Hudson, South Dakota, where a half a century be-
fore, a handful of Christian college students took 
it upon themselves occasionally to sin boldly, as 
Luther would have it. Well, somewhat boldly. For 
years, I treasured the wickedness this shirt thought-
fully suggested to the world. Well, at least to me.
But if the only t-shirt I wore to the gym all 
winter was my dark blue Buckaroo, no one would 
ever cast a second glance. I’m the only one—the 
old man who comes there most every day, the bald 
guy—who gets the dim-lit glory of what the shirt 
still reminds me to remember. It’s old and worn 
now, the lettering yellowed and broken up. It’s lost 
its punch, been outwrestled by time itself. I’m sure 
no one gets its joke.
I’ve forever been a fan of the literary trope me-
mento mori, which in Latin, I’m told, means some-
thing like “remember that you die.” Grim greet-
ings, but I’ve always appreciated the way Hamlet 
holds Yorick’s skull in Act V and of crossbones just 
about everywhere you look in Rome. No matter. 
Tossing that t-shirt still hurts worse than any one 
of those tall cool ones ever did.
Gilson
A whim brought this one to our place—clearly 
a waste of money, some might say. I was remember-
ing my dad’s working life, where it began—at least 
when I was old enough to understand where it be-
gan: a foundry in Oostburg, Wisconsin, the town 
where he’d lived since his father, a preacher, took a 
call to that little burg on the western shore of Lake 
Michigan. Dad had come with his parents, gone to 
high school there, fallen in love with Jeannie-with-
the-light-brown-hair, gotten married, even fathered 
a daughter before—as he would have said—”the 
Japs” attacked Pearl Harbor.
When he returned from the South Pacific in 
1945, there was another angelic little girl he’d fa-
thered just before he’d left. But the war was behind 
him—and them—and his war-time experience as 
a scribe made him a bookkeeper at a place named 
Gilson, right there in town. He could bike to work, 
or walk. Here ‘tis, in fact—Gilson Manufacturing, 
Oostburg, Wisconsin, 1946. That’s Dad, second 
from the right, front row. 
18     Pro Rege—March 2024
I remember the office where he worked, and the 
foundry behind it, where a couple of dozen sweaty 
men made cement mixers for all those vets who, 
like him, were building houses and families. A glass 
vile on the wall beside the pop machine held salt 
pills. 
Sorry to say, through the years Dad became 
progressively less taken with his Gilson job. The 
ownership had changed hands, as such things do. 
Gilson had moved to Fredonia, Wisconsin, a half-
hour drive south and west. Whether or not it was 
true, he considered himself a minority in the office 
there and often felt put upon. The old Oostburg 
Gilson had been almost totally Dutch-American, a 
bunch of ex-GIs whose work and lunch-time horse-
shoe tournaments made them close as a family. In 
Fredonia, he was the only Dutch Reformed guy in 
an office full of Luxembourgian Roman Catholics, 
whose code of ethics were not sculpted by synodi-
cal warnings against cards, dancing, theater—and 
what-not else. A couple of decades later, he was of-
fered a job in the Oostburg State Bank, a position 
he had no trouble accepting. 
The Gilson I remember is the one in the picture. 
When I saw this t-shirt on-line some years ago, I 
bought it for him really, even though he was long 
gone and never wore anything larger than a me-
dium. Pure nostalgia. Nobody in a half-day’s travel 
would recognize the insignia or name. Only my 
sisters would understand, and neither of them had 
ever laid eyes on my Gilson shirt. I bought it for 
him because I couldn’t resist an orange t-shirt with 
the Gilson trademark, even though Gilson, bought 
out by Toro, is itself history. 
That orange T-shirt was part of my wardrobe 
for maybe ten years. It was never something I’d 
wear around town, so it was relegated to the work 
shirt pile, which explains the fade and the cut-off 
sleeves. Truth be known, it likely never left the yard 
but put in some considerable hours just outside my 
window.
For a couple of years now, I’ve been trying to 
hold myself to a “replacement theory” of my own: 
if I buy a new T-shirt, I toss one of the old ones. 
So last week I came home from Oklahoma with a 
few more from a Stillwater Goodwill rack, one to 
wear around town, another—an Oklahoma State 
beauty—to wear to the gym. Now I have got to 
get rid of T-shirts. At 75 years old, we don’t need 
more “stuff.”
BJ
Here’s a hero of mine, ye olde president and 
founder of Dordt College, the Rev. B. J. Haan. 
Trust me, it’s him. My daughter gave me the t-
shirt a couple of years ago; she knew I’d love it, 
more—far more—than some fancy one that says 
“Hawkeyes” or even “Packers.” Here ‘tis. You really 
have to see it. 
This isn’t just “B. J. Haan”; it’s B. J. Haan in front 
of a church, a barnstorming, circuit-riding evange-
list, which he wasn’t, even though the photogra-
pher—from Time magazine—thought he was and 
shot him that way. That’s right— Time and Life cir-
ca 1947, when this young firebrand preached up a 
storm of such ferocity that it blew the new movie 
theater right out of town, which brought him and 
Sioux Center some momentary fame—and some 
guffaws. Imagine! This man in this pose on the 
cover of Life magazine! And, it was shot right there 
in First CRC. For me at least, the portrait is as in-
famous as it is famous, if for no other reason than 
nothing from or about Sioux Center, Iowa, has 
been on the cover of a national magazine since. 
B. J. went on to establish a brand-new college 
amidst the broad Sioux County cornfields of Iowa’s 
northwest corner and become its first president. 
Some 20 years thereafter, he hired me to teach 
English, a hire which might have been a bit con-
troversial. I stayed for almost forty years. Haan, I’d 
come to learn, was much greater than the hammer, 
the young Calvinist turk he might have been in 
1947. Somehow, his funeral in 1994 seemed to me 
Pro Rege—March 2024     19 
to be the liveliest such ceremony I’d ever attended, 
perfectly in tune with his character. No real fire-
and-brimstone: he was much beloved. I worked for 
the man on the t-shirt for years; grew to know him 
well. I remember that he’d made quite a drama out 
of dying, gathering his own around him to sing 
hymns and repeat scriptures, then catching another 
breath, staying alive as if he couldn’t get enough of 
the rituals. 
In one of those intervals, I had a collection of 
short stories published, Still Life, a book I’d dedi-
cated to him. The man always liked me, trusted 
me, when more than a few were far more wary. 
Even though I knew he’d never read it, I wanted 
him to see this book. He was hospitalized with no 
chance of doing anything but leaving on a gurney. 
I called his wife to ask about seeing him. She said 
no—he was too weak. That was fine. I told her 
I’d leave her the book so she could show it to him 
sometime. Mid-stream she reversed course, greatly 
taken with the dedication. She told me maybe we 
could drop by for a minute or so if we’d come right 
away. We did.
Rev. Haan looked like an old man dying, which 
he was when the two of us walked into the room 
and stood on either side of his hospital bed. “Jim 
and Barb,” he said, working up a smile. I was sur-
prised he recognized either of us. I told him about 
the book. I’d brought one along, so I opened to the 
dedication, bent over beside him, and read what I’d 
put there: “To BJ, who understands.” I meant that, 
meant it thankfully.
For a moment there was silence, then a giggle, 
as I remember. And then he said, with what great 
sincerity he could muster, “That’s just wonderful. 
Thank you so much,” and then, “I’ll remember 
that as long as I live.” He knew very well that he’d 
cracked a good joke. Once upon a time, that moral 
scourge on the t-shirt was a young and feisty BJ 
Haan, but there was another too, the one I never 
saw again after that moment at his bedside. He 
died a day or so later.
There’s a lot of story in that t-shirt. For some 
time, quite reverently, I wore my daughter’s 
thoughtful gift only around the house—I mean, 
how could I profane it with the kind of sweat I can 
still work up in the gym or out back in our prairie 
plot? But when it became clear it was getting very 
little use, I added it to the gym-shirt closet and de-
cided it—and he—was going to go through some 
workouts. It’s just a t-shirt, nothing sacred, nothing 
Rome-ish. 
However, to my haunted mind, the idea of 
wearing that BJ t-shirt to the Northwestern College 
gym, Dordt’s oldest and most foul rival, seemed, 
well, profane. I told my giggling self I’d be lucky if 
some Raider PE guy didn’t pull me off the ellipti-
cals and hang me out to dry for such sacrilege. No 
matter—I pulled it on to work out. The parking lot 
was full that day. Strange. There had to be some-
thing going on, so my wife-and-workout-partner 
parked near the fieldhouse and used a door we used 
only when the parking lot was full. The place was 
jammed; we had to squeeze through all the people, 
football players and a crowd of their parents. I’d 
never seen so many people in the place. We had 
stumbled into the middle of the very first football 
practice. The players had just arrived on campus. 
I’m guessing the coach made sure parents were in-
vited.
Honestly, I have no idea what players, out on 
the practice field, were doing, but whatever it was 
involved their smart phones. The grassy infield was 
full of ball players, each looking at their phones and 
carrying out some kind of on-line workout ritual in 
silent reverence. No one spoke. It could have been 
worship, as if Barbara and I had entered some holy 
temple, all the earth in silence. 
This isn’t just “B. J. Haan”; it’s B. J. Haan in front of a church, 
a barnstorming, circuit-riding evangelist, which he wasn’t, 
even though the photographer—from Time magazine—
thought he was and shot him that way.
20     Pro Rege—March 2024
When we stepped into the congregation, my 
first thought was the steep irreverence of that t-
shirt, but as we picked our way through the crowd, 
I couldn’t help feeling that no one in that practice 
facility—players or parents—had any idea whose 
visage adorned my t-shirt. We made our way 
through the observant crowd toward the entrance 
to the gym, walked through the silence, and left 
like reprobates storming out of church. It seemed 
deeply impious of us. The inescapable fact was that 
no one in the entire crowd—and it was big—had 
any idea of who that odd guy was on my shirt. No 
one. 
Not only that, I told myself that at a college 
twenty minutes northwest of this one, BJ’s own 
Dordt, had I walked through the football team as-
sembled on the practice field of their new dome, no 
one would have recognized the old exhorter either, 
nor would anyone a block or so off campus have 
known the story of how it was this prairie prophet 
had run the theater right out of Dodge City. But 
then, only a few in the entire county would recog-
nize the dominie in a swallow-tail suit holding forth 
on the abominations of Hollywood. Very, very few. 
Only a few had ever heard of Life magazine. Oh, 
woe and woe and woe.
The Gilson shirt—which I alone valued and has 
seen its better days—goes into the trash barrel this 
morning and is then pushed out to the street for 
pick up, all of which suggests this whole story is its 
retirement party. Maybe so. Along with it goes the 
Buckaroo, into the garbage, replaced by something 
else, something new, or Goodwill-new anyway. 
The rule of thumb is one-for-one, two-for-two. The 
relevant impulse is, at our age we don’t need more 
stuff. This morning, Gilson and Buckaroo. Next 
week—maybe next month—BJ. Not to worry: a 
shelf of the library behind me holds a 4 x 6 snapshot 
of Mom and Dad. It’s not like they’ll be forgotten; 
and when I drink a cold beer, I can always conjure 
Hudson and the 3.2 Buckaroo. 
BJ’s just a bit too sacred, at least yet. Someday, 
he too will have to go. Then again, I could just 
stick it in the back corner of a downstairs drawer 
where my daughter would inherit the job of toss-
ing it. If she could—after all, it’s got a story with 
her too. Besides, somewhere behind me I’ve got 
that same picture of BJ in a little plastic frame on 
a shelf. Anyway, that decision can wait. All of this 
sounds very funereal, but  sometime this morn-
ing, two of those greatly beloved T-shirts will be 
in a landfill. Just thought I’d let you know. Such is 
life, I guess. Like memento mori, ubi sunt is a liter-
ary trope that “expresses a sense of loss, as well as 
a mourning or lament for lost things,” a frame of 
mind, I believe, that frequently obsesses old men. 
Like me. 
 


English

Memento Mori from My Closet

Moss, Sarah

The Voice 
Volume 69 
Issue 2 Spring/Summer Article 4 
Faith, Excellence, and a Prestigious Invitation 
Sarah Moss 
Dordt University, sarah.moss@dordt.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Moss, Sarah () "Faith, Excellence, and a Prestigious Invitation," The Voice: Vol. 69: Iss. 2, Article 4. 
Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice/vol69/iss2/4 
This News is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Dordt Digital Collections. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Voice by an authorized editor of Dordt Digital Collections. For more 
information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu. 
5
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JA
M
IN
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ER V
ELD
E ('99 )justice major, says that the course 
has allowed her to draw connections 
to how the government steps in and 
helps those who are vulnerable, while 
also balancing the church and state 
separation that the United States 
Constitution upholds. 
“As someone going into law 
enforcement, I have found it valuable 
to see the extent of what assistance 
programs our government provides 
so that when I come in contact with 
those who are struggling, I will be 
better equipped to direct them to 
those who can assist them,” adds 
Munsterman.
It’s important for Christians to care 
for the vulnerable, says Breems. “I 
didn’t realize before this class how 
important justice is to Levitical law 
through practices like the year of 
jubilee, gleaning, and sanctuary 
cities,” she says. “Those commands 
continued into the New Testament 
through Jesus’ example of loving 
and dining with the outcasts. As 
Christians, we are called to follow 
Jesus’ example and be informed 
about the best ways to love these 
populations without causing more 
harm.”
Foreman hopes students come away 
from the class recognizing that “they 
have agency to be able to change 
things.”
“What I want them to recognize is 
that, even though things are a certain 
way right now, that’s not how they 
have to be. It could be different. They 
could be integral in solving a problem 
in a new way. We have a lot of 
freedom in the United States through 
our non-profit structure that we can 
start new organizations, work within 
existing church ministries, and make 
change happen.
SARAH MOSS (’10)
Being asked to perform at the Iowa 
Bandmasters Association (IBA)’s 
Annual Conference is a huge honor, 
says Dr. Onsby Rose, 
director of instrumental 
activities. “Performing 
at this conference is our 
championship; it is very 
prestigious to be selected 
to perform at the state 
conference.”
And perform they did: days after the 
spring semester ended, members of the 
Wind Symphony piled into a bus at 5 
a.m. and headed to Des Moines. They 
arrived early so they could set up and 
practice prior to their performance at 11 
a.m. 
Ella Jahn was one of the students who 
performed that day. "I appreciated 
the excitement each member in the 
band had knowing they individually 
contributed to us making it to this event. 
It's neat to see Dordt's music programs 
get better each year, with the current 
 
ensemble building on the hard work of 
the members before."
“Over the past five years, the Wind 
Symphony has continued to gain 
musical depth and experience that 
qualifies them to be selected to perform 
at a conference of this magnitude,” says 
Rose. “Through diligent work of both 
our students and music faculty, our 
students hold music in high regard and 
strive to put forth the same excellence 
as students at any state institution.”
Only 10 percent of Dordt’s Wind 
Symphony are music majors; the other 
90 percent have chosen to major in 
other fields but are still playing at the 
same level as a music major.
“That is God’s hand at work through our 
students and faculty,” says Rose. “I am 
convinced we are able to achieve what 
we achieve because we place our trust 
in God for all that we do, and He leads 
the students and faculty to excellence.”
SARAH MOSS (’10)
“I also appreciate Dr. Rose’s commitment to preparing us well, encouraging us, and of 
course making sure everything was organized," says Ella Jahn. 
FAITH, EXCELLENCE, AND A 
PRESTIGIOUS INVITATION
Onsby Rose
1
Moss: Faith, Excellence, and a Prestigious Invitation
Published by Dordt Digital Collections,


Faith, Excellence, and a Prestigious Invitation

The Voice 
Volume 69 
Issue 2 Spring/Summer Article 8 
Dordt's MBA Program Focuses on Business from a Christian 
Perspective 
Sarah Moss 
Dordt University, sarah.moss@dordt.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Moss, Sarah () "Dordt's MBA Program Focuses on Business from a Christian Perspective," The Voice: Vol. 
69: Iss. 2, Article 8. 
Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice/vol69/iss2/8 
This News is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Dordt Digital Collections. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Voice by an authorized editor of Dordt Digital Collections. For more 
information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu. 
9
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For those interested in earning a faith-based Master of Business 
Administration (MBA) degree, Dordt’s 
new MBA program is a great fit, says 
Professor of Business Dr. Tim Klein ('05).
“What the business world needs right 
now is Christian leaders to step in and 
make a difference,” he says. “In the last 
few decades, we have seen a growing 
number of cases of unethical and illegal 
behavior that has rocked the American 
business world. 
Greed and a 
decreasing 
regard for 
fellow humans 
demonstrate 
the need for 
a new kind of 
business leader 
who can firmly 
stand on biblical principles when it 
comes to pursuing business interest.”
The MBA program is geared toward 
working professionals in business 
or organizational leadership seeking 
higher levels of training in areas such 
as Christian leadership, management 
principles, accounting, marketing, 
project management, human resource 
management, business law, and 
entrepreneurship.
Joe Bakker ('07), dean for online, 
graduate, and partner programs, thinks 
that the flexible format will be a major 
benefit. “Our professors designed the 
MBA program to work with a busy 
person’s schedule,” he says. “Also, the 
program of study allows room for 
students to choose some electives 
based on their interest.”
Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. 
Leah Zuidema is excited that a Christian 
worldview is embedded in every aspect 
of the MBA program and that there 
are experienced business 
professors at the helm.
“In this MBA program, 
everything about the 
course—the curriculum, the 
instruction, the activities, the 
interpersonal interactions—is 
based on a Reformational 
worldview: God created and 
sustained everything, and his law and 
plan for human flourishing applies to 
everything. This should impact every 
level of operating a business, so that 
we are, as our mission statement 
says, ‘working toward Christ-centered 
renewal in all areas of life,’ including in 
the business world. I’m confident that 
this MBA program is going to make a 
difference for our graduates and all the 
people that they serve.”
SARAH MOSS (’10)
The MBA program is 100 percent online and can be completed in as little as two years.
JA
M
IN
 V
E
R
 V
E
LD
E ('9
9)
DORDT’S MBA PROGRAM 
FOCUSES ON BUSINESS FROM 
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
MORE INFO
For more information 
about the program, visit 
dordt.edu/MBA.
to be battery operated, so the team 
decided to use what they could find 
at a hardware store,” says Gladstone. 
“They found battery packs and did the 
calculations to determine how much 
energy was in one battery pack, and 
how much energy would be needed 
to lift the system multiple times a day.” 
“To me, the most interesting part of 
the project’s need is the ability to 
make our solution modular,” explains 
Patterson. “The company installs 
carrier groups of different lengths 
from 10 to 25 feet, depending on what 
size restroom the building requires. 
The variation in size forced us to think 
outside the box.”
This, along with the need to lift the 
units uniformly, led the team to 
implement synchronized actuators. 
These devices produce linear motion 
by converting energy. “Each ‘truck’ 
has four actuators, and the carrier 
group we tested requires two trucks,” 
says Patterson. “We used a control 
box that connects the actuators, 
which allows each truck to extend at 
the same rate.”
In short, they spent two semesters 
and many hours to create a prototype 
that actually works and could provide 
excellent cost savings for the client. 
“What I’ve enjoyed most about my 
senior engineering design project is 
the ability to make a difference for a 
company with a group of classmates,” 
says DeGroot. “I have learned how 
to take a model and make it into a 
real-life prototype. It has also been 
interesting to assemble and weld a 
model based on the needs of the 
project.”
“It has been a joy to work alongside 
my team members on this project,” 
adds Landstra. “This project has been 
a lot of work, but I’m glad I was able 
to be part of it, and I am grateful for 
the practical experience that I gained 
from it.”
SARAH MOSS (’10)
1
Moss: Dordt's MBA Program Focuses on Business from a Christian Perspect
Published by Dordt Digital Collections,


Dordt\u27s MBA Program Focuses on Business from a Christian Perspective

The Voice 
Volume 69 
Issue 2 Spring/Summer Article 11 
Galloway Walks to His Own Tune 
Sarah Moss 
Dordt University, sarah.moss@dordt.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Moss, Sarah () "Galloway Walks to His Own Tune," The Voice: Vol. 69: Iss. 2, Article 11. 
Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice/vol69/iss2/11 
This News is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Dordt Digital Collections. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in The Voice by an authorized editor of Dordt Digital Collections. For more 
information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu. 
N
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13
Associate Professor of Music Dr. Carrie Groenewold ('06) has been 
impressed with Aaron Galloway since 
he took her classes on music theory and 
ear training.
“Aaron is a naturally 
gifted musician and 
quiet leader,” she says. 
“A composer at heart, he 
continually found new 
ways to employ harmonic 
progressions and chord structures into 
his course work.”
As Groenewold and others made plans 
for the class of 2024 commencement 
ceremony, she immediately thought of 
Galloway.
“I knew that Aaron’s compositional 
talent could be used well in an organ 
processional, and his gifts deserved 
to be heard in a public setting such as 
commencement.”
Groenewold reached out to Galloway 
about the idea of writing a processional 
for the commencement ceremony. "I 
thought it sounded fun and decided 
to give it a try," says Galloway, a senior 
from Pella, Iowa.
He took inspiration from organ music he 
heard while attending Dordt, including 
works from Felix Mendelssohn, 
Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner. 
He also managed to weave in the 
melody of Dordt’s alma mater.
As Galloway processed into the the 
B.J. Haan Auditorium with his fellow 
graduates, he could hear “Processional 
for Organ” played on Dordt’s Cassavant 
organ by Groenewold. “Taking part 
in a commencement ceremony that 
features one's own music does not 
happen often,” he says. “It was a nice 
culmination of my years at Dordt 
studying music.”
Groenewold, for her part, felt privileged 
to play Galloway’s music. “Adding to 
the festivity of the day, the processional 
celebrated Aaron’s compositional 
accomplishments and gave his music 
exposure to a large Dordt audience. I am 
excited to see how God will use Aaron’s 
gifts for His glory!”
After moving to western Wisconsin this 
summer, Galloway plans to continue 
to keep performing music. And 
“Processional for Organ” will not be his 
last composition. “I already have a few 
new projects in the works,” he adds.
SARAH MOSS (’10)
“Many of the relationships I developed with my professors shaped who I am now and will 
continue to be important and valuable for the rest of my life," says Aaron Galloway.
GALLOWAY WALKS 
TO HIS OWN TUNE
This year, Instructor of Health and 
Human Performance Kyle Van Wyk 
('10) launched Core 288 “Sport and 
Exercise in Society and Culture.” 
Students study sport, exercise, and 
physical activity within the contexts 
of society and culture, investigating 
and analyzing contemporary views 
and a Reformed perspective. The 
semester-long course culminates 
in a two-week trip to Scotland, 
where students experience Highland 
Games events, curling, hiking in the 
Highlands, touring a Glasgow club 
soccer stadium, walking the home of 
golf at St. Andrews, and more.
“A major motivation for me was to 
create an opportunity for students 
who might find it difficult to be away 
from campus for an entire semester 
due to other commitments,” says Van 
Wyk. “One of my biggest regrets in 
college was not doing a study abroad 
program; I was involved in athletics 
and couldn’t get away from campus 
for an entire semester.”
Why spend time off-campus?
“I think it’s so vital that I tell all 
my advisees and others to think 
hard about studying abroad,” 
says Matthews. “It’s crucial to live 
elsewhere and experience different 
cultural practices and lifeways. That 
way, you know what yours are and 
why you do what you do, with the 
ability to revise or change your own 
place.”
“I have heard it said that students saw 
their Netherlands trip as a once-in-a-
lifetime experience,” reflects van Beek. 
“One student wrote in her final course 
paper, ‘This trip to Europe was a life-
changing experience. Since going on 
this trip, I feel like I can go out and 
do anything.’ Each time I go, I come 
back enriched myself. It’s amazing 
how much one can learn from cross-
cultural experiences with different 
groups of people.”
Studying abroad broadens students’ 
perspectives, adds Van Wyk. “If 
students are anything like me, not 
only do they learn about new places 
and people, they learn a thing or two 
about themselves.”
SARAH MOSS (’10)
Groenewold
JA
M
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 V
E
R
 V
E
LD
E ('9
9)
1
Moss: Galloway Walks to His Own Tune
Published by Dordt Digital Collections,


Galloway Walks to His Own Tune

A Look at the Class of \u2724

Bakker, Joe

The Voice 
Volume 69 
Issue 1 Fall 2023 Article 12 
Partnerships Open Doors 
Joe Bakker 
Dordt University, joe.bakker@dordt.edu 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Bakker, Joe () "Partnerships Open Doors," The Voice: Vol. 69: Iss. 1, Article 12. 
Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/voice/vol69/iss1/12 
This Features is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Dordt Digital Collections. 
It has been accepted for inclusion in The Voice by an authorized editor of Dordt Digital Collections. For more 
information, please contact ingrid.mulder@dordt.edu. 
F
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The Master of Social Work program is its fourth year of equipping students to bring Christ-centered renewal to 
the world through the vocation of social work. The program 
has been an inspiring example to me of how God uses the 
work of his people to bring the grace of the Gospel to people 
in need of healing and restoration. As result, I am always 
encouraged by opportunities that increase 
access to the programs at Dordt. A couple 
of recent partnerships are bringing new 
access to the Master of Social Work 
program for students interested in 
a Christ-centered graduate school 
experience. 
Dordt University recently entered into 
two partnerships that have opened 
doors for students graduating from other 
like-minded institutions. Dordt has partnered 
with Redeemer University (Ancaster, Ontario) and Geneva 
College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania) to provide their graduates 
with a head start in Dordt’s online Master of Social Work 
program. The partnerships show how working collaboratively 
with other institutions can result in opportunities for students.
The two partnerships are important because they provide a 
Christ-centered pathway for students pursuing a Master of 
Social Work degree. The partnerships recognize the work 
that students have already completed at Redeemer and 
Geneva. This reduces the number of courses a graduate of 
Redeemer and Geneva need to take, which saves the students 
both time and tuition. Redeemer and Geneva graduates 
now have a pathway to an MSW that is faster than at secular 
universities in their area. Also, Dordt’s program is 100 percent 
online, which allows students to access the program from 
wherever they live. However, the primary benefi t is that these 
partnerships enable students to continue their social work 
education from the Reformed worldview that Dordt, Geneva, 
and Redeemer all share. Students in the program learn how 
to support individuals and groups in challenging situations 
through the lens of God’s word with both grace and truth.
A Master of Social Work allows a social worker to increase 
their level of service to people in need. Dordt’s MSW program 
allows students to further their career prospects while also 
developing them as Christian social work practitioners. 
The program has three specializations for students to 
choose from clinical practice, community practice and 
administration, and advanced generalist. 
JOE BAKKER (’07), DEAN FOR ONLINE, GRADUATE, AND PARTNER 
PROGRAMS
PARTNERSHIPS 
OPEN DOORS
WHAT’S SO 
SPECIAL 
ABOUT 
DEFENDER 
DAYS?
Parks Brawand (’22) drove through icy weather from Aberdeen, South Dakota, to Sioux Center to be at Defender 
Days, Dordt’s alumni and parents’ weekend. He works long 
hours as a region design engineer with the South Dakota 
Department of Transportation, but he knew that he didn’t 
want to miss an opportunity to be back on Dordt’s campus.
“The biggest motivator for me was spending time with 
friends from Dordt again, all while being physically on 
campus,” he says. “There’s nothing quite like returning to 
where these friendships started, and returning to that sense 
of campus life, even if it’s just for a weekend.”
Brawand’s friend and former roommate, Sam Landstra (’22), 
fl ew in from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to be at Defender Days. 
He works as a reporter for FOX 17 News in Grand Rapids, 
where he fi nds, shoots, writes, and edits fi ve stories a week 
for the nighttime newscasts. Landstra took time out of his 
A little snow didn't dampen the spirits of Defender Nation at the 
football game against Briar Cliff  University. Dordt trounced the 
Chargers 49 to zero during that Defender Days game.
D
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Bakker: Partnerships Open Doors
Published by Dordt Digital Collections,
