As one of few Reformed colleges and universities on the West Coast, Ontario, Calif.-based Providence Christian College marked a milestone earlier this month, inaugurating its second president, Dr. J. Derek Halvorson. Halvorson was a student of medieval history who also spent years in the financial sector as a currencies trader, and most recently worked at Covenant College as director of constituent relations.

Hundreds attended Halvorson’s swearing-in ceremony, including a number of Covenant College staff: VP for academic affairs Jeffrey Hall, VP for advancement Troy Duble, and former president Frank Brock. Halvorson’s brother Hans, who is an associate professor of philosophy at Princeton University, also attended, and addressed the gathering.

“You have a responsibility to open your eyes and the eyes of your students,” said Hans Halvorson. “Show your students the value of employing their creative gifts in order to participate in God's activity of redeeming the world. … The future of Providence College is no more in your hands than your past was, and both your past and future are in the hands of a God who is making all things work together for good.”

In his incoming remarks, Derek Halvorson said, “Let’s be a college that seeks to honor—in the way we pursue our scholarship, in the way we live together, in the way we serve the church and the world—the Christ who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, the sustainer of all things, the first-born from the dead, the reconciler of all things. For in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Would that He of eternal beauty, ever ancient, ever new, be glorified in all that we do and say at Providence Christian College.”

Providence Christian College, a liberal arts institution that was founded in 2002, has 55 students and six major and 12 minor programs of study.
 
To learn more about Providence Christian College, visit www.providencecc.net.