An emergency room nurse once told me, “This is just a chapter in your life. Whether you’re in a good chapter or a bad chapter, there is a new one coming.” I found comfort in that thought – during good and bad sports seasons, baby cuddles and toddler tantrums, and even an unprecedented pandemic, the page turns and something new is around the corner.
My first issue as editor of Linfield Magazine comes at one such transitional moment in Linfield’s history. As we emerge from the pandemic and continue to grow from college to university, Linfield is preparing itself for a successful next chapter. One that balances its 164-year past with a higher education future likely to look very different. Among all this change, our community seems to be asking, “Who were we, who are we and who do we want to be?”
This edition of the magazine features stories that I hope start to move us toward answering those questions.
Linfield is a leader in a unique type of liberal arts education. One that is being extended into new graduate programs in business, nursing and sports science, and onto a 20-acre campus in Portland that opened in February. Linfield inspires critical thinkers like Roger Heusser ’63, who uncovered horrifying atrocities and demanded more transparency from the federal government (page 32). Linfield is a family that pulls together in hard times, as lifelong Linfielder Debbie Harmon Ferry ’90 explores in her personal essay on page 14. And Linfield is a collection of coaches and administrators who made an unprecedented effort to salvage an athletic season for hundreds of student-athletes amid the pandemic (page 42).
Above all, Linfield is a place that does its best to create a better future – not just for our community, but for the world beyond. The impact of Linfield’s investment in nursing education, for example, is shaping not only the future of its nursing students but the future of community healthcare nationwide. Read about that on page 18.
It’s been one heck of a year, but I find myself inspired by the next chapters at Linfield. After reading these pages, I hope you are, as well.
I look forward to sharing Linfield’s stories with you in this and future editions, and I hope you will share your Linfield stories with me at linfieldmagazine@linfield.edu.
– Kathy Foss, editor
