North Park has served five generations of students and continues to grow in diversity, academic relevance, and Christian commitment. Our Chicago location is a great asset that reflects the School’s global reach and outlook.
After 125 years, we’ve learned how to streamline the process of helping qualified applicants seek admission to North Park and find affordable ways to attend. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on our website, please contact us directly!
North Park offers more than 40 graduate and undergraduate programs in liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies. Classes average 17 students. 84% of our faculty have terminal degrees. Academics here are rigorous and results-oriented.
North Park Theological Seminary prepares you to answer the call to service through theological study, spiritual development, and the formative experiences of living in a community with others on a similar life path.
The Office of Alumni Engagement fosters lifelong connections by engaging alumni with the university and one another in activities, programs, and services that support the university’s mission and alumni needs.
North Park’s 99th annual Homecoming schedule is filled with events designed to allow students, alumni, faculty and staff, and neighbors to celebrate together.
North Park’s 99th annual Homecoming schedule is filled with events designed to allow students, alumni, faculty and staff, and neighbors to celebrate together. “In the planning process, we asked ourselves, ‘Who is Homecoming for?’ and created programming inclusive of all North Park community members,” said Jasanna Tayler, alumni engagement manager.
The 2024 festivities kick off Thursday, October 10, and include a tour of North Park’s architecture, an alumni art exhibition, a music showcase, an alumni award ceremony, and a handful of sporting events. The weekend’s highlight is the Homecoming Festival on Saturday, one of the events intended to integrate Vikings of all ages and backgrounds. The festival will feature yard games, face-painting, mini-golf and food from local favorites Tre Kronor and Los Asadores Mexican Grill.
Tickets are $40 when purchased online between now and September 30, with tickets purchased onsite costing $50. Children under 18 are admitted free with a ticket holding adult. All Homecoming passes include a free sweatshirt designed by Emerson Cobbley BA ’24.
To register and for a complete schedule of events, click here.
The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) will partner with the Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago to empower youth and young adults in Chicago’s Black churches.
With the support of a $1.125M grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., North Park’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) this fall will partner with the Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago, led by Rev. Phil Jackson, to empower youth and young adults in Chicago’s Black churches.
The five-year project, Elevating Church Outreach (ECHO) for the Next Generation Black Church, aims to harness the creative energy of youth and young adults to create programs that encourage churches to be more involved in their communities.
North Park’s CCE will use the funds, in part, to offer mini-grants that support 20 youth-led, church-based social impact projects addressing anything from food insecurity to gang violence to youth homelessness, according to Rich Kohng, assistant vice president for civic engagement.
“In concert with our partners, our goal is to elevate youth voices within the church context,” Kohng said. “With the Firehouse as local convener and model, we hope the project will offer more avenues and resources so the local youth can dream of ways their churches can further impact their communities. This grant allows them to envision how they can do that.”
North Park University faculty and staff involved in the project include project evaluator Dr. Amy Governale, co-evaluator Dr. Michelle Dodson, and faculty advisor Dr. Dan White-Hodge.
A group of local pastors and faith leaders who have built and sustained social impact programs across the city will serve as coaches for the youth and young adult teams.
“They’ll be there to help the groups talk about messaging, how to allocate funds, make a budget, and organize volunteers,” Kohng said.
The main goal of the ECHO initiative is to see youth and young adults thrive as leaders in the church, which in turn can stimulate new energy in local congregations while leading to increased community appreciation of their importance and relevance.
Kohng said, “It’s about building on the legacy of local congregations as significant agents of change and transformation in their communities.”
North Park’s University Ministries has received two separate grants to create student internships in local churches and expand its Sankofa program, which promotes racial reconciliation.
North Park’s University Ministries (UMin) has received two separate grants to create student internships in local churches and expand its Sankofa program, which promotes racial reconciliation.
The $50,000 grant from the Educating Character Initiative of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University will create a credit-bearing course related to North Park’s Sankofa trip. During this annual sojourn, students, faculty, and staff travel to different parts of the U.S. to learn about various aspects of the country’s often contentious history of race relations.
Tony Zamble, director of UMin, said the grant will help create an interdisciplinary course combining philosophy and psychology to teach compassion.
“Our argument is that character is social, so you can’t have people of character who don’t care about the suffering of those around them,” Zamble said. “Sankofa helps develop compassion, empathy, and a keen sense of justice.”
A separate $40,000 grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) will help pay the salaries of 16 students who will intern at local churches over two years. Beginning this fall, UMin will deploy four music-oriented and four service-centered interns to local churches each year.
“Students are a little bit jaded by the church, especially those who didn’t necessarily grow up in it,” Zamble said. “We want them to see the real church in action and how they address justice and helping the poor.”
North Park University’s Center for Civic Engagement partnered with a local community organization to prove their efforts to lessen neighborhood violence have been successful.
North Park University’s Center for Civic Engagement partnered with a local community organization to prove their efforts to lessen neighborhood violence have significantly reduced crime.
Founded in 2003, the Firehouse Community Arts Center in North Lawndale engages local children and teens in various art programs to prevent them from joining gangs or participating in criminal activity.
North Park’s Assistant Professor of Psychology Amy Governale, along with two student workers, concluded crime had dropped 73.7% since 2020 after parsing four years’ worth of crime statistics. Using data from 2021 to now, they tracked three two-mile-wide areas in the North Lawndale neighborhood, examining the number of police responses and encounters, 911 calls, and ShotSpotter alerts.
One especially effective way to track the program’s success is to compare North Lawndale to other neighborhoods where crime has also fallen. When Governale and her group did so, they discovered the decrease—specifically in homicides, fatal shootings, and aggravated batteries—in North Lawndale has been so dramatic that parts of the neighborhood are no longer considered high-crime areas.
For instance, homicides were down 30% in the area the Firehouse Community Arts Center serves compared to a decrease of 14.6% in the rest of Chicago. Violence and gang-related 911 calls in the area decreased by 35% over the same three-year period, and non-fatal shootings declined by 80%.
“There’s a sense of awareness that the people who used to create terror on our streets are not doing that as much because they’re with us, learning to cook and creating art,” Firehouse founder Rev. Phil Jackson told WGN-9 TV recently.
Governale is excited about how North Park can engage with other institutions to provide similar services. She said her two student workers, Jayla Sotelo and Nora Nunez, have become highly proficient in parsing and analyzing data.
“They’re extremely well-trained in crime analysis, and for us to go to places and offer this skill to community groups, people are extremely impressed,” Governale said. “It’s something they can take with them after college and use to help non-profits.”
Now, the Firehouse is widening its reach by collaborating with local corporations and sports teams, such as the nearby Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, to assist in job placement for teens it mentors.
For more information about the Firehouse Community Arts Center’s work, go to thefcac.org.
Former North Park University School of Education Dean Rebecca Nelson was unanimously approved as co-interim superintendent for Community High School District 128.
Former North Park University School of Education Dean Rebecca Nelson was unanimously approved as co-interim superintendent for Community High School District 128, which comprises Libertyville High School and Vernon Hills High School. Nelson was dean from 2008–21, a position from which she retired. She serves as co-superintendent alongside Raymond Lechner, with whom she has successfully worked as a team on several interim assignments, most recently at Hinsdale Township High School District 86. Read more at the Daily Herald.
This fall, North Park University (NPU) will begin its ESL Teaching Cares program to provide childcare and English classes to refugees who have recently arrived in the Albany Park area.
This fall, North Park University (NPU) will begin its ESL Teaching Cares program to provide childcare and English classes to refugees who have recently arrived in the Albany Park area.
NPU’s Community Outreach & Global Partnerships team within University Ministries developed this program alongside the South-East Asia Center and the City of Chicago’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
ESL Teaching Cares will provide its services primarily to refugees living in the former U.S. Marine Corps facility on Foster Avenue, which the City of Chicago purchased for $1.5 million last fall to convert into a migrant shelter.
NPU students will serve as childcare providers or English tutors under the leadership of Ben Swihart, coordinator of Community Outreach and Global Partnerships, and NPU student intern Davianna Schuh.
“The ESL Teaching Cares program overall promotes the care and advancement of underserved populations in our community, working alongside organizations that have been doing this work for decades,” Schuh said. “Opportunities like this have been proven to increase graduation rates, diversify students’ perspectives, and increase professional credentials for North Park students.”
NPU previously provided resources to immigrant families by hosting a food and clothing drive last December. More than 60 volunteers—North Parkers and representatives from the North Park Community Association, Alderman Samantha Nugent’s office, Aramark, and other community groups—collected and distributed clothing, blankets, and supplies to 225 families.
The seemingly divergent worlds of Matt Flesch BA ’96 and Nancy Faust BA ’69 came together four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to their mutual connection to the Chicago White Sox.
The seemingly divergent worlds of Matt Flesch BA ’96 and Nancy Faust BA ’69 came together four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to their mutual connection to the Chicago White Sox.
Faust—the team’s long-term organist and Major League Baseball’s first female organist—met Flesch, a lifelong fan of the South Siders, when he started a project to distract him from the boredom of home confinement. A massive Sox fan, Flesch—who works in marketing for Amgen, a biopharmaceuticals maker—was making a now completed documentary about the Sox’s home stadium called “Last Comiskey.”
He posted a request for archival Comiskey videos on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and was shocked and delighted to receive a response from Faust, the organist at Comiskey for more than 40 years.
“Nancy Faust is a legend to Sox fans,” Flesch said. “So, I was so elated when she reached out; it was a bonus to find out she was so nice.”
A native of Edgebrook, Illinois, Faust went to North Park because “music was the only thing I knew, and North Park was the place for music.” But she soon noticed that her fellow students could read music and knew all the classics when she had only a natural ear. Eventually, someone pulled Faust aside and told her that her ability to play any song by ear wasn’t enough to continue as a music major. Taking his advice, she switched to elementary education. Spoiler alert: she never taught.
Instead, she continued to pursue her true love by forming a musical trio, performing at parties and events. Ironically, it was her knack for playing just about any song by ear that grabbed the attention of the Sox general manager—who was attending one of her gigs—that sealed her fate. He gave her his card, and she followed up. The rest is history.
It was a match made in baseball heaven, with flash-fingered Faust able to react instantly—whether it was the moon coming up over the scoreboard or a black cat running onto the field—and pound out the appropriate tune. Perhaps her biggest claim to fame is popularizing “Na Na Na Na Hey-ey Goodbye” when an opposing player strikes out.
“I had a dream job, and they took good care of me,” Faust said of the Sox.
So, when she saw Flesch’s post about the documentary, she was eager to help, putting him in touch with many former players and managers, including Jack McDowell and Ozzie Guillen. Thanks to the boredom of COVID-19, plenty of people were happy to unspool their memories during Zoom interviews.
Flesch taught himself video editing and, with the help of his brother, Mike, spliced together a series of videos that premiered on YouTube in March 2023. The series received local media coverage, and Faust and Flesch attended its premiere, including a game at the Sox’s current home, Guaranteed Rate Field.
Now, Flesch is hard at work on a series about the old Chicago Stadium, the legendary home of the championship Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, for release sometime next year. Faust, incidentally, also played the organ there.
Thanks to their many connections, including North Park, Faust and Flesch now consider themselves good friends. Flesch’s family has visited Faust and her husband at their home in Mundelein, Illinois, where Faust raises donkeys. Incidentally, the hobby started when Faust stepped in to adopt a donkey that, shockingly, went unclaimed at a White Sox giveaway.
“That’s what I love about North Park; you meet alumni everywhere,” Flesch said.
“I tell so many people how North Park was the perfect school for me. I got to do so many different things, from playing baseball to being sports editor for the newspaper, where I got to interview [then Seattle Seahawks Coach] Mike Holmgren a week before they played in the Super Bowl. North Park was just a very well-rounded experience for me.”
Oh, and in case you’re wondering who covered for the inimitable Faust on her sick days? Pretty much no one; over the course of her career, which ended in 2010, she only missed six home games following the birth of her son, Eric.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) brought its People’s Academy, a condensed version of its Training Academy, to North Park’s campus last month.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) brought its People’s Academy, a condensed version of its Training Academy, to North Park’s campus last month.
COPA is an independent agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct. The academy’s goal is to engage Chicago residents in weekly meetings throughout the city to educate them about the agency’s work in public safety and accountability.
“In many instances, residents only learn about COPA based on media reports or hearsay,” said Ephraim Eaddy, COPA’s first deputy chief administrator. “Because our investigations and outcomes are related to police and community interactions—in the form of complaints to the agency, for example—it is imperative we provide clarity of process and core functions.”
Eaddy emphasized the interactive nature of the meetings, as community input is vital to their operations.
“If we expect people to trust an agency like COPA with their experiences, then we must be willing as leaders of the agency to make ourselves available to hear from residents, and we must be incredibly transparent about our investigations,” he said.
COPA is led by Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten BA ’01, daughter of former North Park Theological Seminary Dean David Kersten. Read more about Andrea and her work with COPA here.
Congratulations to all the students who made the spring 2024 dean’s list.
Congratulations to all the students who made the spring 2024 dean’s list. Degree-seeking students with at least 12 semester credit hours at North Park University and a GPA of 3.5 or higher are eligible for this honor.
The MMP will feature four tracks: vocal arts solo, vocal arts ensemble, keyboard arts vocal coaching, and keyboard arts conducting.
“We are excited at the possibility to broaden the potential graduate student pool by creating a more attractive, versatile, and practical degree with direct application to numerous jobs in music,” said Chad Eric Bergman, interim co-dean of SMAT. “We are also partnering with Chicago arts organizations to provide an optional internship program for our graduate students to bridge the gap between study and professional practice.”
Musical professionals will lead the program, guiding students through a curriculum of theory and practice in music performance, pedagogy, and leadership skills, all against the backdrop of Chicago’s rich cultural arts scene.
Students will benefit from a personalized program with small cohorts of five to eight and flexible class schedules for working professionals. An undergraduate degree in music is not required to enroll.
The two vocal tracks will include intense vocal training. Soloists will focus on stage and concert repertoire, while ensemble students will study choral singing and conducting. Keyboard arts vocal coaching students will concentrate on solo and chamber performance; keyboard arts conducting students will study directing diverse genres.
North Park has designed this degree to prepare students for the rigorous and multifaceted career demands of professional musicians. Dr. You-Seong Kim, a SMAT professor of applied voice and vocal pedagogy, hopes the MMP will produce “not only music makers, but music lovers.” SMAT also aims to equip underrepresented musicians with the opportunity to take on leadership roles in their chosen fields.
Author Megan VoypickPosted on Categories Stories
