Interview with the Host with Dr. Jon S. Kulaga

Transcript

Let’s take a moment to learn a little bit more about Indiana Wesleyan University. I had the fortunate opportunity to sit down for a special conversation with President Dr. Jon Kulaga. We talked about what makes IWU so unique, the students who inspire him, and his vision for the future of this Christ centered University. Check it out. I’ve heard you say it many times, like unapologetically Christ-centered. Can you share a little bit about that?

– Yeah. Well, yeah, it’s our way of sort of differentiating ourselves from schools that have been religious or were formerly religious. They had historical denominational ties, but they’ve sort of left that, and we’ve stayed true to that. We are, we say, unapologetic. We don’t talk about religion; we actually talk about Jesus Christ. We wanna be focused on the Word of God and the work of Christ and everything we do, and we’re unapologetic about it. So it impacts our hiring practices, but then it also extends way beyond just the classroom. We have a whole center for calling for students who don’t know what their major is, but they do wanna go to college, and we have a way to walk through that whole process with them. It impacts our lifestyle commitments, and it impacts who plays on our athletic teams. I mean, it literally goes from the classroom to the tennis courts, and we’re just bold about it, and we’re just kind of upfront about it.

– It’s everywhere here.

– Yep.

– You feel it. It’s amazing. When you sit back and have time to just reflect and just think it inspired, what inspires you about these students, you know, inside and outside the classroom?

– You mean hypothetically if I sat back and had time to reflect?

– Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

– Yeah. Yeah. If I actually had that time, it’s the thing about the Indiana Wesleyan students, and it’s true whether you’re talking about our campus or our online students or our seminary students, is not only what they’re being educated to become in terms of their career, they have great ideas for their careers, but it’s the people they’re becoming. It’s actually who they are becoming. And you see that from the moment they walk on campus. Our students serve in the community. They love on the least the last and the littlest on campus. They’re always looking for a way to walk out and to be actually Jesus with skin on, and they’re thinking about that long term. They are here for a career, but they’re really pursuing a calling, and that’s lifelong.

– It’s amazing to watch and you can see why this institution is flourishing in this time from a lot of these like, you know, principles that you’ve seen true to. It’s really cool. When you think of the future student, what do you say to ’em about this institution?

– Yeah, I mean, I did this thing, right? I had four kids, so we did the college tour and everybody would use the phrase, “What colleges are you looking at?” And I try to encourage parents, don’t just look at a school, look through a school, look to the other side. See if that school is gonna pull your student through the other side with internships, with opportunities, alumni network. We have over 115,000 alumni, so we can connect them with apprenticeships, job shadowing. Don’t just look at a school, but look through a school, but still look at a school because the environment in which your child learns, whether it’s the athletic team or the classroom, the faculty member who’s mentoring, so definitely look at the school, its values and its environment, but also look through the school and see if that school is actually gonna be able to pull your student through to the other side and launch them.

– Well, I just wanna say, I mean, thank you for opening your doors here to the college tour.

– Our pleasure.

– You can see that the leadership and everything that you just said, you can see it, and it’s really fun to just watch this come alive here.

– Yeah, it was great to have you on campus.

– Dr. Kulaga, it was an honor speaking with you. It’s clear that IWU is more than a campus. It’s a Christ-centered community, equipping students to change the world. Thank you for sharing your heart and your vision.