Northwestern College to honor distinguished alumni

Northwestern College will present three of its alumni with awards recognizing their accomplishments and service during the college’s Raider Days Homecoming and Parents Weekend. The three will be honored during a banquet Saturday evening, Oct. 1.

Sheila (Born) De Jong of Sioux Center will receive the Distinguished Service to Humankind Award for 2016–17; Junko (Hirasawa) Nagao of Tokyo, Japan, the Distinguished Service to Northwestern Award; and Glenn Van Ekeren of Elkhorn, Neb., the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award.

De Jong is the founder and president of the Katelyn’s Fund orphan ministry. In 2005, she and her husband were preparing to welcome twin girls born in Guatemala. Before they could bring them home, however, one twin died. Katelyn’s Fund, named in their daughter’s memory, now advocates for orphans around the world and provides emotional, prayer and financial support to families pursuing international adoption. Since its inception, it has provided over $1 million in grants to more than 500 families who have adopted children from 41 countries.

De Jong graduated from Northwestern College in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, after which she taught first grade at Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn (HMS) and Sheldon elementary schools. She also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Morningside College.

Nagao calls the two years she spent at Northwestern College “the foundation of my life.” When she attended NWC in the late 1960s, she was the only student from Japan. Since then, she has devoted herself to nurturing the relationship between Northwestern and her country. In addition to hosting gatherings of Japanese alumni, she encourages Japanese students to enroll at Northwestern and has invited NWC graduates to consider teaching in Japanese schools.

Nagao attended a junior college in Japan for two years before transferring to NWC, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1970. She also spent a semester at Northwestern in the fall of 2003 as a student in the college’s English as a Second Language certificate program.

Van Ekeren is an accomplished motivational speaker and trainer. He shares his passion for living a meaningful life in his blog, enthusedaboutlife.com, and in books he’s authored with titles such as “12 Simple Steps to Experiencing Joy in Everyday Relationships” and “Celebrate: Living the Life You’ve Imagined.”

A 1974 graduate of Northwestern, where he majored in psychology, Van Ekeren spent 20 years as the director of people development at Village Northwest Unlimited, an organization that serves individuals with disabilities. Since 1999 he has been the president of Vetter Health Services, which owns and operates 30 long-term care facilities in the Midwest.