Four to receive Northwestern College alumni awards for 2024

Northwestern College will present four of its alumni with awards recognizing their accomplishments and service during Raider Nation Celebration, the college’s Homecoming and Family Weekend. The recipients will be honored during a banquet Saturday evening, Oct. 5.

Dr. Darla Olson of Grandville, Michigan, will receive the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award; the Rev. Jonathan Opgenorth of Zeeland, Michigan, the Distinguished Service to Humankind Award; Dr. Dick Van Holland of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Distinguished Service to Northwestern Award; and Alyssa Wheeler of Arlington, Virginia, the Standout Young Alum Award.

Olson is retired after a 31-year career as a physician serving women and their babies during pregnancy and childbirth. She spent 18 years with West Michigan Obstetricians & Gynecologists, three years teaching and supervising OB-GYN residents at Spectrum Health Downtown, and 10 years as an OB-GYN at Spectrum Health Zeeland Community Hospital. She also was a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for 35 years and was named West Michigan Best Doctor in 2002, 2005 and 2015.

Olson graduated from Northwestern in 1984 with a biology/pre-med degree, then earned her medical degree from the University of Iowa and her specialty in OB-GYN from Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Opgenorth serves as president of Words of Hope, an organization dedicated to providing people around the world with daily access to God’s word through a variety of media. A native of Oostburg, Wisconsin, he majored in religion at Northwestern—graduating in 1988—and then earned his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. For six years, he was an associate and then co-pastor of Fellowship Reformed Church in Muskegon, Michigan, before being called to serve as the senior pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, a position he held for 17 years.

Prior to joining Words of Hope as its president, Opgenorth served on its board of trustees. He also served as a trustee for Northwestern College and on the General Synod Council of the Reformed Church in America.

Van Holland was a longtime business professor at Northwestern College, retiring in 2011 after 29 years of teaching at his alma mater. During his tenure at NWC, he was awarded the college’s Teaching Excellence Award twice. He was also named the Outstanding Iowa Post-Secondary Business Educator by the Iowa Business Education Association and won the National Outstanding Advising of Students Award from NACADA, the national academic advising association.

As a member of Northwestern’s faculty, Van Holland advised the Business Club, led the college’s 125-year anniversary committee, chaired the business department, and wrote NWC’s accreditation report. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls after graduating in 1958 from Northwestern Junior College and also holds a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of South Dakota.

Wheeler is the policy analyst in the Office on Trafficking in Persons of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to that role, she worked as a legal fellow for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and as associate legal counsel for the Human Trafficking Institute. An attorney, she earned her law degree from The George Washington University Law School and was admitted to the bar by the state of New York.

Wheeler’s passion for justice was fanned into flames at Northwestern, where she majored in political science and Spanish, participated in Spring Service Partnerships, studied for a semester in Spain, and served as news editor for the Beacon. She graduated from NWC in 2014. While in law school, she was a recipient of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award and interned with the International Criminal Court, International Justice Mission, and Human Rights Watch.