In 1944 the school built a campus offering two- and three-year degree programs in ministry.
We kept saying that all of the time so people had something to hang on to.Founded in 1941, Cornerstone University started out as Baptist Bible Institute and classes were run out of the Wealthy Street Baptist Church. The third is the sustainability of our mission, the financial one. Second, I learned how important it is to articulate your priorities in the midst of a most difficult time. One way is to be open to counsel and advice. Some principles to leadership never change, but all of a sudden you have to be nimble. I learned how important it is to not be stuck in the groove of leading the way you’ve always led. What did you learn about yourself as a leader during the pandemic? The Lord graciously provided these people who shared our passion. The first two to three years were just building relationships and communicating the goals, brand and our mission for where we were going to go. I came here from Chicago and knew very few people over here. We wouldn’t be here today without the amazing group of donors that provided for us.
It was the uniqueness of our mission that drew major fundraisers in. In terms of fundraising, it’s been wonderful to see a lot of people in these areas embrace our mission. We enabled budget managers to be conservative yet resourceful in their areas. We really increased the accountability and internal budget management. We see long-term impacts from our engineering and nursing programs and health care and pre-med programming.Ĭan you discuss your approach to fundraising and investment and how that’s benefitted Cornerstone financially? As a result, most of our programs are geared to meet the needs of West Michigan’s industries. We think we make a contribution by graduating students to go into careers that are significantly important to West Michigan in particular. One of the things we’ve been wanting to do and have done quite successfully is measure and be responsive to the marketplace. What new programs or degrees at Cornerstone do you see having a lasting effect? There’s fewer fish in the same pond but more people with lines in the pond. One of the challenges is the demographics in Michigan have led to a declining high school graduation rate over the last seven to eight years, which makes the competition even more significant. All of us are fishing out of the same pond, in a sense. Cornerstone, Calvin, Hope and Aquinas are all faith-based. There’s so many major players, and the options are interesting. West Michigan is unusual for the high caliber of higher education opportunities that are here. What are Grand Rapids’ and West Michigan’s strengths when it comes to higher education? Our commitment was to make sure we could be a blessing to the community outside of us and enable West Michigan to flourish with graduates who distinguish themselves in their career. In the past, Cornerstone was kind of seen as a religious huddle up the Beltline and internally drawn in. I’m grateful for the fact that as we framed our brand, the experience of our brand on campus became a very strong reality. What we had to do was get the brand identified and out into the community. This university had all of the right stuff. What was your approach as you sought to build new academic programs and make investments?Ī very important part of our task when we came in was to advance the brand of the university. I attribute it to the outstanding board and team I worked with. I’m so thankful over the past 13 years to have seen dramatic growth and improvement on almost every front of the university. When we came, we had something with great bones but there was a lot of work to be done. I think Cornerstone had an outstanding mission and great leadership, but they were difficult times for higher education, especially private faith-based education.