Growing in Community

As a music education major at Dordt, Daniel spent his four years participating in many musical ensembles on campus. He played tuba in the concert band, sang in the choir and Kantorei. He was also heavily involved in the student-led pep band. Outside of music, Daniel also led Dordt’s freshmen orientation week (WOW), investing in the lives of leaders and interacting with freshmen.

“I’ve enjoyed being able to do Defender ambassadors, where you work as a student volunteer to lead the tours on Thursday night for visiting students,” Daniel adds. “I’ve actually had a couple students that I led on tours show up on WOW week. That first touch where they’re not even students here yet and then you get to meet them and tell them what you love about Dordt—that’s been a lot of fun too.”

After graduating, Daniel began working as a teacher at Calvin Christian School in Escondido, California. He will be teaching instrumental and choral music for grades 5-12.

“I feel well-prepared to take what I know and move from there continually learning and engaging with people I’ll be with with the intent to help them grow,” he says. “It doesn’t feel like I am checklist-ing items. I’ve been given the abilities to assess, plan, organize, and enact as well as review and modify whatever those plans are.”

In summary, Daniel is grateful for the many opportunities and lessons that he gained at Dordt. Being engaged in the community, academics, and continuing education makes a huge difference. Daniel’s professors often reached out to him, making sure that his priorities and intentions were right. He knew that his teachers were thinking and praying for him.

“Dordt’s great. I love it here. I’ve really enjoyed my four years. The people have made such a difference, and the small interactions between faculty has always been great and supportive. I think the atmosphere that Dordt is creating brings the people that care, and that’s what’s made the biggest impact for me. It’s finding such a great group of people who are interested and continuing to learn and to help not just themselves grow but this whole community grow. It’s been fun.”