Surrounded by Grace students and staff, along with Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce staff and ambassadors, Grace President Dr. Drew Flamm, right, with scissors, cuts the ribbon Monday for the rebranding of Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WINONA LAKE — Grace remains a Christ-centered institution, but now it has two brands and logos — one for Grace College and the other for Grace Theological Seminary.

“One institution but expressed in two logos, and that’s for the reason of growth,” said Grace President Dr. Drew Flamm at Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Aug. 12, with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. “We’re growing as an institution both on the undergraduate side, so we want Grace College to be elevated and recognized as definitely a place that is Christ-centered but in all we do, from nursing to engineering to athletics.”

Grace College will have its own separate brand, and then Grace Seminary, “which is one of the fastest growing seminaries in the United States — third fastest right now,” deserves to be on its own in many ways as a logo, he said. The seminary has its own logo, and Flamm said he was “excited for them to be able to elevate all they’re doing both locally on campus and online.”

There’s two brands, two logos, but one institution with the same mission and vision, just expressed in two different ways, he reiterated.

The seminary and college are two different programs. The seminary includes masters level and up programming, like masters of divinity, masters of arts and doctorate of divinity.

“The Grace College brand is primary for our undergraduates and our online students at the undergraduate level,” Flamm said.

Rebranding Grace has been a conversation piece for a long time, he said, “of, ‘How do we ensure both of these important aspects of the institution are elevated?’ But now, with our ‘Created for More’ brand platform that we’re rolling out, (it’s) really a new way to just talk about who we are and what we’re about and how we’re unique as a Christ-centered institution with a vision to know Christ and to make Him known. This became the right time. As we updated fonts and updated logos and updated our website, it became just the right time, especially with both growing, to express ourselves in these two unique ways with both the college and the seminary.”

One way to measure Grace’s growth is by its number of students. Flamm said, on the undergraduate side, they expect that this fall they will their largest number of incoming students ever.

“In fact, here at the ribbon-cutting, there was a bunch of students that came from Archbold, Ohio, all graduates of Archbold High School in Ohio who came over just for this ribbon-cutting. And I think that just shows the excitement that’s being generated, and our community is a huge part of that as well at the undergraduate level. It’s what we often talk about: We’re Christ-center and we’re community-focused, and our local community is what makes us unique, and the fact that we have a beautiful location, but also wonderful job opportunities, people who want to engage with our students here in our community.

“All of this is a part of talking about who we are uniquely at the undergraduate level and why we think we’re growing right now.”

Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker said that Grace plays a big part in the community.

“Grace College is such a valuable partner and member of our community. What they bring in terms of the number of students that stay and continue to work, live, play and raise families here is just incredible,” he said.

The young adults that come out of Grace are educated, well-trained, great citizens who get engaged into the community, he said.

“This is one of the biggest growth engines that we have for our community – beyond the high schools and things like that. Grace is just critically important to the success of Warsaw and Kosciusko County and beyond,” Parker said.

According to a statistic he saw, over half of Grace graduates stay within an hour of the campus for their life.

“So when you think about that, they’re attracting people from all over and many of them are staying right here in northern Indiana,” Parker said. “What a blessing to have Grace College here and doing so many great things for us.”

Grace College is one of 13 Indiana colleges and universities recently approved for grants from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support community development projects jointly envisioned by the institutions and local stakeholders to improve quality of life and place in their communities.

The Endowment awarded the five-year implementation grants through its initiative College and Community Collaboration, according to an Aug. 2 news release from The Endowment. The competitive initiative is designed to encourage Indiana’s colleges and universities to work closely with community stakeholders to envision and jointly undertake significant community development efforts — beneficial to both the institution and community — to create more vibrant places in which to live, learn, work and play.

Grace College will use a $27 million grant to partially support its multi-faceted initiative to advance innovation and create a more vibrant community through enhanced placemaking. Various projects include the creation of orthopedic and business innovation centers, the development and renovation of wellness facilities, and renovation of a performing arts and event space and a building that will house a childcare training center, the Lilly Endowment news release stated.

For more information about Grace College, visit grace.edu.

For more information about Grace Theological Seminary, visit seminary.grace.edu.