Sesquicentennial Celebration
A Celebration of Luther College’s Sesquicentennial
It’s been 150 years since Luther first opened its doors at a vacant parsonage at Halfway Creek, Wisconsin—the first college established by Norwegian immigrants in the United States.
While much has changed since that time, much has stayed the same. Just as it was in 1861, Luther is a community of faith and learning, with an abiding appreciation for the land and community that sustains it.
Throughout 2011 the college's sesquicentennial celebration will reflect the holistic nature of a Luther education, with events and projects celebrating the college’s Norwegian heritage, location, curriculum, music and the arts, worship, athletics, environmental stewardship, and service ethic.
The goal for the sesquicentennial is to honor Luther’s past while also looking outward and forward, paying tribute to the ways Luther has and will continue to contribute to the broader world by preparing students to lead and serve on behalf of the common good.
The theme for the sesquicentennial, Transformed by the Journey, evokes
- The stories of those who made journey from Norway to the upper Midwest to found Luther College
- The experience of the liberal arts and the transformation we hope happens to students in their four-year journey
- The vocational journeys of Luther graduates
- The ways the college has changed over its journey—co-education, the curriculum, and the physical plant are all examples
- Rich faith imagery related to reformation and transformation. The scripture passage that has been selected for the sesquicentennial is from Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
