ABOUT DIRECTORY EVENTS NEWS HEALTH INFO GIVE VISIT APPLY ADMISSION ACADEMICS CAMPUS LIFE ALUMNI ATHLETICS ABOUT ABOUT CENTRAL Central College in Pella, Iowa, is a private, four-year liberal arts college. Central is known for its academic rigor, its leadership formation and, most importantly, for its work creating genuine connections among students, faculty, coaches and alumni that help graduates realize their career aspirations for a lifetime. We are steadfastly dedicated to cultivating diversity of thought and culture through the arts and sciences, professional fields of study and experiential learning. The Central experience is rooted in exploration and self-discovery and enhanced by life in a residential community of 1,120 students with diverse perspectives. Founded in 1853, Central values its long-standing relationship with the Reformed Church in America. The college participates in NCAA Division III athletics and is a member of the American Rivers Conference. Central’s home of Pella, Iowa, is a thriving community of more than 10,000. Pella impressively appears in Oprah’s 2021 60 Charming American Towns You Haven’t Heard of But Should Visit ASAP. The community is famous for its annual Tulip Time Festival, its Dutch pastries and its fully functional 1850s-style windmill. In fact, Pella has it all! Pella is located just minutes from Red Rock Lake, Iowa’s largest lake, and is the corporate headquarters of several international companies, including Vermeer Corporation, Pella Corporation, Precision, Inc., and Lely North America. Niche.com named Pella one of the Best Places to Raise a Family in Iowa and one of the Best Places to Live in Iowa in 2021. Read more about our history, our welcome statement and our covenant with the RCA. MISSION STATEMENT Central College is a residential liberal arts college dedicated to helping students discover and develop their greatest potential. Guided by its ecumenical Christian tradition, the college community engages in vigorous, open inquiry in pursuit of academic excellence. The college nurtures the development of the mind while fostering spiritual and emotional maturity and physical well-being. Central integrates career preparation with the development of values essential to responsible citizenship, empowering graduates for effective service in local, national and international communities. LOCATION Pella, Iowa, is just 40 minutes southeast of Iowa’s capital city of Des Moines and minutes from Lake Red Rock. Pella is a thriving community of 10,000 and home to several large international companies such as Pella Corporation (Pella Windows), Vermeer Corporation, Heritage Lace and Precision, Inc. The city of Pella is known for tourism and the annual Tulip Time Festival that brings more than 200,000 visitors each year. ACCREDITATION Central College is a member of: Higher Learning Commission State of Iowa Board of Education Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Educators National Association of Schools of Music American Chemical Society Learn more about Central’s accreditation. ENVIRONMENTAL MISSION Central College is a leader in environmental stewardship in Iowa and the Midwest. Central students have opportunities to learn and foster sustainable habits. Sustainability education is infused throughout the college’s academic curriculum and everyday life. Students live and learn in green buildings, develop sustainability research and service projects, work in the college garden and eat local foods in Central Market. Learn more about Central’s commitment to the environment and campus sustainability efforts. FAST FACTS Central College, founded in 1853 and located in Pella, Iowa, is a private four-year, liberal arts college with a culture of inclusion, empathy and personal excellence. Central has been affiliated with the Reformed Church in America since 1916. Read our welcome statement and learn more about our history. Majorly obsessed with your future. Central offers academic programs in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. In 2020, a new data science minor and a musical theatre major were added. In 2018, the college celebrated its first graduates from its engineering program. The college also has several professional programs and more than a dozen pre-professional tracks including dentistry, health, pharmacy, law, medicine, nursing, athletic training, public health and more. It’s all about you. With an 12:1 student to faculty ratio, faculty and students enjoy a personalized teaching and mentoring environment. The average class size is 16 students. You’ll be surrounded by the best. All classes are taught by professors, not teaching assistants, and 87% of faculty members have earned a doctorate or other terminal degree. Our professors know their stuff and make time for their students. One of our professors, Terence Kleven, the Jacob and Gela Schnucker Sessler Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, has been named a Fulbright U.S. Scholar twice. And Jay Wackerly, associate professor of chemistry, has won a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation to study quinone-based macrocyclic systems for supramolecular applications. True stories! In addition to outstanding faculty, your peers seek success and will challenge you to use every last brain cell. That passion for excellence drives 94% of students to graduate from Central within four years. Opportunity knocks here. Students have tons of opportunities to do 1:1 research with our faculty who know amazing things — like their students’ names. Last year, nearly 300 students engaged in some form of academic research. Central is now test-optional. Students may submit their scores to increase their scholarship opportunities. Incoming students’ academic credentials: Average GPA: 3.59 Top 25% of their high school graduating class: 48% Enter with AP or college credit: 62% Central invests in you. Central’s commitment to affordability is supported by its practice of awarding financial aid to more than 99% of its students. New students, beginning with fall semester 2022, automatically will receive a $1,000 Journey Scholarship. Central opportunities are career builders. In total, more than 90% of Central students complete an internship, off-campus study, research or community service experience. Central College graduates earn an average of nearly $12,000 more than graduates of other colleges six years after graduation, according to Niche.com. Your passport to the world. For decades, Central has provided numerous global experiential learning opportunities around the world and plans to do so again once the pandemic allows. Be part of a larger team. Many extracurricular options encourage student involvement at Central, with 100+ student involvement opportunities available to nurture leadership, engagement and participation. Employers know when they hire a Central graduate, they get the job done. Nearly 100% of Central’s graduates are employed in a field of interest, enrolled in graduate or professional school or are engaged in meaningful volunteer work, such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps or Teach for America within one year of graduation. CAMPUS COMMUNITY Your education is a relationship. The Central College academic community is dedicated to educating undergraduate students. Nearly 100 faculty and 350 staff members, full- and part-time, serve approximately 1,120 undergraduates, who hail from Iowa and more than 35 other states and countries around the world. The power of the Central global network through alumni, parents, donors and corporate partners brings significant opportunities for the college and its students. Committed to social justice and inclusion. In 2021, Central welcomed a donor gift to create and sustain the Poppen Fund for Social Justice program and the Poppen Diversity Scholarship. It will support funding requests in areas of social justice, including legal, health, financial and environmental. The college administration includes a faculty fellow for diversity and inclusion to support faculty and student diversity, equity and inclusion. Be more than a spectator. The campus culture is one of engagement; metaphorically speaking, one cannot be a spectator at Central. Half of Central’s students participate in intercollegiate athletics. Up your game. Central competes at the NCAA Division III level and is a member of the American Rivers Conference. The Dutch have won: 500+ All-America Awards 11 national team championships 34 national individual championships 184 conference titles 64 CoSIDA Academic All-American Awards 23 conference all-sports titles 26 NCAA postgraduate scholarship winners Central’s student-athletes are nearly unstoppable. Since 1974, Central’s coaches have been recognized 143 times as the conference coach of the year. In the past year, 100 Central student-athletes received academic all-conference recognition, a distinction reserved for varsity level competitors who are of sophomore standing with a 3.5 or better GPA. The show starts with you. All Central students may perform in any of 12 ensembles, ranging from classical to jazz to pop. The Mills Gallery showcases art exhibitions throughout the year, including student exhibits in the spring. Theatre performances involve students in every facet of stage production, with a handful of major productions annually. A wide range of campus life opportunities, including many linked to volunteering and service-learning, attract students in large numbers. SELECTED RANKINGS AND RECOGNITION CENTRAL COLLEGE One of the Best Liberal Arts Colleges in America, Niche.com, 2022 One of the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges, U.S. News and World Report, 2022 #1 Ranked College in Iowa for Environmental Studies, College Factual, 2022 One of the Best Colleges for Kinesiology and Physical Therapy in America, Best Christian Colleges in America, Best Colleges for Education in America and a Best Value College in Iowa, Niche.com, 2022 One of the Best Colleges for Education and Teacher Education Grade Specific Schools, College Factual, 2022 Top 15% in Placement in Best Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for the Money, College Factual, 2022 #5 Best Colleges for Liberal Arts and #6 College Dorms in Iowa, Niche.com, 2022 One of the Best Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology Schools, College Factual, 2022 Top Performers for Social Mobility Colleges, U.S. News and World Report, 2021 One of Money Magazine’s Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value, Money, 2021 One of the Top Private Universities in America and Best Value Colleges in America, Niche.com, 2021 #6 Best Value Colleges in Iowa, Niche.com, 2021 One of the top 10 Best Colleges for Athletics, Best College Campuses and Safest College Campuses in Iowa, Niche.com, 2021 One of the Best Christian Colleges and Universities in the Nation, Crosswalk.com, 2021 Central students have won some of the nation’s most prestigious scholarships and awards for academic achievement and leadership. In 2021, Cameron Coles ’22 earned the Goldwater Scholarship. In 2020 Central students Katelyn Wang ’21 and Elizabeth Sheldon ’21 brought home a Goldwater Scholarship and a Udall Scholarship, respectively. #5 in Best Value Colleges for State of Iowa, SmartAsset, 2021 Top 15% in the nation for Division III Women’s Soccer program, College Factual, 2020 One of the Best Christian Colleges and Universities, edsmart.org, 2020 #4 on the list of 50 Best Biology Degree, Learn.org 2020 One of the Top 10 Colleges and Universities in Iowa, wallethub.com, 2019 One of the Best College Values in America, money.com, 2019 Named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll eight times — twice as a finalist and once with distinction in the education category One of only seven Iowa private colleges or universities with a chemistry program approved by the American Chemical Society Named to Honor Roll for Character-Building Colleges by the John Templeton Foundation PELLA, IOWA Oprah’s 60 Charming American Towns You Haven’t Heard of But Should Visit ASAP, 2021 Third Best City in the Country in Which to Live, 247wallst.com, 2019 One of The Best Places to Live in Iowa, Niche.com, 2019 DES MOINES, IOWA #13 on U.S. News & World Report Best Place to Live in the U.S., 2021 #5 on U.S. News & World Report Best Affordable Place to Live in the U.S., 2021 One of Expedia’s 11 Best Cities for a Staycation, 2019 #6 on Yahoo Finance’s list of Best American Cities to Work in Tech, 2019 NOTABLE ALUMNI Will Daniels ’19, United States Decathlon Competitor for the 2020 Olympics Karlee Rock Schneider ’15, Criminalist, State Crime Lab, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Jakob Steenhoek ’15, UAV Specialist/Survey Technician, Shive-Hattery Taryn Pennington ’13, High-Performance Health Care Provider, United States Olympics Brent Ewing ’13, Coach to 2020 United States Olympic Silver Medalist Taylor Schuelke ’12, Documentary Producer/Editor, National Geographic Kurtis Brondyke ’11, United States Decathlon Competitor for the 2020 Olympics Chris Weaver ’10, Contestant, The Voice Carol Mendez ’09, Excellence in Teaching and Teacher of the Year Award Winner Sarah Frese Nickel ’09, Executive Director, U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association, Washington, D.C. Benjamin Christian ’07, Director of Partnership Marketing and Business Strategy, Kansas City Royals Adam Gregg ’06, Lieutenant Governor, State of Iowa Nate Weir ’05, Assistant Athletic Trainer, Green Bay Packers Danny Beyer ’04, Awarded Des Moines Business Record Forty Under 40, 2014 and Amy Jennings Young Professional of the Year, 2013 Rob Lindley ’95, Actor, The Phantom of the Opera National Tour Jerry Hartz ’80, Hillary Clinton Speech Writer Bernadette M. Allen ’78, U.S. Ambassador, U.S. Department of State Harry Smith ’73, Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and NBC News Correspondent Vern Den Herder ’69, Retired Pro-football Lineman With the Miami Dolphins ABOUT A–Z INDEX ACCREDITATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES BRAND GUIDE CAMPUS MAP CAREERS CENTRAL HISTORY CONSUMER INFORMATION DIRECTORY POLICIES PRESIDENT RCA RELATIONSHIP SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM VISIT CAMPUS WELCOME STATEMENT FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS COMFORTS OF HOME Central’s campus and community pulled Yuan Bank ’22 from Colorado for college. 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