As Trinity Christian College prepared to close permanently this weekend, current and former students Thursday encouraged the Palos Heights school’s community to accentuate their grief with hope.
Mia Musick, who was on track to graduate from Trinity Friday, said the school’s impending closure remained top of mind as she studied abroad in Ecuador, returning to campus earlier this week.
“I thought about being away from the place I call home and my last chance to see it alive,” she told about 1,000 people who filled the school’s Ozinga Chapel for Thursday’s legacy celebration. “I thought about all the staff, faculty and students who have become my family, living out these last moments together while I was thousands of miles away.”
Musick said she had planned to come back and work for the college, investing in the students she believed would follow in her footsteps.
“I don’t get that opportunity, but I’ve made a commitment to myself that I want to invite you all into,” she said. “I want Trinity to live on in the way I encourage people, in the way I invest in the world, in the way I smile and wave to people.”
The Trinity Christian College board voted to shutter the Christian private college during a special meeting Nov. 3, citing declining enrollment and other financial issues. The college’s 60-acre campus, including its 22 buildings, has since been listed for sale by commercial real estate firm CBRE to fulfill debt obligations.
Trinity President Jeanine Mozie said more than 20,000 students have attended the suburban college in its 66-year history, 250 of whom graduated Friday.
“It is my fervent prayer that now, as we are ending our time together in this place, that our God will look at what we have done, will look at the decades and the years, and certainly this final season, and say ‘Well done,'” Mozie said.
In addition to a member of its last graduating class, the legacy ceremony included wisdom and stories from a member of its first, 1961 graduate Marion Dykstra.
Dykstra said her parents convinced her to attend Trinity in part because she would carry the distinction of being one of the school’s first students.
She and the other students were asked to come and clean the basement of the college’s main building, which was transitioning from a golf course clubhouse, before classes began in October 1959.
“The uniqueness of Trinity’s first year was special, and the experiences could never be repeated in the future,” the Palos Heights resident said. “The 35 of us were like family — we went to chapel together, we had our lunches and breaks together, as well as being in comparatively the few classes that existed.”
At that time, Dykstra said, the school had no organized sports, music programs or even gym classes. Much has changed, evidenced by the jazz ensemble, worship team, and gospel, concert, and student and alumni choir groups that performed Thursday.
Ryan Wynia, who graduated in 2004, said it felt nostalgic singing in the joint choir Thursday, recalling his student experiences in multiple singing ensembles.
“Thinking back to all the times I was on the risers, all the time I spent in practice rooms … There was kind of a full circle,” Wynia said. “That’s why I wanted to come back — not just closing a chapter, but kind of resting the cover on the page.”
After the closure announcement, Wynia, with a group of fellow alumni, worked for several months to find a way to save the college.
He said he still feels sad and angry for the loss of the Chicago area’s only reformed Christian college but understands the difficulty of the decision made by administrators.
“There’s sort of a relief from people who have been fighting,” he said Thursday. “You can kind of tell in some people’s countenance.”
Wynia said the idea of visiting the school for the final time felt surreal, a sentiment shared by current students Marisa Ashraf and Nadia Foushi, friends who will both transfer to Lewis University in Romeoville.
“Just hearing the word ‘last’ — it’s hard — but it’s very sweet that it’s so hard to say goodbye, because that means it was so good,” said Foushi, who was supposed to have one remaining semester before graduating from Trinity’s social work program.
Foushi said she appreciated the legacy celebration event for bringing multiple generations together in love and joy for Trinity and its lasting impacts on their lives.
“Even in this hard time, you still get to talk to people, and everybody’s so thankful that we got to have this opportunity,” she said. “Feeling the grace of God. He created this community and we all got to be a part of it.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
