What does it mean to Be Known ...

At George Fox, each student will be known – personally, academically and spiritually.

To Be Known

It’s the hope each student brings to the college experience. To be known by name. To be understood, valued, and encouraged.

At George Fox, to be known means that professors and staff connect with students in authentic ways – personally, academically, spiritually – recognizing that we all come to this place with different backgrounds, life experiences and dreams for the future. To be known means that students not only learn new ideas, they share their own. To be known means to be heard.

When students feel what it’s like to be known in this way, they become inspired. And that’s when real change happens. Knowledge moves from the mind to the heart. Careers turn into callings. Faith turns into action. And that’s why we begin with a simple promise, that each student will be known.

Peter’s Be Known Story

Cancer. Peter Tran wouldn’t even say the word. The lump appeared on his neck during his junior year in high school. At first they thought it was a blood clot. Then came the diagnosis: nasopha-ryngeal carcinoma. “It didn’t feel real,” he says of that day in the hospital. “I just recall, vividly, my dad and I were crying.” Five rounds of chemotherapy. Dozens of radiation treatments. A missed high school prom. But Peter’s story isn’t defined by his battle with cancer. It’s about what comes next.

While he was enduring the chemo, struggling with fear of the unknown, Peter was also discovering who God meant him to be, and he was hatching a plan.

Most people being treated for cancer want nothing more than to never see the inside of a hospital again. Not Peter. He set a goal to return to the very place he was treated, Randall Children’s Hospital – not as a patient, but as a nurse. To be there for kids just like him. That goal led him to George Fox, where he thrived, not just in the nursing program, but as part of a community developing deep and lasting relationships.

One of those relationships was Caroline Wildhaber, the director of clinical experiences for nursing majors. “It seems like with each new class, God brings a handful of students into my life that I can connect with on an individual level,” she says. “I had that with Peter.”

Through multiple conversations, Caroline learned about Peter’s cancer journey and his goal to help kids in the same hospital where he was treated. So when it came time for senior clinical placements, she went to work advocating for him. But she’s quick to note that placements at Randall Children’s Hospital are highly competitive, and she could only do so much.

“Placements are based on student performance, commitment to nursing excellence and a desire to learn,” she says.

As it turned out, Peter had all that and more. And on a chilly December day, she was able to break the good news: There was only one spot available for a student nurse on the oncology wing of Randall Children’s Hospital, and it had been awarded to Peter.

“It was amazing sharing the news with him,” says Caroline. “I felt like I’d been on this journey with him.” For Peter, his journey had indeed come full circle in the most amazing way: from cancer patient to nurse, on the same floor where he was once treated.

“Taking on a new role, transitioning from being a patient to a student nurse, felt empowering,” he says. “Being able to return to Randall for my senior practicum was truly a gift and a blessing.”

The Martin Family

The thing that we appreciate the most about this community is that Be Known is not just a phrase that’s used, it’s not just a tagline. It’s something that there’s intentionality behind.

Maddie’s Be Known Story

“On a late Sunday night, I went to an empty classroom in the Stevens Center to practice a presentation I had to give the next morning.

I was feeling pretty unprepared and anxious about the presentation, so I was just rehearsing all my material when the classroom door opened. A security guard walked in to check who was in the room.

He didn’t see me at first. I said hello and startled him!

I was around the corner so he didn’t see me, but after I apologized for scaring him, he, without hesitation, sat down at a desk and asked me to give my presentation. With open ears and a kind heart, he listened to my presentation and gave me extremely helpful feedback.

To my surprise, he revealed that he used to be a language arts teacher for 20 years! He joked about coming to watch my presentation and helped calm my nerves about my public speaking assignment. It was at that moment I felt known not only as a student but as a person in this community. It was a really sweet experience, and he didn’t even hesitate to listen to me.”

Isabela Flores

Recent graduate (Kinesiology)

Through my deepest struggles and my greatest joys and accomplishments, the community here at George Fox has surrounded me and supported me in so many ways. Between professors, faculty and the friendships I have made, every single one has shown me what it is to Be Known as a person and a student and what it is to be truly cared for.

Inviting Christ into the Classroom

Watch as professor Pete Rusaw turns an engineering project into a spontaneous baptism.

Mitchell Henry

Recent graduate (Business Administration)

My professors are incredible. They want to see you succeed in a way that’s hard to describe – almost akin to the way a family roots for each other’s success and helps in any way possible.

Ronnda Zezula

Recent graduate (Accelerated Online Degree Program)

My experience at George Fox changed everything. From the minute I started interacting with admissions counselors, I knew that there would be grace for me as a human being. I had such a negative past experience of being looked down upon and judged as incapable. It was tremendous to be lifted up and supported by my professors and the program staff.

Faith’s Be Known Story

“When I first arrived at George Fox, I had little to no idea what I was doing. It was the first time I had ever stepped foot in Oregon. I remember feeling excited and confused when the taxi dropped me off outside of Edwards Hall. I stood in the parking lot with my suitcases watching parents, football players, PAs and RAs run back and forth from the dorms to the cars helping students move in. My parents were 2,000 miles away from me. Because flights were so expensive, both of them remained back home on Kauai. I remember having no idea where Hobson Hall was located and felt unsure how to ask for help.

Thankfully, a group of student leaders saw my distress and came to my assistance. They not only directed me where to go, but actually ended up taking my suitcases and rolling them all the way to Hobson. When they did this, I suddenly felt less alone because these people who didn’t even know me went out of their way to help me.

I highly doubt they knew their kind act would be one that would stick with me throughout my college experience. It was the kindness shown to me that day that motivated me to want to become a student leader myself. I spent my last three years on campus in residence life, and I have loved being able to encourage and walk alongside fellow students on their college journeys.”

Shaun Davis

Recent graduate (Doctor of Psychology)

I had really not expected to form the kinds of relationships that I did at George Fox. I felt like I was just going to go to school, do my homework and graduate. But the cohort model really fosters you stepping into a group of people and becoming family. It was something so surprising to me, and I don’t know that I could have done the program without it.

Be Known Spiritually

Anthony, Dayana and Abigail share how they’ve grown in their faith during the hard times, thanks to support from their George Fox community.

Watch video: Stories of Faith, Grit and Joy

Ben’s Be Known Story

Ben Wing shouldn’t be here. Just two years ago he was in a Life Flight Network helicopter, being rushed to the hospital after a head-on collision about a mile from his family home. In less than 24 hours, his heart stopped three times.

Ben doesn’t remember much from that day – or the next 30 days after – but what he knows now is he shouldn’t be alive.

“By every medical standard, I should not have made it through that accident,” he says. “I’m incredibly blessed to be on my fourth life.”

After five weeks at the hospital, Ben was transferred to rehabilitation. “My goal from the very start of rehab was to get as close to normal as possible, because my life pre-accident was so much fun,” he says. “I loved being on campus with all of my friends and professors. I just wanted to come back to a place where I feel so known and valued and loved.”

And while Ben was recovering, an entire community at George Fox was praying for him, sending notes of encouragement, and waiting to welcome him back with open arms.

“Robin Baker, the university president, sent my parents a handwritten note with his personal phone number on it,” Ben recalls. “Jamie Johnson, the campus pastor, called my parents multiple times and prayed with them. My faculty advisor was on my prayer team at Fox. I didn’t even know I had a prayer team until I returned to campus, and I just think that’s really cool.”

Dozens of encouraging notes from professors, visits from friends, check-ins from the university’s spiritual life team. And when Ben was ready to return to campus, he thrived. “My professors in the business department were phenomenal,” says Ben, who is a double major in management and marketing. “They put me in situations where I could succeed.”

Ben earned straight A’s for the first time in college, while also staying involved in choir and theatre, and fully immersing himself in his campus community.

“I used to laugh about the Be Known promise,” says Ben, now a senior. “I thought it was just a marketing gimmick that George Fox used. Since my accident, I know that it’s real. They care about every single student on this campus. The faculty do, the administrators, your friends – they really care about you and will go the extra mile to ensure your success.”

Lydia Taw

Recent graduate (Computer Science)

My professors encouraged me to look beyond what I thought I was capable of. They literally took me from ground zero to a job at Amazon. They played a major role in helping me believe in my ability to do this and developing my confidence.

Be Known.