Trinity Lutheran College moves into the future ...

I was up at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett this weekend, where I ran into Barbara Andrews, formerly with the ELCA communications office in Chicago and now with her own consulting business, Marketing Matters, in Elgin, Ill. It was great to get caught up with her; she's just done a remake of Lutheran Women Today, so look for some very big changes coming this fall. It will be more ecumenical, but remains Lutheran under the hood, she said.

Barbara also is on the Trinity Lutheran College board, and took time this weekend to give me a private tour of the college, in a former Bon Marché smack in the middle of downtown. It had been awhile since I'd been in Everett. There's been a lot of downtown revitalization and bears little likeness to the place I remember in my youth.

The college is remarkably modern inside. The library sits on an upper floor and is almost all glass. The chapel is at the top, overlooking a good length of the Cascades. Classroom have all the latest digital stuff, and there's a cyberlab on the main floor where students can hook into class from the comfort of their student apartments about a block away.

Under new president John Reed, the college is expanding its sports offering to include golf and cross-country this fall. Budget cuts mean instructors sometimes have to wear administrative hats, too. Reed is the athletic director, for instance.

There's a new campus pastor, the Rev. Erik Samuelson, and everyone's pretty excited about a rooftop garden they've got going under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Dave Ellingson, who teachers youth and family studies.

The college now is equipped with a new strategic plan, and an aggressive student-recruitment team is in place. Enrollment took a big hit when the college moved from the Issaquah Plaueau three years ago, and fell down somewhere in the 80's. It's now at around 160 and the facility has room for twice that number.

Here are some photos I shot during my tour.

Rachel Pritchett