Tucked away in North Portland is Concordia University, a small Lutheran private college. Concordia’s traditional focus has been on education. My sister attended Concordia for five years, graduating with a degree in Christian Education. That degree has helped her land such lucrative jobs as a bank teller and loan officer, and she’s now working as an admissions counselor for a university a few thousand miles from here, but that’s not the thrust of this post. I was interested today when I saw an article on OregonLive talking about Concordia making a comeback. About the time my sister was graduating, the school was in a bad financial position, with enrollment down and too many programs eating away at resources.

Since then, they’ve launched a new Nursing progam, as well as a rural teacher program which is server over 100 students online. The growth for the college isn’t just good for the students, but the community as a whole is profiting. A new library will be open for the public, both to access books and for public meeting space. With a new focus on outreach, Concordia seems to becoming a team player within the community, and it’s good to see that sky-high private school tuition being used in a positive fashion.