Concordia College and Concordia Language Villages have been awarded a 2026 NetVUE Grant for Reframing the Institutional Saga to support a major storytelling initiative exploring their shared history, mission, and future.
Funded by the Council of Independent Colleges through its Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education, the project — “Rooted and Open: Reframing the Institutional Saga” — is one of 11 efforts selected to receive the grant this year.
“We are glad to offer our members this opportunity for support as they seek to better understand their ongoing institutional vocations,” said Carter Aikin, NetVUE grants director. “Amid the mounting pressures facing higher education in this challenging moment, it has perhaps never been more important to attend closely to the callings of our academic communities.”
Founded in 1891 by Norwegian immigrants and grounded in the Lutheran intellectual tradition, Concordia has long emphasized language, culture, and service. That commitment expanded in 1961 with the creation of Concordia Language Villages, which has since grown into a nationally recognized language and cultural immersion program. Today, the Language Villages offers 15 summer youth language camp options, along with adult and family programs, school partnerships, and corporate and military language and cultural training.
Despite their deep and interconnected histories, no comprehensive joint narrative about their shared story has existed.
This new initiative seeks to change that.
Through interviews, research, and community engagement, the project will explore how the two campuses — one in Moorhead and one in Bemidji — have grown together while advancing a shared mission of shaping global citizens.
The project aims to publish an anthology and create an interactive website that documents their combined narrative and highlights diverse voices rooted in mutual values.
Leading the interview and storytelling component is Dr. Gay Rawson, director of external relations and strategic initiatives for Concordia Language Villages, professor of French at Concordia College, and program director of the Concordia Language Institute
She will gather stories from alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members. These narratives will highlight themes such as multiculturalism, immigration, radical hospitality, personal identity, and vocational discovery.
In addition to collecting stories, the project will include faculty-led dialogues on vocation and identity and professional development workshops. The resulting resources will be integrated into courses, orientations, mentoring programs, and long-term strategic planning.
“This project gives us the opportunity to more fully understand how our histories and missions are intertwined,” Rawson said. “By elevating diverse voices and experiences, we can better articulate who we are as a community — rooted in tradition and open to the world.
“At Concordia, the work is expected to do more than document the past. It will help shape the future.”