For many residential students at IWU-Marion, spiritual formation begins with what they already believe. It is deepened as those beliefs are refined in community with people from many nations and backgrounds who might see the world differently.
For Sophia Greenwood, an entrepreneurship and marketing senior on IWU’s Marion campus, that moment came thousands of miles from campus.
During a mission trip to Kosovo in Europe, Greenwood found herself in conversations with Muslim students who challenged assumptions she had never examined. What began as a routine trip quickly became more unsettling and formative.
“It made me ask, ‘What do I believe?’” she says. “And I had to seek those answers within community.”
That kind of formation reflects a broader reality at IWU. Students from different nations and cultures do not simply coexist. They shape one another by celebrating Kingdom diversity, one of the Intercultural and Global Office (IGO)’s values, which calls students to learn from one another and see God’s work more fully through different perspectives. They are also guided by keeping Christ at the center, another IGO value that grounds this diversity in shared faith.
Greenwood arrived at IWU already familiar with life between cultures. Born in China and adopted by a Malaysian mother and a white American father, she grew up navigating multiple identities. At IWU, that experience found new depth in a community where differences are not just present but engaged.
“Seeing the intricacy of God’s creation and how intentionally He knit each of us together inspires me,” she says. “Growing alongside one another is formative.”
Much of that formation happens in ordinary places across IWU’s Marion campus. Residence halls, small groups, and shared meals become spaces that cultivate belonging, a third IGO value, where conversations move beyond surface-level connection.
Jonathan Mpanzu, assistant director of IGO, sees those moments as central to discipleship. “Jesus didn’t say ‘go and make disciples of one nation,’” he says. “He said, ‘go and make disciples of all nations.’”
That vision continues through the leadership of Maribel Magallanes, executive director of IGO, who helps create opportunities, another IGO value, for students to engage across cultures through shared experiences.
Those differences, however, are not always easy to navigate.
Gareth Hill, a senior economics and psychology major from South Africa and a resident assistant in South Hall, has seen how quickly cultural assumptions surface in close community.
“When you live in community, things come to the surface,” Hill says. “You can’t just keep worshiping God without dealing with what’s going on inside of you.”
That discomfort becomes part of the formation. Students are invited into courageous engagement, IGO’s fifth value, moving toward difference with humility and curiosity.
International students like Hill often experience this in unique ways. “Because we fought so hard to be here,” Hill says, “I think we can see God in a new way.”
At IWU, IGO’s five values are lived out daily. Around tables, in prayer, and through friendships that cross cultures, students encounter a fuller picture of the body of Christ.
What begins as difference becomes formation.
Together, they are learning not only to live alongside one another, but to follow Christ as one body, shaped by many nations.
international students on the Marion campus*
*Stats provided by IWU-Marion University Admissions
