Recreation & Service
One of the necessary components to maintaining a healthy balance at college is taking time to rest your mind and rejuvenate your spirit. This can be easily accomplished at Great Northern University, considering the many opportunities for rest and play to be found here. Surrounded by lakes, mountains, and rivers, GNU boasts a world-class setting, where the Pacific Northwest meets the western ranges of the Rocky Mountains. No matter what activities interest you, you’ll find them close by.
If you live for the outdoors, you’ll find myriad opportunities for hiking, camping, backpacking, and fishing just a few miles away. Most of our region is covered with mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers. In fact, Great Northern University is less than a 5-hour drive from Glacier National Park. You could spend a lifetime exploring out here and barely scratch the surface!
If you love the arts, Spokane boasts several museums, such as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and the Jundt Art Museum, as well as several art districts, performing arts centers, and theaters that host a variety of plays. For live music, we’ve got the Spokane Symphony, Spokane Jazz Orchestra, and lots of concerts at the Spokane Arena and other local venues.
If sports and fitness are more your thing, you can take in a Spokane Indians Baseball game, go 3-on-3 at Hoopfest, or join your classmates and professors for the Bloomsday 12k run! There are also many triathlons in the region, as well as skiing and snowboarding at nearby resorts. The 40-mile long paved Centennial Trail is perfect for hiking and biking along the Spokane River and can be accessed just a few blocks from campus.
Not to Be Served, But to Serve
Spokane is a city filled with opportunities to serve and minister to others, and at Great Northern University, we view service as paramount.
At Great Northern University, service is not an academic requirement; it is part of the culture. We extol and exhort volunteerism as a key opportunity for gospel-centered engagement with others. This might be lived out by serving in the kitchen at Union Gospel Mission, or tutoring refugees through World Relief. It might take place at The City Gate by helping in the clothing bank, or it could be participating in neighborhood cleanup projects. Our students often creatively come up with their own service opportunities!
By pursuing these kinds of service opportunities, our students create little pockets of God’s kingdom in their community; these experiences form students who will engage and transform the world around them for Jesus.