Dr. Jim Fereira Has Dedicated His Life to Student Development. He Has a Simple Goal: Help Students Become the Best Version of Themselves

Anderson University Senior Vice President for Student Life Dr. Jim Fereira remembers his years as a college student being a pivotal time in his life. 

Dr. Fereira came to Taylor University, a Christian institution, right out of high school. And as part of admission to the university, he was required to share his Christian testimony.

“I was baptized as a baby, so I was in,” said Fereira, who at the time believed his denominational affiliation and identity as an American made him a Christian. “We barely darkened the door of the church in the 19 years before I went to Taylor… Maybe we went at Easter and Christmas and once or twice in between.”

But once Fereira was on campus, he wasn’t initially blending in well with his new surroundings.

“At times I felt a little condemned. My language didn’t fit the Christian college setting, but that was the way we had talked at home,” he said. “You know you don’t fit in, and yet at the same time it was so welcoming. So many people were gracious and reached out to me and talked with me about things of faith and my ultimate experience there was one of being drawn into what they had. I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t understand it, but I knew it was different and I knew I wanted whatever it was they were experiencing.

“It’s interesting to be 19-years old when you accept Christ and to realize that your thoughts the next day were very similar to my thoughts the day before and probably not fully recognizing what had happened, but it was the beginning of a journey of transformation,” Dr. Fereira said.

By the time he graduated, Dr. Fereira felt rooted in his newfound faith as he embarked on his journey of transformation. He returned to his hometown and found a church where he could be discipled further in his newly found faith. There, Dr. Fereira began leading a youth group and a Campus Life club, all the time becoming more grounded in his faith.

“I decided to go to seminary, and that’s where I was introduced to student development. I needed a job, so I thought, ‘Hey that RD (Resident Director) job, I could do that’,” he said. He then applied for positions at every college in Springfield, Missouri and all turned him down except for Evangel University. 

“I didn’t hear from them right away but did hear from them just a couple of weeks before school started—maybe a month. The young men that I was RD for had grown up in the church. I was a kid Christian compared to them, although I was in spiritual leadership over them,” said Dr. Fereira, adding that he was resident director for Omar Rashed; together they now serve on the Anderson University Senior Leadership Team. Rashed is senior vice president for administration and brand.

Throughout his student development career, Dr. Fereira has championed the cause for a campus community focused on fully developing people. He brought that philosophy to Anderson University. 

“I was blessed to have that be the start of my career, because that doesn’t happen very often where you have people who really know that personal transformation is a component of the educational environment. Student Development does fun and games… but it’s not just about fun. I expect Student Development staff members to be able to articulate how their area of leadership contributes to the educational experience of our students, and everything that is being done in the Student Development department should have a perspective of education. This is how this is preparing students for what happens when they leave Anderson,” Dr. Fereira said. 

“We talk about ‘Great Faith’ as a pillar. And the other one that’s significant to our thinking is ‘Great Purpose.’ We’re called of God. Our role in the kingdom may be as teachers or lawyers or doctors or businesspeople, but wherever we are, God is going to use the unique gifts and talents He has created us with and during our college years we need to learn to recognize them and begin to develop them for His purposes,” he said.

Dr. Fereira meets with staff in Anderson University’s residence halls and apartments, not just to share from his more than 40 years of experience, but also to get to know them as individuals with unique God-given abilities. 

“They’re just telling me simple things—just answering my questions. What I think is, ‘Oh my heavens! These students are so gifted, they are so beautiful.’ And by ‘beautiful’ I’m thinking of the passage in Ecclesiastes 3—it ends that chapter by saying God has ‘made everything beautiful in its time.’ Their time is not fulfilled yet, but I see the roots of what God is doing in them in those little bits of the stories that they’re telling me. I asked them to tell me last night what has been the highlight of your years as an RA (Resident Advisor)? What I heard though from many of them is a desire to build community, to impact their residents. In this case it’s an all-men’s residence hall. To impact the experience of the guys they’re working with.”

“We’re trying to develop the whole person, that person they’re going to be as they emerge as a graduate, an educated person, a person whose roots in their faith are deepening, a person who can carry on adult relationships. Those are the things we hope we’re developing through their time here. And that happens through interacting with each other in intentional living-learning communities. That happens through the work of the RAs, through the RDs. I’ve told the RDs that nobody else on this campus sees Anderson University through the eyes that you do. You live in those buildings with the students. Students’ doors are next to your doors. You see it right there…in person. And that’s a part of our transformational model.”

Written by Ed Welch