From the very start, back in 1874, °Ä²Ê¿ª½± University has been on an ongoing journey to understand, pursue and best implement serious scholarship, quality research and practical Christianity as a core strength of the University's curriculum. Those aspirations started out small—Goodloe Bell, a teacher, started a tiny school with only 12 students in Battle Creek, Michigan. That small school was the birth of what we now know as °Ä²Ê¿ª½± University. Today, °Ä²Ê¿ª½± is the best-known Adventist educational institution in the world.
We are named after John Nevins °Ä²Ê¿ª½± (1829–1883), the biggest thinker in the 19th-century Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was also the first sponsored missionary that the Church sent overseas. J.N. °Ä²Ê¿ª½±’ example of careful thought and compassionate action in Christian life is something we have taken to heart.