Steinbach Bible College held its 2022 graduation celebration this past weekend.
Outgoing president of the college, Dr. Rob Reimer says, “it's fantastic, to be in person and to be able to physically hand a degree to our students and have a banquet with them and their families. That was just wonderful. It felt so good to be back together again.”
Reimer shares those sentiments with the 28 SBC grads. He says five students, in particular, were very excited as they were international students. He says, “that's kind of been a goal of ours, to expand our international student base and so to see five of them graduate was just wonderful.”
When talking about this year's graduating class Reimer says, “It's a smaller grad class and I think because of that, they in some ways display a fair bit of care and love for each other. They really have a desire to go out and make a difference in the world and maybe not change the whole world, but rather to really impact one or two lives. It’s been great to see them grow in their faith. It's such a caring and compassionate group.”
Despite two years of their schooling being during the pandemic, Reimer says having an in-person grad is extra special.
Speaking about this being his final graduation event as SBC President, Reimer says, “You know, it was really special, especially being able to be in-person and have more of a normal event. That meant an awful lot to me. I've had such a tremendous experience here and look so fondly on our time back over these last 15 years. But a lot of it, you know, I just had a big smile stapled onto my face. It was so much fun to do this (graduation event) one last time with the students and with an amazing team that I've spent many years with.’
Reimer continues and says when it comes to leaving the school, “You know, melancholy might be a really good word. I love grad because it's this wonderful opportunity to send off your students and to reflect on the growth and maturing that's happened in their lives, and so certainly I'm going to miss this well. And yeah, there were some moments during the weekend when I reflected back on past grads and you go, “Wow, this is the last one, I'm going to really miss that.”
Dr. Rob Reimer announced in November that he would be stepping down as President of SBC and returning to pastoring.