By Jill Fennema –

Collin Vis is the new history teacher at Southwest MN Christian High School. In addition to U.S. history, world history, and government, he teaches New Testament Bible class to freshmen students.

This is Collin’s third year as a teacher. He graduated from Providence Christian College in Pasadena, Calif., in 2019. After graduation he taught history at Contra Costa Christian Schools in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Collin has roots in the Edgerton area. He has never lived here himself, but his grandparents, Roger and Carol Vis, are former Edgerton residents. His father is Evan Vis. Our readers may recall that we featured a story about Evan, as he retired from the United States Navy after 22 years in the service. His dad met Darlene (Sytsma) at Dordt College. She was a preschool teacher at Central Minnesota Christian School where Evan taught music.

Because of his dad’s work with the Navy, their family moved a lot. Darlene homeschooled Collin and his brother.

Collin decided to go into teaching because he loves history and thinks it is very important. He wanted to share that love with others. His favorite part of being a teacher is having good conversations with his students. He likes to challenge them to wrestle with “thorny questions,” and asks them to consider what they would do in a specific situation and explain the reasons for why they would have done so.

Collin and his wife, Rebecca, live here in Edgerton. They have a young son, Nathanial, who is 19 months old and they are expecting the arrival of a second child in November.

When he is not busy with school and classroom preparation, Collin enjoys reading and outdoor exercise like running, biking, and hiking. He also enjoys making models. He has an HO scale model train that he is working on, but he also enjoys other models.

Collin is excited for the coming Minnesota winter. “Although it won’t be the first time I’ve experienced cold weather,” he said. “I was born in Willmar, lived in Chicago for four years, and Rhode Island for three, so I’ve got plenty of experience shoveling snow.”