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‘The Pride of the Mountain’: Simpson University’s Band Program Starts From the Ground Up

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Something new is happening at Simpson University, and you can hear it.

This fall, Simpson welcomed Michael Yelverton as its new Director of Bands. His goal is big: to build a marching band that becomes “the pride of the mountain.” And he’s starting from scratch.

“When I came to Simpson for the first time, I started with nothing,” Yelverton said.

There were no horn players, and nobody knew where to find them. So Yelverton went looking. He asked around campus and found five students. Only one of them had ever played.

“Within three weeks I taught five students a whole jazz set,” Yelverton said.

That’s how it started. Here’s where it’s headed, and how you can be part of it.

Meet Michael Yelverton

Yelverton is from Goldsboro, North Carolina, and this is his first year at Simpson. As Director of Bands, he leads the Jazz Band, Concert Band, and Wind Ensemble. He’s also working on his doctorate.

For him, music is about more than notes on a page.

“I am here to also give God praise through music,” he said. “I am also using this opportunity to create something that is going to last a lifetime here at Simpson, and that is going to be our marching band program.”

What Band Opportunities Are Available?

Simpson has a place for musicians at every level, from seasoned players to people who have never held an instrument:

  • Jazz Band: Currently has 11 members and is growing
  • Concert Band
  • Wind Ensemble: The long-term hope is to grow it into an orchestra
  • Beginning Band: new this semester, for students who want to learn from the ground up

Together, these ensembles will form the Simpson University Marching Band.

The Beginning Band is already catching on. Students are asking about joining next semester.

You Don’t Have to Be a Music Major

This is a band for everyone.

“If you are a nursing major, you can still march in the marching band. If you are a psychology major, you can march in the marching band,” Yelverton said. “It’s not just for marching band students or music majors.”

The program will soon open to the wider community too.

“We don’t want to be a music program that’s just built for in-house,” he said.

Bringing the Energy

Simpson University students are predominantly athletes, with games on the schedule nearly every week. A marching band would raise the energy at those events for athletes and fans alike as Simpson continues to grow and expand the college experience for everyone.

However, Yelverton doesn’t plan to keep the band on the sidelines. He wants to share its talents with the community. Picture a collegiate marching band leading a parade or performing at a big community event. Once more students join to help the band grow, Yelverton and his band will be ready to bring that kind of excitement to the North State.

Instruments You Can Play

  • Woodwinds: flute, clarinet, and alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone
  • Brass: trumpet, French horn, marching mellophone, marching baritone, concert euphonium, trombone, tuba, and sousaphone
  • Percussion: snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tenor drums/quads, and other concert and marching percussion

More Than Just Band

Walk into the band room, and you’ll feel it. It’s where the group prays, worships, and plays together.

“That’s where my happiness comes from,” Yelverton said. “It’s more than just band. Spiritually, it opens you up and gives you something to look forward to.”

The Goal: 100 Musicians

Yelverton is recruiting now, and he’s aiming for 100 band members.

“I am excited. I love what I do,” he said. “It’s going to take me some years to do it, but as long as we have the support from the community, it’s going to make that recruiting a little bit easier.”

How You Can Help: Donate an Instrument

Here’s the challenge: students need something to play.

“If you build it, they will come,” Yelverton said. “If there are ten trumpet players, those ten trumpet players need horns. But if we already have ten trumpets sitting there in the box waiting, those students are going to come just like that.”

Instruments we need most:

  • Trumpets
  • Trombones
  • Saxophones
  • Tubas and sousaphones
  • Marching snare drums
  • Marching bass drums
  • Cymbals
  • Marching tenor drums/quads

That trumpet sitting in your closet could put a student in the band, help them grow their talent, and make them part of something special.

“We are asking people to donate because it’s early for us,” Yelverton said. “It’s the beginning of something.”

Be Part of the Beginning

Yelverton believes this is a story worth telling from the very first note.

“I think we should document the beginning and just how big this is going to get, because I see it happening,” he said. “The pride of the mountain.”

Want to join the band or donate an instrument? Contact Michael Yelverton at Myelverton@simpsonu.edu.

A Vision Decades in the Making: Simpson Opens the Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology and Engineering

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On Friday, October 16, scissors met ribbon and a long-held dream became a building. Simpson University President Dr. Norman Hall, joined by the student body president, donors, state representatives, city leaders, and friends of the university, officially opened the Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology and Engineering.

The $10 million facility is the first new construction on campus in 12 years, since the Betty M. Dean School of Nursing building was completed in 2014. Ground was broken in early May of 2024. Students will begin using the new space in Spring 2027.

A vision 71 years in the making

The idea behind parts of this building goes back further than Simpson has been in Redding. Plans for a performing arts center and auditorium date back roughly 71 years, to the days when Simpson called San Francisco home.

A STEM building has also been talked about for years. It took real shape in 2018, when Dr. Hall arrived and made STEM and a growing athletics program two of his first priorities.

“The first monies we went after were for STEM programs and athletics that complemented that,” said Ken White, Dean of Advancement at Simpson University. “Many athletes go into STEM fields, and so the idea that we would have a center that would serve the North State and add to our workforce capacity and the ability to serve technology and engineering companies, and data companies — that really was 2018 and Dr. Hall.”

For White, the excitement is about who walks through the doors. “The most exciting part is what it does for people really wanting to go into the technological sciences, the engineering and computing spaces,” he said. “This is just a huge step forward both for Simpson and the community. I know that many in the community, including our architect, have been angling to get a STEM center in our community, and we’re excited that it’s here at Simpson.”

Faith and science, side by side

White also pushed back on the notion that faith and science don’t mix. “The idea that Christians aren’t for science is just an absolute falsehood,” he said. “We know who created everything, and we know that our job is to uncover and discover everything that He gave us. I am excited that this program gives our students the opportunity to do that — to know the technical side of our Creator and how much He loves them. The fact that they can take that love and competency out into the world is amazing.”

Inside the Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology and Engineering

The building is designed so students can take a project from first sketch to finished product without leaving the building. Here’s what’s inside:

  • Maker spaces: a dedicated metalworking room with welding capabilities and its own garage door, so students can build large projects and easily get them out of the building. A woodworking shop and a 3D printing room
  • Computer lab and classroom lab: a computer lab for design work and one large lab classroom for hands-on learning
  • Office space: bright offices with lots of natural light for professors
  • The Reverend Ermond and Verna Homan Auditorium: 286 seats, with wheelchair seating spaces throughout
  • The Jo Anne and Jeff Cripe Connection Corner: a gathering spot that can serve as a snack bar during events

The auditorium is built for real productions. The stage is large enough for props, a garage door beside it makes loading big items easy, and a green room gives performers and speakers a place to prepare.

The auditorium will also host classes, and it gives Simpson’s music department a proper place to perform — perfect timing as the university’s band offerings continue to grow.

Beyond campus, the auditorium will be open to the community, available to rent for local events.

Leave your mark

Each of the 286 auditorium seats will eventually carry a name placard. Placards are available for purchase, whether to honor someone special or to leave your own legacy at Simpson University.

Built with help from our partners

Several businesses helped bring the Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology and Engineering to life:

  • Fortera Global supplied low-carbon concrete for the build, making the facility more eco-friendly. The company also donated $10,000, which nearly covered the cost of the foundation of the building.
  • Pacific Coast Building Products donated more than half of the building’s drywall.
  • DFS Flooring donated all of the carpeting.

A new era for the North State

Growing a skilled local workforce has long been a shared goal across the North State. The Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology and Engineering gives students who grow up here a way to get a strong technical education without leaving the region. It also gives local businesses a pipeline of graduates ready for careers in technology, engineering and business.

“It’s really, to me, a cornerstone program and cornerstone accomplishment,” White said, “that is really just, I think, going to launch our community into a new era.”

Students move into the new space in the spring semester of 2027.

Simpson Engineering wins two awards on a worldwide stage

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Two research papers from Simpson University’s engineering program took top honors at the 2026 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, beating out submissions from engineering educators from around the world.

Though ASEE began as a national society in the United States, its annual conference now draws engineers and educators from across the globe. Dr. Thomas Omwando, the Engineering Department Chair, co-authored one of the three papers this year with his colleague, Professor Michael Austin.

Dr. Omwando submitted three papers to this year’s conference, with data coming from students in the engineering department. Two were named best paper in their divisions: the Industrial Engineering Division and the Engineering Economy Division. His third paper was submitted to the First-Year Programs Division.

The wins build on Omwando’s 2025 best-paper award in the Industrial Engineering Division. Simpson Engineering has now earned three ASEE division best-paper awards: two in Industrial Engineering and one in Engineering Economy.

“This is a testament that our program is preparing students for the job market and for graduate school,” Omwando said.

From one student to 42

Omwando has spent the last five years in Simpson’s engineering department and has watched it grow firsthand.

“When I came here, the first class that I had, I had a class of one student,” he said. “And now, right now we have a total of 42 students in the program. So there has been tremendous growth.”

The engineering department at Simpson University is still in the beginning stages, as it launched in 2019. The first student to graduate from the program was in the fall of 2024, followed by two more students in the spring of 2025.

The department is preparing for a visit from the professional accreditation body.

“We are anticipating that we have done our best and the program will be accredited by the professional accreditation body, and if that happens, the program will get more visibility, and we expect to get more students,” Omwando said.

Learning by building

Hands-on projects are a cornerstone of Simpson’s engineering curriculum. In their third year, students take an engineering design and product development course in which they design products, build and test prototypes, and recommend improvements.

Seniors then take on a two-semester capstone project, developing solutions to real problems facing developing countries. One recent team designed a water filtration system for rural Ecuador. Their biggest challenge was making the system work without electricity.

Students in the capstone project work directly with practicing engineers, who give feedback on how their designs would hold up in the real world. Teams then build a prototype and test it.

Research rooted in the classroom

Omwando’s papers grow out of data he gathers from students throughout the school year. Students are surveyed before a project begins and again after it ends.

The surveys ask whether the project taught students more about how to be an engineer, whether engineering feels like the right fit for them, and whether they plan to keep pursuing the field. Beyond the conference papers, the findings help Simpson keep improving its engineering curriculum.

How the new building will help the department grow

The program expects more growth soon. The new Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology, and Engineering opens Oct. 16, 2026, adding space for labs and equipment. The new building will have a specialized computer lab area for engineering students to design their projects. There will also be a welding room to work on metal projects, and a room specifically for wood projects. The new building allows space for a 3D printer, giving students access to an entire room to work with that technology. There is also a brand new classroom, giving the department room to grow in class size in the future.

As the program grows, Dr. Omwando aims to submit at least one paper to ASEE each year. He has already collected data from a summer internship class he taught and is gathering more from other courses this school year.

Simpson University Earns Highest National Rankings in Recent History

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Simpson University placed in five categories of the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings, led by a fourth-place finish for Best Colleges for Veterans among regional colleges in the West. 

The university also ranked seventh for Best Value School in the West, 15th among Top Performers for Social Mobility, and tied for 14th for Best Private College and 18th for Best Regional College in the West. 

The recognition arrives as Simpson prepares to open a new Maurice & Marianne Johannessen Veterans Success Center inside its Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology, and Engineering STEM building, expanding a program that already serves one of the largest veteran populations of any campus in the North State. 

Fourth in the West for veterans 

To be considered for the veterans ranking, a university must participate in federal programs that help veterans and active-duty service members pay for their degrees. Simpson is certified for the GI Bill and participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. 

Simpson goes further than the minimum. A few years ago, the university restructured its programming to lift its Yellow Ribbon contribution to an unlimited amount, said Andrew Tuggle, director of the Veterans Success Center. 

“That really set the stage to be able to serve those students no matter where they are financially,” Tuggle said. “It just guarantees that they are going to be able to get an education from Simpson at a zero-dollar cost. The VA is going to help pay the bill, and we are also going to help meet in the middle where those gaps were a few years back.” 

Veterans and active-duty service members made up 6.3% of Simpson’s enrollment in the 2025-26 school year. 

A director who has been there 

Tuggle is a veteran himself, which helps set Simpson University’s Veterans Services above many others. He fell into this line of work through his own difficult return to school. 

“When I got out of the service, I put life on hold for family,” Tuggle said. “When I finally started going again, I encountered some of those same exact struggles. I started my master’s program, started getting the runaround at the school, not really sure what to do, not really sure how to be successful again. And I wasn’t successful.” 

That experience is common among people who end up in veteran services, he said. 

“You never want to see somebody fail the same way that you failed. In the veteran community, it’s a big component of how people get into veteran services, whether it’s suicide prevention or career counseling. It’s the ways that they have failed that they want to make sure their fellow brothers and sisters can succeed.” 

It also shapes how he advises students. 

“That’s one of the best things about working with veterans. There is no nonsense,” Tuggle said. “I am not pushing an agenda. I am not pushing them to say, hey, you have to go to school to be successful, because they have earned that right to figure out what they want to do.” 

He points to student Johnny Palmer as an example of what the right support can do. 

“He has not only been an outstanding student, but to see his transition of who he is today and who he was six years ago when he started this process, it’s great to see those night and day differences,” Tuggle said. 

Services built around the student 

Simpson’s location works in its students’ favor. Shasta County has a large veteran community, and the university draws on local partners rather than building every service from scratch. 

One of those partners is Hire Heroes USA, which works with students in their final year of college. 

“It is a program that will help them go to school and figure out what they want to do after they graduate, help them build their resume, help them do interviews, and also help them find jobs in their specific field,” Tuggle said. 

Simpson also partners closely with Our Heroes Dreams, a local organization dedicated to suicide prevention in the veteran community. Tuggle said the program gives students a place to turn as they work out what comes next. 

On campus, veteran students get tutoring services designed for them and a single point of contact for everything else. 

“If they came in with a bad GPA, they can work through me rather than having to go through the runaround of the entire university,” Tuggle said. “They get all of their needs met in one place, at one time, so they have a seamless transition into education and can be successful.” 

More to come 

Simpson is not treating the ranking as a finish line. The university will hold a ribbon-cutting for its new Hugh and Hazel Darling Center for Business, Technology, and Engineering STEM building, which will house the Maurice & Marianne Johannessen Veterans Success Center. 

The new space will expand what the program can offer, including bringing the Shasta County Veteran Service Officer onto campus. 

“That’s something we have not had the flexibility to do,” Tuggle said. 

He sees the payoff reaching past graduation. “Simpson does a really good job at building those students and building people to be able to be successful in the community,” he said, “to heighten our community here in Shasta County.” 

Where Simpson landed 

Category Rank 
Best Colleges for Veterans, Regional Colleges West 4th 
Best Value School, West 7th 
Best Private College, West 14th (tie) 
Top Performers for Social Mobility 15th 
Best Regional College, West 18th (tie) 

The Best Value ranking weighs academic quality against the 2025-26 net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student receiving the average need-based aid package. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included, since U.S. News counts the most meaningful values as those found among above-average schools. 

The social mobility ranking measures how well a university graduates students who receive Pell Grants, federal awards based on poverty guidelines, family size and whether a student is supported by a single parent. At Simpson, 44% of students received Pell Grants in 2024-25. 

Small classes behind the numbers 

The rankings reflect an environment built on close contact between students and faculty. Simpson’s student-to-faculty ratio is 18 to 1, and 52% of classes currently have fewer than 20 students. 

For veteran students and traditional undergraduates alike, that means being known by name rather than by student ID. 

Expanding the Gateway to World Service with New Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies

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New interdisciplinary program offers students the flexibility to pursue a major, secondary major, or minor while preparing for careers and service around the world.

REDDING, Calif. — Simpson University is expanding opportunities for students to engage an increasingly interconnected world with the introduction of its new Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies. The interdisciplinary program, available this fall as a major, secondary major, or minor, equips students with the knowledge, cultural awareness, and practical skills needed to make a meaningful impact across communities, cultures, and nations.

Drawing from multiple academic disciplines, the Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies provides students with a broad understanding of global cultures, international issues, economics, politics, religion, and cross-cultural communication. Students will develop the critical thinking and leadership skills needed to navigate complex global challenges while integrating faith, learning, and service in diverse cultural contexts.

“With the launch of this new program, Simpson University continues to live up to its name as the Gateway to World Service,” said Dr. Michael Salmeier, provost of Simpson University. “Whether as a primary major, secondary major, or a minor, students will have the opportunity to design a degree that prepares them to make a global impact.”

The program is designed to prepare students for careers and service opportunities in nonprofit leadership, international development, education, business, government, humanitarian work, ministry, and community engagement. Students may also have opportunities to engage with global perspectives through cross-cultural experiences, service opportunities, and other experiential learning activities that complement their academic studies.

“Our Simpson faculty are not simply well traveled, they have lived around the globe, including in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Canada, France, Jordan, Germany, Peru, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, China, Laos, Kenya, and beyond,” said Global Studies Program Coordinator and Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Ryan Brasher. “In addition to our significant number of international students, this makes Simpson University a unique learning environment where students can gain a truly global education, preparing them for meaningful careers in a constantly changing world.”

The Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies will welcome its first students this fall and is now available to incoming and current students seeking to broaden their academic experience and prepare for careers and callings that extend beyond traditional geographic and cultural boundaries.

For more information about the Global Studies program or to apply, visit simpsonu.edu/globalstudies.

Simpson University School of Nursing Named Top-Ranked Private BSN Program in California; Also Recognized Among Top 10 Programs Statewide for 2025

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Redding, Calif. — Simpson University has been recognized as the top-ranked private university offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program in California, and has also been named one of the 10 Best Accredited BSN Programs in the state for 2025 by NursingProcess.org. 

Simpson University was recognized for its strong academic foundation, emphasis on nursing leadership, and commitment to preparing graduates to meet California’s growing healthcare workforce needs. 

“This recognition highlights our faculty’s dedication, the strength of our clinical collaborations, and our students’ commitment to excellence in patient care,” said Chief of Staff and COO Brent W. Thompson, J.D., MPA. “As healthcare needs grow across California, especially in the North State, Simpson University is dedicated to training highly skilled, compassionate nurses who are ready to serve immediately and lead confidently throughout their careers.” 

According to NursingProcess.org, the demand for registered nurses in California continues to rise, with more than 20,000 nursing jobs projected to open annually through 2027. The publication also reports that registered nurses holding a BSN earn an average annual salary of $139,250 in California, underscoring the value and long-term career impact of a bachelor’s-level nursing education. 

In response to the growing statewide demand for nurses, Simpson University has recently nearly doubled its nursing cohort, expanding instructional capacity, clinical placements, and faculty support. The University will graduate approximately 90 nurses each year, with many remaining in the North State to serve hospitals, clinics, and community health organizations.