The mission of the Bethany College Honors Program is to encourage and recognize excellence across liberal arts (both directly in members of the program and indirectly in the student body as a whole).
Why You Should Apply
First and foremost, because the honors program will make you a better student. You will sharpen your thinking skills and be a member of an active community of interesting and interested people. You will be challenged to perform at your very best.
Honors students also receive a number of special benefits, including:
- Extended borrowing privileges at the library.
- Funds available on a competitive basis to subsidize participation in academic conferences.
- Priority in enrollment.
- Regular participation in seminars led by honors students, Bethany faculty and guest lecturers.
- Help in applying for post-graduate scholarships and fellowships.
- Use of Honors’ study lounge.
By noting your honors status on your diploma, Bethany communicates to future employers, graduate programs and professional schools that you are among the very best it has to offer. Also, being an honors student gives you access to faculty members who have been there. They will give you insider’s advice on graduate school applications, suggest which research fellowships match your goals, and introduce you to future employers. Bethany honors faculty will encourage and mentor you toward door-opening post-Bethany experiences.
Application Criteria & Program Courses
See the Academic Catalog for application criteria and program courses.
Contact
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Mark Ahlseen has been an Associate Professor of Economics at Bethany College since 2002. During the 1999-2000 school year, he served as visiting Associate Professor of Economics at Bethany College.
Ahlseen’s fields of interest and publication are labor, public finance, and industrial organization. At Bethany College, he teaches classes in economics.
Ahlseen holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from Texas A&M University. His bachelor’s degrees, from Taylor University, are in accounting and economics. In addition, he has earned a C.P.A. Certificate in Illinois.
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Greg LeGault is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Bethany College. A member of the Bethany College faculty since 2000, LeGault is artistic director of Bethany College Theatre and teaches courses in acting, oral interpretation, playwriting, theatre history, set design, and directing. He is currently serving as chair of the English, Theatre and Communications Department.
His plays have been performed in a number of venues, including Strawdog Theatre in Chicago and the Orlando Fringe Festival. His full-length play “Masterpiece” was produced in the Southern Illinois University Playwrights’ Workshop. A one-act version of the play received the Christian M. Moe Playwriting Award for Best Short Play. “In the Wake,” co-written with Michael Speller, was a play lab selection at the 2009 Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha.
LeGault has over 25 years of experience in acting, directing and set design. He earned his M.F.A. in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, an M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from Ohio University, Athens, and a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a Performance Emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
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Linda Lewis, a professor of English at Bethany since 1987, received her Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, her M.A. from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and her B.A. from East Central State, Okla. She teaches British literature, composition and linguistics.
Lewis is the author of a number of articles, as well as three books: The Promethean Politics of Milton, Blake, and Shelley (1992), Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Spiritual Progress (1998), Germaine de Stael, George Sand, and the Victorian Woman Artist (2004).
She has written numerous conference papers and has been invited to present her scholarship for the New York Browning Society and the Swedish Writers Union, and at the Oxford Round Table.
Lewis serves on the Bethany Faculty Senate, sponsors three student organizations, and is the faculty coordinator for the Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies.
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Mark McDonald is an associate professor of biology, member of the Faculty Senate and is the former Science Division Chair at Bethany College. He has been a member of the faculty since 1996.
At Bethany College, McDonald teaches general biology, microbiology, genetics, immunology, ecology and scientific research and writing. He advises students in pre-medical, pre-veterinary and other pre-professional health programs.
McDonald earned his Ph.D. in ecology and systematics from Kansas State University in 1996 and his B.A. in biology from Bethany College in 1991.
Previously, McDonald taught at Highland Community College-Wamego and was a graduate teaching assistant at Kansas State University.
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Assistant Professor of English Kristin Van Tassel teaches classes in writing and American literature.
Her essays and poetry have been published in Alternet, Counterpunch, Mamazine, Transitions Abroad, Relief and World Hum, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her scholarly articles have appeared in American Studies, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, and The Journal of Ecocriticism. Van Tassel has presented numerous papers at national literary conferences, including several for the Popular Culture and American Culture Conference and ASLE, the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.
Van Tassel received her Ph.D. from the department of English at the University of Kansas. She holds an M.A. from the Department of English at California State University and a B.A. from the Department of Writing and Literature at George Fox University.
Van Tassel coordinates the Honors Program and serves as Chair on the Bethany College Curriculum Committee. She is professionally associated with the National Council of Teachers of English and Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.
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