Bethany College SwedeHearts

Want to share your SwedeHeart story? Email alumni@bethanylb.edu and you could be featured on our website.

01 Mar, 2022
Warren & Lynnda Peterson Olson dated while in high school at Lindsborg and then married while in college. We are blessed with 3 children and 9 grandchildren. Moved back to Lynnda’s home where she grew up in Lindsborg four years ago and so BLESSED to be back home
01 Mar, 2022
I met Barb Krone ('81) when she was a freshman and I was a Sophomore. I was looking for recruits for my intramural team. Her brother was an All American basketball player at Bethany so I figured she was athletic too. I WAS WRONG! In early 1981 she not only got a degree from Bethany but a husband too. We were married in the Burnett Center on campus and had our reception in the Levin Room.
01 Mar, 2022
Class of 2009. They met early their freshman year when Adam, who lived in the basement of Anna Marm, was being voluntold by his RA that he was going to choir tryouts. He remembers begrudgingly going to the stairs and looking up at this beautiful brunette standing at the top of the staircase! Love at first sight! They reside in McPherson where Kelsey homeschools their 4 children and Adam is a mail carrier.
01 Mar, 2022
I am Courtney Lopez (Gallardo) my husband is Robert Lopez! We met in 2008 at Bethany, we were both in Psych 101 together! I ran track, Robert played soccer. We started dating 2009 our sophomore year! We are now married, coming up on 8 years and have two kiddos!
17 Feb, 2022
My husband Kirk and I met at Bethany and have been happily married for 33 ½ years. I graduated in May 1987 and Kirk in the summer of 1987 (due to laying out a semester his sophomore year). We were both in Prof Murphy’s statistics class, Kirk an hour prior to mine. So we met each other in the hallway each day and there was the introductory small talk, the fall semester in 1985. We finally both attended a similar function on a weekend (Sled Dog, not too glamorous! ) and the rest is history. Not super romantic, but that isn’t really our style either.
17 Feb, 2022
I was in my Junior year at Bethany College, casting and directing a play I had written as a sophomore for Playwriting class. Casting night had just wrapped up, I had all my parts picked out and was excited for the show. The next day, I get a call from Greg LeGault, the Theater professor, saying "There's a stupid freshmen boy who forgot the dates of the audition, and he still wants to try out for your show. It's up to you - do you want to meet with him and see if you want him?" I said, "Stupid freshmen boy, but yes, I will give him a shot." So, I met with the boy in Burnett, and had to read the lines on stage with him so he could do his part, and we just kind of clicked. I couldn't really shake the "stupid freshmen boy" from my mind, and wanted to give him a good part in the play, but since I had already cast, there wasn't really a good spot to put him. But since I was both the director and playwright, I literally just wrote in a new character the day before we printed scripts, and just created a whole new part and dialogue so that I could cast him and work with him some more in rehearsals. (Total abuse of power, I get it.) AND, since I was his director, I had his cell phone number, and we started talking. We were also in choir together, I was the choir Vice President and Chaplin. I wasn't really sure if he liked me or not, and I was trying to keep it professional since I was his director in the show. But, Dr. Lucas was holding a choir BBQ at his house, right behind the college, and everyone was invited. Noah started texting me all these questions about the BBQ, like what time was it, what to bring, etc., and then finally was like "I have no idea where it's at, can you walk me there?" And I said "It's literally a block behind the school. Walk straight west from Presser and you can't miss it." And I sent him the address and a screenshot from google maps, and still he said, "Nope, I'll definitely get lost, you better just walk me there." And I didn't put together that this was his version of basically asking me out, which would have been a great little intro "date'" except, as mentioned, the walk was literally only a block and then we were with 40 other people, which Noah later admitted he hadn't thought through and thought he had more time, as he puts it, to "put on the moves." The rest is kind of history in a way. Through Theater, we did at least 3 more shows together, either acting, directing or stage managing. Through Choir, we toured all over the country, and then also internationally to Germany and Sweden. (The same choir tour my mom went on exactly 30 years before me at Bethany. You can tell in the pictures she has, and the ones I have, that we are standing in exactly the same spots overseas, decades apart.) Noah was also a Sig, and I was an Omega, so through Greek Life, we were Sig/Omega sweethearts. We also worked together on the Student Activities Board. He first said he loved me, and later proposed, on Coronado Heights. We took our wedding pictures across Lindsborg and down by the Old Mill, some of our favorite dates were going to the Kanopolis Drive in and meals at Farleys for open mic nights, and coffee dates and poetry nights at the White Peacock. Not to mention late night foodie binges to Panchos and KAPS for pizza. The first gift I ever bought Noah, was for christmas, a little red Dala Horse ornament that I had painted our initials on, "N + S" (it was very small, that's all that ever fit, lol.) And we hang it in our kitchen window now. At our wedding - Our programs of the day were called "Playbills", kind of a nod towards us meeting through theater. And Dr. Lucas was in attendance, since he watched us both grow up through his choir, and so were 2 other Bethany faculty and several Sigs/Omegas. I graduated in 2018 - Noah ended up leaving early before he officially graduated, but he is definitely a Swede through and through. He often dressed as the Mascot for different events and sport games. Today, we both work together at Bethany in the Admissions office, and live 3 blocks away from campus with our dog who's our baby, Ranger. We spend all our days in the place we found each other and fell in love, and get to witness and recruit all these new Bethany Swedes and watch them all find their friends and spouses and so much more, and it's really a beautiful thing. And here we are 5 years later - and I married the stupid freshmen boy, and am so very glad that I did. Even though I still have to help him remember deadlines, lol.
By Molly Carver 17 Feb, 2022
Melissa (Pressnall) Mihalcin (class of 2014) and Jason Mihalcin (class of 2013). We met in a Chemistry class with Dr. Lockyear. We were the math/science tutors in the evenings, got to know each other and became good friends. We both dated other people throughout college and we stayed in touch frequently after graduation. It wasn't until late 2015 while I was in graduate school that we started dating. We got married in 2019, moved out to Colorado, and are now expecting a baby boy in May!
17 Feb, 2022
My husband Bruce Erickson and I met at Bethany- we were both biology majors. Did not notice each other very much until a summer was spent studying Genetics with Dr. Glenn Bellah. Summer on campus was kind of slow- we started dating at the end of the summer. We just celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary this month. We even got married at Bethany Lutheran Church on Main Street. Many in our wedding party were friends from Bethany. We had to get special permission for them to come back and stay on campus before interterm started. Lambert Dhalsten- was the organist- all musicians participating in our wedding were associated with Bethany.
17 Feb, 2022
Bruce and I met when he was a Bethany freshman and I was a senior at Lindsborg High School. At the time Bethany was playing basketball games in the high school gym; Bruce and his friend were parking cars for the game one night while I was working in the concession stand. Since my friend was dating his friend, we all went for coffee that night. That was it. We dated for four and a half years, marrying on June 5, 1965, a week after graduation.
17 Feb, 2022
Going into the 2015 school year, Miranda was heading into her senior year as one of the top javelin throwers in the NAIA. As a major in Criminal Justice, Miranda was destined for a career fighting crime and taking names. After transferring to Bethany from Kansas State University, Jason was ready to revamp his football career while majoring in Secondary Education with an emphasis in ELA. No, this story doesn’t start with Tinder or Bumble matches. It was the connection of a childhood friend of Jason’s, who just happened to be Miranda’s college roommate, that ultimately linked them together. After stumbling across an Instagram picture of fellow Swede, Kara Knopp, with her roommate, Miranda, Jason’s attention quickly turned to learning more about this javelin slinging, law abiding citizen. After many failed attempts, Miranda finally caved to what would be the last first date. Coronado Heights. A popular hotspot for many Lindsborg community members for its trail, beautiful sunsets, and mini-castle. That is where, on one fine evening, Jason took Miranda on their first date, picnic style: pancakes, orange juice, and pineapple. Just a few of Miranda’s favorites capped off with a peaceful, warm night. Just two years later, it was that exact same location, on top of the Coronado castle, is where Miranda said, “I do,” to one of the most nerve wracking, invigorating questions. Since marrying on July 14th, 2018, life has blessed them with a beautiful daughter, Leighton (2), and another little girl on the way due in June. “We are thankful to have been blessed with the people in our lives from Bethany that have been there with us from the beginning. Bethany and Lindsborg is home to us because that’s where it all started for us.”
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