Engaged Students

The Bethel experience integrates faith and learning and includes internships, undergraduate research and study abroad. With only about 500 students, BC offers a student-centered education...

Engaged Students

• BC’s small size means students are involved, participating in research, performances and other college-related activities. The college focuses on providing a multi-ethnic education.

• BC students can choose from study-abroad programs at 19 colleges and universities in 15 countries, such as France, Germany, Spain, England, China, Japan, India, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Australia, Austria and Northern Ireland. There is a student exchange program with the university in Wuppertal, Germany, that dates back more than 50 years. The college offers interterm travel courses each year.

• Service learning is encouraged on the Bethel campus. A service-learning scholarship is available to students. As more than passive spectators, BC students develop a sense of social responsibility and gain experience in supporting their community.

• BC emphasizes concern for the less fortunate, focusing in addition on the pursuit of peace and justice. Bethel College students are prepared for life with practical peacemaking and conflict resolution skills in order to communicate successfully with others of different backgrounds, understand their problems and build bridges that create solutions.

• BC students also strive to live in harmony with the natural world, caring for God’s creations and working to reduce its exploitation. Bethel College students learn to act as environmental citizens through an understanding of how their choices influence the environment on campus, in the community and world-wide.

Great Teaching

BC offers academic excellence, opportunities for participation, a caring community and faith-based values. BC prepares its students to make a difference...

Great Teaching

• The school’s mission is “to be a diverse community of learners committed to searching for authentic faith and academic achievement, providing rigorous instruction in the liberal arts and selected professional areas and inspiring intellectual, cultural and spiritual leaders for church and society.”

• BC offers 17 degrees in the arts and sciences. The most popular majors are education, business and nursing, with nursing being BC’s largest program. The low student-to-faculty ratio of nine-to-one and small average class size of 14 mean that professors work closely with their students to ensure their learning, growth and development.

• BC students put their inquisitive minds to work independently or in collaboration with peers and professors asking the right questions – which, at BC, are just as important as the right answers. Bethel College students are prepared for life with the intellectual abilities to adapt and thrive in a fast-paced world.

• BC’s academic program and curriculum are focused on helping students develop intellectual, cultural and spiritual leadership for the church and society. BC’s General Education curriculum provides a broad understanding of the social and natural world through the perspective of the liberal arts and sciences, and helps students develop basic capacities in essential academic skills.

• Required courses in Bible and religion help enhance ethical perspectives, inspire service and integrate intellectual and spiritual values, encouraging students to discover the “why” behind their beliefs. BC students develop authentic, meaningful relationships with any and all of God’s children, enhancing their ability to make mature and reflective moral and religious commitments.

• "College Issues Colloquy" in the freshman year, "Basic Issues of Faith and Life" in the senior year and convocation through out all four years are requirements that bring students together in common educational experiences throughout the standard course of study. Many other programs are integrative and interdisciplinary, as well. All major programs demand focused study, leading to intellectual achievement and laying the groundwork for vocational success.

• Some programs, like "Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies" or "Bible and Religion," reflect a theologically distinctive idea of educational purpose. Others programs, like Nursing and Social Work, express both the values of service and the requirements for licensure in a specific profession.

Vibrant Community

BC students live, work and play in the midst of a varied group of energetic and curious individuals. They join daily in study and discussion, sports and service, teamwork and competition...

Vibrant Community

• Two-thirds of BC students live on campus, and 80 percent are there on weekends, participating in some of the more than 50 student organizations and activities available, including a full range of academic, social and athletic opportunities. BC students live, work and play in the midst of a varied group of energetic and curious individuals. They join daily in study and discussion, sports and service, teamwork and competition.

• The Mennonites trace their origins to the Anabaptist movement of the Protestant Christian Reformation in Europe in the 16th century, whose adherents believe that church membership should be a matter of adult decision rather than infant baptism. Though Mennonites represent the largest single denomination at Bethel, more than half of BC students come from non-Mennonite backgrounds. BC students welcome and engage those who define themselves differently so they can gain personal enrichment and growth. Bethel College students are prepared for life with an appreciation and understanding of the "human experience" in order to work in a diverse global community.

• Spiritual life activities include Bible study groups, praise and worship services, hymn sings and weekly chapel services. Bethel’s new Agape House, dedicated to campus ministries, provides a homey atmosphere for numerous spiritual life activities. In addition, experiences on the field, in the lab, on the stage or in the chapel prepare BC students to reason clearly in new situations, to communicate with precision and persuasion and to solve problems they may have never encountered before.

• North Newton is a small town of 1,500 that grew up around the college. It is just north of Newton, population 18,000, 25 miles north of Wichita, Kansas’ largest city, via Interstate 135 and 180 miles southwest of Kansas City. North Newton lies in the midst of vast wheat fields and at the edge of the Flint Hills area of Kansas, home to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, only about an hour away. BC’s distinctive campus includes the college’s Administration Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Sand Creek Trail, which passes through some of the most diverse natural habitat in the area.

Successful Outcomes

A BC education prepares students to be successful in whatever field they choose...

Successful Outcomes

BC students find employment after graduation! In 2007, the job placement rate for teacher education graduates was 90 percent, while 100 percent of teacher education and more than 95 percent of social work graduates passed their licensing exam. Since 1987, about half of all biology and natural science graduates successfully pursued PhD and/or MD degrees. Overall, about one out of every 17 BC graduates earns a doctoral degree.