Messiah College News Archive

Messiah is proud to be ranked #9 on the list of Top 50 Christian Colleges and Universities Exceeding Expectations for 2016! This ranking highlights schools which have proven to go above and beyond when it comes to students’ academic achievements! Each school on this list has significantly surpassed its predicted graduation rate, showing that care has been taken to enhance their students’ academic careers from acceptance through graduation. Read more here.

The Collaboratory’s bridge team recently won the “Team of the Year” award from Bridges to Prosperity, an organization that builds foot bridges for residents in isolated communities around the globe. In September, the team’s advisor, Professor of Engineering Brian Swartz, and students Andrew Joy, Ben Holderman and Zach Engle, attended the organization’s annual conference in Colorado, where they were recognized as a gold-level team for their work on constructing two foot bridges in the Panamanian villages of Arraijan and Bajo Grande. Learn more about the Collaboratory here.

The Central Penn Business Journal recognized several current and former Messiah College board members on Nov. 2 at its annual “Business of the Year” Awards. George Parmer (president and owner, Fine Line Homes), chair of Messiah’s Board of Trustees, received the Spirit of Philanthropy Award; and current trustee Larry Bashore (president, Edwin L. Heim Company) and former trustee Marlin Thomas (Chairman and CEO, Willow Valley Living) were inducted into the Central Penn Business Journal’s Hall of Fame. Read more.

Messiah College is the fifth “best regional college in the north,” according to the 2016 college rankings released by U.S. News & World Report on Sept. 9. Messiah also continues as a top 10 “Great School, Great Price” (ranked eighth). For a fourth consecutive year, Messiah College was also ranked as a “Best Undergraduate Engineering Program” in the country (#80 out of 200). The undergraduate engineering rankings are based on peer assessment surveys conducted in spring 2015 from other ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) accredited institutions.

The rankings reflect Messiah’s consistent excellence when measured among the nation’s best public and private colleges and universities using U.S. News’ weighting of factors such as peer assessment, faculty-student ratio, class size, acceptance rate, graduation rate, retention, SAT/ACT scores, freshmen class rank and alumni giving. Read the full rankings and methodology at www.usnews.com.

Messiah College was recently named the 2015 Readers’ Choice for Pennsylvania College/University in Harrisburg Magazine’s annual “Simply the Best” reader’s poll. To see the winners in all categories, click here.

BestColleges.com has released its Top 50 Schools in Pennsylvania for 2015, the annual list ranking the state’s best two- and four-year colleges out of more than 450 educational institutions. Messiah College was listed at #14.

Schools are judged in the categories of acceptance, retention, graduation and post-graduation employment, which is partly determined by their loan default rate, the website said in a news release.

Read “Midstate colleges among top in state, says BestColleges.com”

Messiah’s master’s in education was recently named a top online program by BestColleges.com.

BestColleges.com noted that Messiah College has demonstrated “a dedication to building a quality online program for working professionals who seek more flexibility than a traditional campus-based program can provide” and affirmed that we are enabling students “who might not otherwise have the opportunity, to earn an advanced degree and build a strong foundation for their career.” The organization uses admissions, enrollment, retention and graduation data when compiling their rankings.

Learn more about Messiah’s M.Ed. and graduate program in education.

Congratulations to Falcons I, the Messiah College Programming Team of Nathan Chaney (’15, Computer and Information Science and Engineering), Zach Felix (’14, Mathematics), and Marcus Upton (’15, Engineering), for winning first place in the Mid-Atlantic Region Programming Contest of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), held Nov. 1 2014 at Radford University. The team is coached by Dr. Scott Weaver and Jason Long (’03, Computer Science). Read the rest of this entry »

The Messiah College Opera Workshop won first place in the Division 1 category of the National Opera Association’s 2013-2014 Opera Competition for its production of The Medium by Gian Carlo Menotti. The competition is divided into five divisions based on the size of the program and production resources.

Dr. Damian Savarino serves as music and stage director of the Opera Workshop. Dr. Timothy Dixon conducted the orchestra members and Tom Ryan provided scenic and lighting design.

A full list of winners can be seen here.

Messiah alum Kevin Wagner ’95 (also an adjunct professor in the Department of History) was recently named the Gilder Lehrman History Teacher of the Year for Pa. by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Wagner, who’s been teaching for 18 years at Carlisle High School, was also the 2014 recipient of the Thomas W. Holtzman Jr. Educational Leadership Award and the Patricia Behring PA Teacher of the Year by the National History Day organization.

Read “Carlisle teacher named Gilder Lehrman History Teacher of the Year for Pa.”