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OWU in Review 2024

Celebrating Ohio Wesleyan's Most Memorable Moments of the Past Year

Before we close the door on 2024, and before we dive into 2025, it's time to recall some of the past year's most memorable moments of all.

We inaugurated several new partnerships and programs in 2024 – and we inaugurated a new president, too. On April 19, Matthew P. vandenBerg, Ed.D., became the 17th president in Ohio Wesleyan's 182-year history.

vandenBerg announced several initiatives in the week leading up to the inauguration (see April's recap) and continued to innovate throughout the year with a groundbreaking collaboration with the Constructive Dialogue Institute and a new partnership with the I Know I Can college-access program.

In response to OWU's forward momentum, vandenBerg was invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2024, and Ohio Wesleyan was featured in national media including the Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Forbes, Inside Higher Ed, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, LearningWell Magazine, and NPR Breaking News.

Cheers to a successful 2024, Bishops, and to continuing to thrive in 2025!

January

• Aniya "A.J." Johnson '25 earns a national Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to travel to South Africa and Namibia to study racial and environmental justice
• Men's soccer forward Franklin Rodriguez '24 is called up to the Dominican Republic's national U-23 team for a match against Colombia. A nation's U-23 team typically represents it in the Olympics.
• Women's basketball guard Lauren Denison '24 and men's basketball guard Henry Hinkle '25 each achieve their 1,000th career point. Denison becomes the 18th woman and Hinkle the 34th man to reach the milestone in Battling Bishop history.
• Phillip Smith is named director of the Delaware Entrepreneurial Center at Ohio Wesleyan University, working to develop the facility as a regional center of innovation.
• OWU employees Ida Mostofi and Kyle Pellegrin are honored with Staff Council STAR and Spark awards, respectively, for their stellar contributions to the Bishop community.

February

• Ohio Wesleyan holds its 2024 Mock Convention to pick GOP presidential and vice presidential candidates and adopt a Republican Party platform. First held in 1884, OWU's Mock Convention is the oldest such event in U.S. higher education.
• Zoë Swanson '24 and Blake Johnson '24 earn $3,000 in OWU's first Big Problem Challenge for their entrepreneurial idea to use native plants to help clean up water pollution in Ohio.
• Kasey Schipfer '24 helps the OWU women's basketball team clinch a share of the NCAC championship. The crown is the team's first since the 2000-2001 season.
• Drew Thornton '24 is recognized by the Columbus chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. The Bishop free safety is the top scholar-athlete among seven honorees, earning a postgraduate scholarship.

March

• Bolu Ogunye '24 earns a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study French language and culture at Les Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne in Paris.
• Jack Gensler '26 and Natalia Molotievskiy '25 present research at the 2024 Ohio Branch of the American Society for Microbiology meeting and share in the society's Allan A. and Jann. M. Ichida Award for their work. The award is named in honor of two former OWU faculty members.
• Kasey Schipfer '24 is named one of 10 women's finalists for the national Jostens Trophy, based on the Bishop guard's basketball ability, academic prowess, and community service.
• Elizabeth Homan '24 makes OWU history as the Battling Bishops' all-time assist leader. The women's basketball point guard's 464 assists break the 462 record set by Tyler Cordell '11.
• Ohio Wesleyan, the City of Delaware, and Delaware County renew their collaboration to operate The Delaware Entrepreneurial Center. Opened in 2018, the center is the first-of-its-kind city, county, and university collaboration to operate a business accelerator.

April

• Ohio Wesleyan's 17th president, Matt vandenBerg, delivers his inauguration address, including the surprise announcement of a tuition-free Delaware County Promise program for qualified local high school students beginning in fall 2024.
• vandenBerg and President Dwaun Warmack of Claflin University sign a historic sister school memorandum of understanding. The agreement is one of the most comprehensive in higher education between a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).
• vandenBerg and Columbus State Community College President David Harrison announce new collaborative Tuition Match, Teach Now, and Preferred Pathway programs to help more students earn their bachelor's degrees and address Ohio's need for qualified teachers.
• Ohio Wesleyan announces a new OWU Business Plan Competition with a combined prize package worth $450,000. Open to everyone, it is the most valuable contest of its kind statewide.
• Barbara Bird joins OWU as the inaugural director of its newly created Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation, which is dedicated to enhancing student academic success.

May

• Mayukha Dyta '24 earns a highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program grant to spend nine months in India studying the country's medical diagnostic and treatment delivery methods.
• Graduating seniors Katie Chittum, Sophie Gipson, Siarra Hoover, Marvella Kurniawan, Elliot Spicer, and Karli Walsh earn Meek Leadership Awards at the 2023-2024 Golden Bishops celebration in recognition of their leadership at OWU and their potential for future leadership in the world.
• Kasey Schipfer '24 earns the highest honor at the 2023-2024 Dale Bruce Scholar-Athlete Awards, the Presidential Award, in recognition of her athletic ability and achievement, academic excellence, character, leadership, activities, and inspiration to others.
• Men's lacrosse attacker Wade Beckstrom '27 becomes the third Bishop in the last five seasons and the 14th in history to be named NCAC Newcomer of the Year.
• Mila Noel '24 wins an NCAC title with a shot put throw of 41 feet 6 inches, and Trey Theobald '25 wins All-NCAC honors and breaks his own record with a javelin throw of 199-9 at the NCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He goes on to win All-America honors at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a throw of 213-6 – the best in NCAC history.
• At Ohio Wesleyan's 180th commencement, Kelly McFarland Stratman of the League of Women Voters of the United States encourages the Class of 2024 to "make the conscious choice to opt in and to engage – and to take up the challenge" of keeping the nation's democracy strong and secure.
• Eric Gangloff, assistant professor of Biological Sciences, collaborates on a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to train emerging scientists to explore collaboratively how species respond to climate change.
• President Matt vandenBerg joins College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a national consortium that supports civic engagement and civil discourse on college campuses.
• Ohio Wesleyan awards $64,200 in spring OWU Connection grants to help students explore entrepreneurism in Sicily, research chemical contaminants in local drinking water, and more.
• Following an analysis of nearly 8,060 schools in 69 countries, Ohio Wesleyan is featured among Study Abroad Aide's rankings of the "Best" and "Best Value" universities for international students.

June

• Jack Gensler '26 presents a research poster at the American Society for Microbiology's Microbe 2024 national conference. His project is titled "Pitch Perfect: Enzymatic Activity & Detection of Nitrifying Microorganisms in Purple Pitcher Plants on Beaver Island, Michigan."
• The latest NCAC Academic Honor Roll boasts the names of 142 Battling Bishop student-athletes. The sophomores, juniors, and seniors have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher.

July

• Ohio Wesleyan launches the U.S. Entrepreneurship Competition – the largest business plan competition in Ohio. It features prizes valued at nearly a half-million dollars with tracks for professional and college-student entrepreneurs.
• Money magazine names Ohio Wesleyan as one of the "Best Colleges in America 2024," noting that OWU provides financial aid to 100% of students who graduate to enjoy early career earnings of more than $53,500 a year.

August

• Ohio Wesleyan welcomes its Class of 2028, with new and transfer students from 30 states and 25 countries. "I believe that you can be a driving force for change," WCSA President Gabby Gonzalez-Duarte '26 tells them at convocation. The nearly 500 first-year students represent OWU's most diverse class ever.
• OWU partners with the nonprofit Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) to provide online civil discourse training to all students and employees. With the agreement, Ohio Wesleyan becomes CDI's most comprehensive liberal arts partner, creating a collaboration that is groundbreaking in higher education.
• President Matt vandenBerg is named the new chair of the Five Colleges of Ohio and a new member of the board of directors of the national Annapolis Group of Liberal Arts Colleges.
• Ohio Wesleyan welcomes five assistant professors this fall committed to helping students achieve their career and life goals and complete their college degrees. They are Gabriella Friedman (English), Miranda Horn (Neuroscience), Eric Nauman (Accounting), Elizabeth Starns (Health and Human Kinetics), and Grant Walby (Chemistry).
• Former Battling Bishop men's lacrosse attacker Rob Alvino '88 and midfielder Tim James '93 are inducted into the Ohio Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

September

• Megan Ellis '05, executive director of the OWU Connection, is selected by Women We Admire as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders of Columbus for 2024. In its announcement, Women We Admire proclaims: "Ellis' passion for innovation and strategy development is evident in her ability to create new initiatives, develop a strategy, and execute the plan. Her teams view her as a collaborative leader and skilled change manager."
• The national ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge awards Ohio Wesleyan a Silver Seal award for excellence in nonpartisan student voter engagement and campus turnout in the 2022 midterm elections. In November, ALL IN recognizes OWU again as one of the Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting in 2024.

October

• Giorgi Bediashvili '25 attends the Athens Democracy Forum in Greece and is selected to discuss "Reimagining the Building Blocks of Democracy" from the perspective of a young forum attendee.
• Kathrine Trine Grissom '92 honors her mother, Mary Ellen Grissom, with a $12 million estate commitment that will benefit Ohio Wesleyan's first-generation students.
• President Matt vandenBerg announces the winners of OWU's inaugural U.S. Entrepreneurship Competition during a ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse. The professional and college student teams share in a prize package worth $450,000.
• Sarah Hahn '08, OWU's 2023-2024 artist-in-residence, dedicates her outdoor sculpture, "Where the Wind Carries You," during a Homecoming and Family Weekend ceremony. The piece includes three 10-foot-tall dandelion seeds, a pair of fingertips holding a spent dandelion head, a pollinator garden, and a rippling metal wall with text by professor and poet Laurie Anderson that proclaims, "A seed is how a plant says TRY."
• President Matt vandenBerg is invited to share the OWU story during a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2024 panel discussion that explores how to create more inclusive experiences in schools and workplaces.
• The winningest men's soccer coach in NCAA history, Ohio Wesleyan's own Jay Martin, is selected to the inaugural class of the Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association's Hall of Fame.
• Ohio Wesleyan inducts 10 Battling Bishop standouts into the Athletics Hall of Fame and bestows the Dr. Robert M. Strimer Honor Award upon Bob DiBiasio '77 and the George Gauthier Award upon Doug Dittrick '55. The Hall of Fame inductees are Dan Biello '69, Cara De Angelis '14, Mason Espinosa '14, Regan Fitzpatrick '96, Steffi Graf '08, Kyle Martin '09, Hannah Mudge '09, Dan Stroka '00, Kevin Wall '92, and Kat Zimmerly '11.

November

• President Matt vandenBerg and I Know I Can CEO Katina Fullen sign an agreement that makes Ohio Wesleyan the largest scholarship provider for students served by the college-access organization. OWU will award up to 25 Dr. Charles Thomas Scholarships to I Know I Can students each year providing the recipients with at least full tuition for up to four years.
• Professor Chris Wolverton joins the Space Studies Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The board provides "an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice" on all aspects of space science.
• Lisa Ho, associate director of International and Off-Campus Programs, is honored for her work to "advocate the cause of international education" at OWU and beyond when she receives the 2024 George Hertrich Award for Advocacy from Region VI of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
• OWU announces that Erika Alexander, award-winning actress and trailblazing activist, will serve as the keynote speaker at its 2025 Melvin Van Peebles Symposium in March. The theme of the symposium is "Disruption!! Signal Fires, Reckoning, and Jubilee Through Black Art."
• OWU's Career Connection Office launches a resume ready initiative to review and approve the resume of every graduating student to ensure the documents are competitive and strong.
• Ohio Wesleyan increases its commitment to gifted middle schoolers with a rebranded and expanded OWL (Ohio Wesleyan Learning) camp that will offer a second week of summer day camp for fifth- and sixth-graders along with its traditional three weeks of overnight residential campus for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders.
• The State Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society awards Ohio Wesleyan a 2024 Preservation Merit Award for excellence in restoring its iconic Slocum Hall.
• Ohio Wesleyan hosts its 2024 Women of Wesleyan (WOW) event featuring keynote speaker Vidya Nagarajan, director of product management at Google and an OWU Trustee. The biennial gathering was launched in 2016 to nurture and celebrate a community where women learn from and share with each other, leading to greater engagement, community building, mentorship opportunities, and philanthropic support.
• Eric Gnezda '79 tapes an episode of his acclaimed "Songs at the Center" television show on Nov. 22 in OWU's Jemison Auditorium. The show is celebrating its 10th season of national distribution.
• The Battling Bishop volleyball team clinches its first NCAC tournament since 1996, earning the team its first-ever NCAA DIII playoff appearance.
• Zoe Ward '27 becomes the first Bishop runner to qualify for the NCAA Division III championship meet since Sarah Fowler '17 in 2016. Ward finishes 114th in the individual standings.
• Bishop field hockey player Grace Ammon '27 is named the NCAC Midfielder of the Year and a first-team All-NCAC choice.
• Natalie Ryan '26 is the NCAC Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-NCAC selection.
• Brady West '25 is named NCAC Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-NCAC selection.
• Men's soccer head coach Jay Martin concludes his 47th and final season at the Ohio Wesleyan helm on Nov. 17. Martin closes his unmatched coaching career with a final record of 774-169-84 (.795).

December

• Ohio Wesleyan earns its fourth Choose Ohio First Grant, receiving nearly $1.2 million to support Ohio students enrolling at OWU to pursue STEM majors. OWU's award is among the four largest in the state for Fiscal Year 2025.
• Ohio Wesleyan awards $61,500 in fall OWU Connection grants to help students explore the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, study heavy metals and health in lizards, examine uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation, explore female narratives in early modern Spain, and study emotional wellness in Scandinavia.