LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Washington Adventist University engages minds and transforms lives, and its core mission is to produce competent moral leaders to meet the needs of our world.”

To our faculty and staff for their outstanding nurturing and support to our graduates, who exited through the “Gateway to Service,” we appreciate you. You have provided moral leadership in communities throughout the world.

As we approach the 120th anniversary of our founding, I think of a number of programs where WAU has been an innovative force in Adventist higher education. We are the only Adventist university in the nation’s capital, with all of the unique opportunities it provides; the Edith T. James Nursing program was the first accredited nursing program in the state of Maryland; our Psychology program was the first in the Adventist system; and our excellent Music Department now has the first Music Therapy degree in Maryland, and the only such degree in the Adventist system.

WAU is also home to another innovative unit that I want to make sure people know about, namely the first – and only – Honors College in Adventist higher education. Most Adventist universities have Honors Programs, designed to enhance general education offerings, but WAU’s Honors College plays an expanded role, offering a number of curricular and academic degree options that are open to all high-achieving students on campus. The WAU Honors Program initiated Honors learning at WAU in 2004, but it was in 2015 that WAU Board of Trustees member, Dr. Albert Reece, approached me with the idea that WAU would be an ideal place for an Honors College to serve high-achieving students within an Adventist context. Since its inception in Fall of 2017, under the leadership of the Honors College Director, Professor Bradford Haas, and the Associate Director, Dr. Jonathan Scriven, the Honors College has made significant progress, and has shown agility to meet the changing needs of students and the higher education marketplace.

Each year at our Awards Chapel we recognize student leaders on campus. To illustrate the impact of Honors College students on the WAU campus, 73% of all of the students leaders recognized were from the Honors College, including 60% of the Student Association officers, including the SA President, 100% of the Sophomore class officers, 100% of the Senior class officers, 80% of the Junior class officers, 10 of 11 Student Senators and 10 of 16 Student Ambassadors. Honors students hold more leadership positions on campus, but this sampling should illustrate the vital contributions that these student leaders make to WAU.

I have been particularly pleased to see that the Honors College had a 100% first year retention rate in 2022, and it appears on track to repeat this feat. As Honors students participate in all departments across campus, it is a collaborative effort to retain these students, and I am proud that our faculty and staff are working to retain this key contingent of students at WAU. This is helping us trend towards the “bold goal” stated in Vision 2030 that WAU will retain 100% of all students by 2030. As President, I feel a bit like ‘The Good Shepherd’; I am not content to have 99% in the fold, as that means that one is lost. The Honors College demonstrates that through a student-centric approach and collaboration across units that we can achieve this goal.

It is my sense that the Honors College at WAU is a “hidden gem.” Many people I speak to seem not to know about the opportunities that it offers to students. To help remedy this, this issue of The Gateway outlines many aspects of the Honors College to help readers get a glimpse of all that it encompasses. Great things are happening at Washington Adventist University!

Sincerely,

Dr. Weymouth Spence