Why Pietas?

Undergrad Majors & Programs Pietas Honors Program

The Pietas Honors Program empowers intellectually curious and academically gifted students to honor God with the life of the mind.

As a member of the Pietas Program, you’ll enrich your education by critically engaging in complex questions, exercising your various talents, and preparing for a lifelong pursuit of God’s truth. You’ll learn in a collaborative community of faculty and students from various majors, enhancing the liberal arts foundation. You’ll also engage in diverse courses and enriching community events while pursuing an honors project for further study of a special interest under faculty mentorship.

Program highlights

Unique learning experiences

The Pietas Program incorporates four Honors courses, individual academic research projects, community activities, and service leadership opportunities. This includes:
  • Film Forum Colloquium
  • Book Club Colloquium
  • Contribute to an Honors Program Devotional Booklet, published each spring.
  • H-Tag "Scholarship Project"
  • S-Tag "Stewardship Project"
  • Become an Honor’s Teaching Assistant

Strong, academically-focused cohort

You’ll build supportive relationships within a cohort of various majors, where you’ll take classes and share in Pietas activities together each year.

Faculty collaboration

You’ll work closely with professors on projects that explore your interests and goals—from scientific experiments to original artistic works—and blend advanced work into the courses already required for your major. You’ll build mentor relationships through the Scholarship Project (independent research with faculty, and Stewardship Project (campus leadership position).

Build real-life skills

You’ll have the chance to present your work to your classmates, the broader Bethel community, and beyond. You can also apply to become a teaching assistant, where you’ll facilitate colloquium events, create and host social events, and more.

1:1 mentoring

You’ll have access to Honors-related advising from the Honors Co-Directors, in addition to your regular academic advisor. You’ll also work closely with an individual faculty for your H-Tag project and with a faculty or staff person for your S-tag for goal setting, research or service program guidance, feedback, and mentoring.

Open to all majors

The Pietas Program is designed to enhance any area of study at Bethel. Graduates of the Honors Program have represented every major offered at Bethel.

Free textbooks

Textbooks are essential tools for scholars. For this reason, students in the Pietas Honors Program receive all of the textbooks for their four Honors courses for free.

After graduation

Pietas students prepare for professional careers and go on to study at excellent graduate programs within their desired fields. Our alumni attend:
  • Princeton Theological Seminary
  • Boston College
  • Northwestern University
  • University of Michigan Law School
  • Yale University
  • University of Colorado at Boulder
  • University of Minnesota
  • Marquette University
  • Cambridge University
  • Emory University