Alumni

CC Faculty Spotlight

Professor Mark Schwehn ’67 is a scholar, an educational leader, a former Christ College dean, and a speaker in wide demand across the country.

But when it comes to his essential vocation, there is no doubt what comes first and foremost: teaching. The fact that Schwehn is an extraordinary teacher was recognized and celebrated when he received the 2007 Distinguished Teaching Award, presented annually by the Valparaiso University Alumni Association.

Schwehn was nominated for the award by alumni from throughout his more than 20 years at Valpo, as well as by five CC students enrolled in his seminar, “What Makes a Life Significant?” In their letter of nomination, the students wrote, “Vital to Professor Schwehn’s gift for teaching is his ability to affect every facet of his students’ lives. By relating texts and discussion topics to real-life situations, he makes class an opportunity not only to develop intellectually, but also a time to develop spiritually and personally.”

Schwehn’s influential scholarship regularly addresses issues of teaching and learning. “Exiles From Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America” has attained wide influence by showing how the spiritual virtues attendant to teaching and learning are central to academic life. He edited and contributed to “Everyone a Teacher” and co-edited (with his wife Dorothy Bass) “Leading Lives That Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be”—a volume that developed in part through conversations with Schwehn’s CC students.

“Teaching is at the very heart of what I do,” Schwehn says. “Especially for those of us who regard academic life as a Christian vocation, teaching lies at the center of our work, whether it is in the classroom, or in mentoring students, or in publication and public presentation.”