Grove City College presented the inaugural Faculty Excellence Awards to three professors in recognition of exemplary teaching, scholarship, and service in 2025.
Dr. Chris Ansberry, professor and chair of Theological and Religious Studies Department, Dr. Kelsey Madsen, associate professor of French and chair of the Modern Languages Department, and Dr. Shawn Ritenour, professor of Economics, were recognized for their connection to students, mastery of their fields of study, and dedicated service to the College.
“It’s a joy to celebrate the way our extraordinary faculty bring to life the mission of Grove City College. I’m grateful for the way Professors Ritenour, Ansberry, and Madsen have strengthened our mission and inspired our students through their teaching, scholarship, and service,” College President Bradley J. Lingo ’00 said.
Dedicated professors are the backbone of Grove City College. Their daily classroom labors carry the weight of a mission centered on the promise of academic excellence. The awards were established this year to honor that good work, according to Dr. Peter Frank ’95, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
The first class of winners exemplifies the quality and caliber of Grove City College faculty.
Ansberry earned the Scholarship award for two recent books on the Old Testament. His “Reading Wisdom and Psalms as Christian Scripture: A Literary, Canonical, and Theological Introduction” and “Proverbs: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible” have advanced the study of Old Testament wisdom tradition, Frank said.
The quality of Ansberry’s research and writing are being recognized, Frank said, predicting that Ansberry’s 700-page tome on Proverbs would become a definitive textbook in the field.
Service award winner Madsen was recognized for her work supporting new colleagues, enhancing the College’s Modern Languages curriculum, and ensuring that the new core curriculum’s Modern Language requirement was rolled out clearly and coherently, including launching a placement examination for incoming students, Frank said.
“Both students and colleagues, in short, are indebted to Dr. Madsen for her service,” he said. After all that hard work, he quipped, she’s “fleeing to France” on sabbatical to work on several projects including a book proposal.
Ritenour, winner of the Teaching award, “has honed his teaching craft to exemplary heights” and creates “a dynamic learning environment” for students, who say his “joy of economics” is evident, Frank said.
“It is clear that he has student learning as a singular focus of his classroom efforts. Further, it is delightful to walk past a classroom in which Shawn is teaching and to hear the occasional merriment and laughter that leads to his well-known ‘knowledge-fests’ … his exams,” Frank said.