Company Profile
Kentucky Wesleyan College
Company Overview
Kentucky Wesleyan College is a four-year liberal arts institution located in the vibrant city of Owensboro. A United Methodist-related college founded in 1858, the college is known for excellence in academics and a superior residential experience.
A hallmark of the Kentucky Wesleyan experience includes “The Wesleyan Way,” beliefs which guide the entire college community:
• We believe “doers” change the world, and we encourage our students to “do.”
• We believe a strong spiritual foundation is the compass for greatness.
• We believe the unity of co-curricular passions and academic pursuits molds the person.
• We believe high character, integrity, love and competition with honor are the cornerstones of a rewarding life.
Students can choose from 31 majors and 13 pre-professional programs. Biology, business administration, communication arts, criminal justice, elementary education and exercise science are the most popular programs. Service learning is a key component of the academic experience.
Classes have a 9-to-1 student-faculty ratio, and 88 percent of the faculty have a Ph.D. or terminal degree. Faculty members mentor and encourage their students in a close-knit campus community. A distinctive component of academic programs is the creation of personal development plans for each student, individualized roadmaps for each student’s college success and post-college goals.
The college encourages scholarly research, and the Wesleyan Fellows program allows students to complete scholarly work with faculty in their discipline. Students have the opportunity for valuable internships. For example, some science students participate in internships at the Owensboro Cancer Research Program (affiliated with the University of Louisville and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center in Louisville) and Kentucky Bioprocessing, a global leader in the production of plant-made pharmaceutical proteins.
The Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers compete in NCAA Division II and are members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. Men’s teams include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer and track and field. Women compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball.
Company History
In 1858, the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, voted to found a college at Millersburg. Classes began in 1866, after peace was restored following the Civil War. In 1890, the College moved to Winchester, Ky. The first women were admitted as students in the early 1890s, and KWC became one of the first institutions of higher learning in the Commonwealth to permit co-education. In 1950 the board voted to move the campus to Owensboro in western Kentucky. A new campus was constructed there and by 1954 the school was fully operational. Wesleyan secured full accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1947. The Order of the Oak and Ivy, founded in 1955, honored students with outstanding academic and campus service careers.
Kentucky Wesleyan gained national recognition in athletics when its men's basketball team won national championships in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1987, 1990 and 1999. No Division II school has ever surpassed this record. A variety of sports teams won numerous regional and conference championships during this period.
Kentucky Wesleyan College successfully completed the "Changing Lives" comprehensive campaign in 2002, raising over $23 million for new facilities, increased endowment, and expanded operating support. As a result of this campaign, the College opened the Charles D. and Mary Gray Ralph Center for Fine Arts and Communication Arts in 1999, the Winchester Campus Community Center in January 2002, and the Center for Business Studies in August 2002.
In 2007, the college established the first endowed chair, the W. Terry Woodward Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurial Studies. In 2008, the college celebrated a rich 150-year history of extraordinary accomplishments. Dr. Cheryl King ‘70 served her alma mater as president from 2008 – 2011. Under her leadership, KWC enhanced academic choices, completed a Strategic Plan and added the Martin Center for Alumni, Development and Career Services, the Panther Hitting Facility and Jazzman‘s and SubConnection cafes in the Winchester Center. Dr. W. Craig Turner became the thirty-third president of Kentucky Wesleyan on June 1, 2011.