Reflections Magazine Issue #77 - Fall 2012 | Page 9

Campus Feature

All those above-mentioned attributes make
him one of the most beloved faculty members
at SHU.
The Sister Eileen Rice Award is presented to
the professor who receives the most votes from
students. Recommendations from faculty members are also taken into consideration, and then
a committee, which includes the prior award
recipients, decides who is most deserving of the
award. In the three previous years, winners of
the award were Joe Raab, Jeffrey Lindstrom and
Nick Kaplan.
Bell’s initial plan was to become a mechanical
engineer, not a college professor. The Wisconsin native began his studies at Michigan Tech
University, but during his first year he started to
reconsider that choice.
“My atheist friends questioned how I could
be a Christian,” Bell said. “I started struggling
with the doctrines of the incarnation and Trinity.
I began focusing on faith rather than calculus,
which resulted in academic problems.”
He transferred to the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn., where he received a degree
in youth ministry. He spent a year-and-a-half
teaching in a parish in Minnesota as a youth
minister but chose to continue his scholarly
career. At the College of St. Catherine in St.
Paul, Minn., he received his master’s degree.
He later received his PhD in Religious Studies
with an emphasis in systematic theology from
Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.
In 2003, began his teaching career at Marquette as a graduate student. In 2007, he was
hired at SHU, where he is in his sixth year.
Bell also heads the annual Chiodini/Fontana
Lecture Series on Ethics at Siena Heights, and
has influenced curriculum development in
religious studies and has continued to produce
scholarly publications.
Bell and his wife of 16 years, Melissa, and
their 8-year-old son, Aidan, reside in Adrian.
“He is an even bigger Star Wars nerd than
I am,” Bell said of his son.
According to one of his students, Bell “radiates his passion for theology to each student
he teaches. ... His ‘tough but fair’ reputation has
earned him the respect of everyone he teaches.”

Bell said he was surprised at winning the
Rice Award. He assumed his reputation for being so demanding would inhibit any chance he
had of ever receiving the award.
When asked why he believed he won this
year, Bell, laughing, said, “I guess it is because
all the really good teachers already won it.”
However, SHU Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences Dr. Mark Schersten was not surprised Bell had been nominated.
“Ian certainly is demanding, but our business
is educating students, and he takes it seriously,
almost more than anyone I have ever known,”
Schersten said.
Schersten was Bell’s division chair and supervisor before he became dean. He said he was
particularly impressed with Bell’s detailed lecture
notes and the amount of work he put into helping his students improve their writing skills.
Bell accepts multiple rough drafts of papers
from students so as to help them obtain the best
grade possible. Until the due date, students are
encouraged to rewrite their papers as often as
they like.
“I remember seeing Ian in his office on some
Friday afternoons when he did not have class,”
Schersten said. “I would ask him why he was
there and he would tell me ‘I am grading papers.’”
“His sheer dedication to students has made
him rightly deserving of the honor.”
As the Rice Award recipient, Bell had the
additional honor of making a keynote speech at
the Sept. 6. Fall Academic Convocation. u

Here is a Roundup
of Some of the Other
Awards from Last Spring’s
Honors Convocation:
Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award—
Seniors Mariann Weiss of Monroe, Mich., and
Brianna Chrenko of Northville, Mich., earned
the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award.
The Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award
is the highest honor given to undergraduate
students at SHU. Weiss graduated summa cum
laude in May from SHU’s business administration
program with an overall grade point average of
3.86. Chrenko graduated in May summa cum
laude from SHU’s special education program
with an overall grade point average of 3.91.
Thomas A. Emmett Award
(Outstanding Junior Scholar-Athlete)—
Hannah Ulrich, Christopher Schurr
Team Academic Award—Women’s Golf

Division Outstanding Student Awards
Division of Business and Management—
Darrell Gudenau, Mariann Weiss
Division of Computing, Mathematics, and the
Sciences—Marcella Ehmann, Amanda Mitchell
Division of Huma