University Honors Program in litteris fideque

02/28/2026

This photo from one of the "playing church" classes in Worship for Lutherans, 2019, showed up on my iPad today. There are 2 Honors students in the photo: far right: Christiana Eckstein Ewert (Kappa) and second from left: Sophia Drager Greenfield (Lambda). Also pictured (to the left of Christiana) is Allyssa Guynes Biedinger, serving as a DCE at Faith Lutheran Church in Georgetown, TX. Baptizing Kermit the Frog is Nick Wagenknecht, a presem student at the time. Nick and I reconnected at Best Practices Ministry in Phoenix, AZ in mid-February (lower photo). Nick is now serving as associate pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church, Stewartsville, MN. I also saw Honors grad Jackie Wiebold Druckhammer (Delta) at BPM, but I'm unable to find a single photo of her or us together. But you can read about us working together (with some other CSP grads) at https://www.forminglutherans.org/2026/02/20/searching-scripture-finding-jesus/

07/16/2025

Anne (Gifford) Boerboom wrote: " Alicia, Bethany, Sophia and I all attended and made sure to take a couple pictures for the Honorable Drs. Schuler. Bethany’s church in Lincoln, NE was voted to receive $100,000 to continue their ministry of providing diapers, wipes, formula, clothes, and other necessary items. She and her husband were exhibitors and many of the women were able to hear of their ministry to the Lincoln community. Sophia is the social media gal for her LWML district, so she was interviewing many women (and a few men) and put together some hilarious videos for the MN North LWML District page. Alicia and her mother were babysitting for her friend who was a worker for the LCMS exhibit, and she enjoyed meeting with her fellow deaconesses. I had the pleasure of simply attending with my family," which included her 2 children. Anne will be starting her 7th year of teaching at St. Mark's in the Cincinnati area. From left: Alica (Benning) Neils, Anne (Gifford) Boerboom, Sophia (Drager) Greenfield, and Bethany (Mrosko) Gebers. In case you can't remember in which Honors class each one is a member, the clue is in the second photo.

06/16/2025

On Saturday, June 7, 2025 the Drs. Schuler attended the Spring concert of "Bells of the Lakes" at Hennepin Methodist Church, Minneapolis. Kristyn Svoboda (Eta Class) had let me know about her involvement with the group months ago, and we put the date on our calendars. She never spotted us during the concert and was surprised and delighted to see us afterwards, saying, "You came!" You may also recognize Krista (I'm blanking on her maiden name) Riedel, who was also in bells and choirs at CSP. it was a delightful program!

12/07/2024

Dear Honors Students,
For many of you we have only your CSP email address, which will be shut off at the end of 2024. We would love to stay in touch with you! Please share your current working email with either of the Drs. Schuler so that we can update our spreadsheet of you all. Have no fear! We will NOT sell you list to anyone.

09/20/2024

What a joy it was to be present for the commissioning and installation of Deaconess Alicia (Benning) Neils at Rose of Sharon Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove, MN on July 13, 2024. Alicia is part of the Iota Class. It was great to see her parents again, who often came fro central Illinois to hear Alicia sing in the Jubilate Choir Concerts. To greet them in the narthex was like seeing old friends again. Also pictured are Alicia's husband Dylan and Pastor Martini Schoenfeld, with whom Deaconess Alicia will be serving at Rose of Sharon.

09/02/2024

On June 30, 2024, Mr. Dr. Schuler was able to attend Brandon Johnson's ordination and installation service at Zion Lutheran Church, Little Falls, Minnesota. Photos include one of Brandon (Lambda Honors Class) with Dr. S and Pastor Pitsch (from Brandon's vicarage congregation); Brandon and Hannah (Strub) Johnson--who will be an amazing pastor's wife (Kappa Honors Class); and Deaconess Alicia (Benning) Neils (Iota Honors Class). We love seeing members from three Honors Classes celebrating together.

08/27/2024

It's a been a great year for the Drs. Schuler to celebrate major milestones with some of you. Back in March 2024 Mrs. Dr. S attended Jo Gimbel Nachtigall's (Alpha class) nurse pinning ceremony at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN. Joining Jo were her family (Gavin, Lionheart, and Juni) and members of the Alpha and Gamma classes!

08/09/2024

Service of Sending for Mark Schuler
Thursday, August 15, 2024, 4:00 pm
Graebner Memorial Chapel, Concordia University

Dear Honors students,
You are cordially invited to a service of sending for Professor Emeritus Mark Schuler, who will be teaching this fall at the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mr. Dr. Schuler was invited (with the recommendation of our CSP colleague Samuel Deressa) to teach the first cohort of PhD students for the new doctoral program at Mekane Yesus Seminary; he is honored to have this opportunity to teach the future leaders of the church in Africa, where Christianity is growing and flourishing. Please join us as we ask God's blessings on his teaching ministry in a new context and for our brothers and sisters in Christ in Ethiopia and throughout the world.
Perhaps some of you in the Twin Cities area might be able to join us in person. Most of all, we want you to know that "the other" Dr. Schuler will be using his gift of teaching in a new context. We ask for your prayers for him throughout the semester. You can get updated information about his adventures at MarkSchuler.com.

04/22/2024

Some of you Honors graduates may remember Dr. Robert Holtz, aka "Biology Bob," who was a guest instructor in HON 110. He led students on birding outings as part of his teaching about science as one of the "ways of knowing." Dr. Holtz died recently; you can read his obituary, which mentions his final teaching service--in the Honors Program.
Mr. Dr. Schuler remembers photos taken on one of the birding expeditions. If you have such photos, send them to us to post.

View Robert E. Holtz's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

01/26/2024

On January 14, 2024 the Rev. Jordan Voges (Zeta class, center of photo) was installed as associate pastor of St. James Lutheran Church in West St. Paul. Attending the service were (from left) CSP grad Pastor Caleb Weight from Duluth; Dr. Rich Carter, professor emeritus, Rev. David Edwards (Delta class) from Florida, and (Mrs.) Dr. Schuler, professor emerita. Sadly, the other Dr. Schuler was languishing at home with Covid and could not come.

08/24/2023

Registration is now open for the Musical Reunion honoring Dr. David Mennicke, Dr. Monica Murray, and Prof. Shari Speer on Sunday, October 7 at Jehovah Lutheran Church.
Here's the link to register: https://tinyurl.com/AMusicalReunion
The Drs. Schuler will be there! We hope to see many of you who sang in Jubilate and Christus.