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How the Anderson University Honors College empowers students to explore life’s most important questions.
Edith Eger was only 17 when she was sent to Auschwitz.
Her only crime was being born into a Jewish family, and her dreams of becoming a professional dancer were dashed by the German occupation of Hungary in 1944. Yet, Eger held on to hope even amid profound suffering. Soon after arriving at Auschwitz, Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor, demanded that Eger perform a ballet for him. Pleased by her performance, he tossed her a loaf of bread, which she generously shared with her bunkmates.
She credits that performance, that loaf of bread, as the reason she survived the death camp.
When she danced, she imagined herself back home, performing for her loved ones under the warm glow of the stage lights. The beauty of the dance and the hope of returning home she felt when she performed it are what granted Eger the courage to live another day.
Beauty saved her life.
Anderson University Senior Karah Snyder first encountered this story in the spring of 2023.
Immediately, she was mesmerized. As a dance major, she was fascinated by the way Edith credited one dance with saving her life. And as an honors student, she wondered how the story might answer that perennial human question: “Why does beauty matter in the face of all the vast brokenness in the world?”
Inspired by this question, Snyder began a year-long quest to count the many ways beauty matters in the face of brokenness. She read dozens of books on the matter, from Man’s Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor Frankl to The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. She read poems and studied symphonies. Her quest culminated in a senior showcase dance performance interwoven with spoken word poetry titled Beauty Tells True. The dance, inspired by Eger’s own fateful performance, tells the story of an imprisoned girl who keeps hope alive in her heart. Ultimately, Snyder hoped that audience members would take away the message that beauty is what speaks truth to us in darkness, and that is why it is of the utmost importance. To quote John Keating from the movie Dead Poets Society, “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
According to Dr. Chuck Fuller, director of the Anderson University Honors College, Snyder’s project strikes right at the central mission of the Honors College. The Anderson University Honors College seeks to consider those enduring human questions about truth, beauty, goodness, God and humanity.
In essence, the Honors College hopes to reside at the very heart of Anderson University’s mission: to explore the intersection of Great Academics and Great Faith. The Honors College accomplishes its mission by creating space for Anderson University’s most academically capable students to interact and learn from its most accomplished professors, creating well-rounded students equipped to think critically about life’s biggest questions. The Honors College has always housed unique courses for honors students, but in 2023 the University also granted them their own building for gathering and learning together. According to Dr. Fuller, this space has made all the difference.
The space, which Dr. Fuller calls “the greatest leap forward for the program since its inception,” is a brick house on the edge of campus, home to a kitchenette, living room, study spaces and professors’ offices. Honors students gather there continually, including Monday prayer meetings, regular pancake breakfasts and a monthly “Sabbath Sunday” when students set aside time to gather without any mention of schoolwork. Dr. Fuller explains that it is difficult to learn and create community in a place that doesn’t feel like home. At long last, he shares, “the Honors College has a home.”
These investments in the Honors College have certainly paid off, and the program is growing in leaps and bounds. It’s also become very competitive with the best honors colleges in the nation.
Dr. Lynneth Renberg was recently announced as the associate director of the Honors College, a new position created in response to the program’s growth. The Honors College is continually seeking to become more and more integrated with the University community as a whole, including bringing in new professors from around campus and creating more programming for all students. The Honors College is also regularly creating new courses, including The Science of Food, Thinking About Games and Sculpture & Faith, all courses coming this fall.
Time invested in the Honors College has certainly paid off for Karah Snyder, too.
In the spring of 2025, she was announced as a Fulbright Award semi-finalist. The Fulbright is a prestigious award from the United States government which funds students and scholars to study, teach or research abroad. Synder is in consideration for a Fulbright Award to teach English in Athens, Greece. She credits the Honors College with much of her success in college, citing the ways it taught her to live in community with others, provided her with relationships with professors and gave her the confidence to tackle rigorous academic projects.
“If I had to have one reason I’m here at Anderson University, it’s Honors.”
– Karah Snyder