MHU Student Receives Alpha Chi Fellowship

April 13, 2020

Katie Lanier, a senior at Mars Hill University, has been selected to receive a Region III Fellowship for graduate studies from Alpha Chi National Honor Society. The fellowship will provide $1,000 toward her graduate studies next year.

A resident of Albemarle, N.C., Lanier will graduate from Mars Hill in May with majors in art therapy and psychology, and a minor in studio art. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in art therapy and counseling after her graduation.

Lanier is a member of the Honors Program at MHU, and she has served as MHU Chapter President for Alpha Chi this spring semester. She was nominated for the regional award by Dr. Laura Steil, MHU associate professor of mathematics and Alpha Chi faculty advisor. In addition, Steil serves as the Vice President for Alpha Chi Region III.

Steil has also nominated Lanier for a national Alpha Chi fellowship. For that competition, she entered a scholarly paper that Lanier wrote for a class at MHU, titled: “Finding Resilience in Art: How Art Therapy Affects Resiliency in Disadvantaged Children and Adolescents.”

Steil said, “We are very proud of Katie and her work at Mars Hill University, both as a student of distinction, and as the chapter president of Alpha Chi. Katie’s scholarship and her character exemplify the values of Alpha Chi. We are proud of her regional achievement and wish her the best in national competition.”

Alpha Chi is a coeducational society whose purpose is to promote academic excellence and exemplary character among college and university students and to honor those who achieve such distinction. Its name derives from the initial letters of the Greek words for Truth and Character. A member institution, which must be a regionally accredited, baccalaureate degree-granting college or university, may invite to membership juniors and seniors whose grade point averages place them in the top 10 percent of their classes. The organization is divided into seven regions across the nation.