Faith-Filled Champion Spotlights Unique Engineering Program

Joseph Barnes’ story could only happen at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

The junior chemical engineering student (pictured above, center, with glasses) from Spearfish, S.D., helped the Raven cross country team win a conference championship, represented the team at the national championships, and was named a 2018 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete for academic excellence.

His story also serves to demonstrate how unique engineering is at Benedictine College.

The Cardinal Newman Society featured him recently as an example of a top-achieving student who chose a Newman Guide school.

“As a National Merit Finalist with a perfect ACT score, Joseph Barnes could have gone pretty much anywhere for college. He chose a faithful Catholic college recommended in The Newman Guide,” writes Kelly Salomon.

At Benedictine College, National Merit Finalists receive full-tuition scholarships. Dozens now attend the school

“The son of Mike and Nancy Barnes of South Dakota, Joseph was offered full-ride scholarships to colleges and major universities across the country,” Kelly Salomon writes. “But he was committed to studying engineering at a faithful institution that takes its Catholic mission seriously.”

That led him to Benedictine College’s Chemical Engineering program, the only Chemical Engineering program at a Newman Guide school.

Benedictine College’s four engineering disciplines are far advanced beyond the other Newman Guide schools, apart from Catholic University. Washington, D.C. The college employs 10 faculty who among them have 11 patents and decades of industry experience. The college is completing the final work on a new 100,000-square-foot STEM building project with 12 full Engineering labs.