Awards

Pre-Health Professions Related Scholarships

The Pre-Health Professions office offers several scholarships that our Biology majors interested in pre-health professions will find helpful. https://www.wheaton.edu/academics/programs/healthprofessions/services-and-resources/scholarships/

The Russell Mixter Award

Given to a junior or senior Biology major with a GPA of 3.5 or above who exhibits the qualities of exemplary character, Christian witness, and academic promise to which faculty, students and other campus personnel should attest. Funds for the Russell Mixter Award was provided by a Wheaton graduate to honor Dr. Russell Mixter, Professor of Zoology at Wheaton from 1928-1979. As Chair of Biology, Dr. Mixter played a significant role in the development of biology at Wheaton College and in the Black Hills. He also was a voice for understanding creation and evolution among the larger community of Christians in science and was a respected member of the Wheaton College community. You can see a picture of him on the mural outside the Stupe, peering through the jaws of a shark. He died in January 2007 at the age of 100 years. The recipients of the Mixter Prize can be seen on the plaque outside the seminar room in the Biology department, and includes our own Dr. Jennifer Busch.

The David Bruce Memorial Research Award

Established in 2003, this award is in honor of the department's beloved physiologist here at Wheaton for over 20 years, Dr. David Bruce.

The criteria for this award are:

• A Biology major junior or senior who has done collaborative research with a Wheaton Biology Department faculty member
• A presentation at a national meeting or authorship in a peer reviewed paper resulting from this research.
• A stated desire to continue in some type of scientific career in the future will also be an advantage. This may include, for example, biological research, teaching, medicine or other careers that are clearly facilitated by the student's experience of doing biological research as an undergraduate.

The Raymen & Ruth Johnston Family Botany Scholarship Award

Ray Johnston, a botany major in the class of '39 lived life with a perpetual interest in living things.  His wife Ruth - also class of '39 - supported that interest and together, they left their five children,
all Wheaton graduates, a legacy of learning about God's amazing created world. The Raymen and Ruth Johnston Family Endowed Scholarship Fund was created to help support a worthy Wheaton biology student in pursuit of that interest.

Established in May of 2009,  this award will be given to:  

• Students majoring in Biology who have demonstrated an interest and aptitude in Botany through Botany classes taken and participation in Botany research, management or restoration efforts.
• Recipient(s) must have a cumulative GPA of no less than 2.5 through their Freshman year and be in good academic, spiritual, and moral standing to receive the award.
• The Department of Biology Faculty will recommend potential recipient(s) to the Financial Aid Office, who will make the final determination.
• The Department of Biology Faculty can recommend that a recipient(s) receive the award for more than one year.
• The annual award can be distributed to either one or two recipients per the recommendation of the Department of Biology Faculty.