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Alumni

Rachel Epp Buller, '96

Rachel Epp Buller’s educational and vocational path has allowed her to further explore each of her three degrees.

As a student at Bethel, Rachel undertook projects of significant size and scope in each department. In history, she completed a senior seminar. In art, she created a senior exhibit. In German, she studied abroad in Marburg, Germany. Those experiences proved invaluable to her when she entered the art history graduate program at the University of Kansas, for which foreign language competency is a requirement. Rachel earned an M.A. from the University of Kansas in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2004.

Meanwhile, she has also taught courses at both KU and Bethel and has worked in several museums. At KU, she taught a survey course in European art and also moved to Britain for a semester to teach a study abroad course in British art history. She has worked at the Randolph Street Gallery in Chicago, the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After earning her Ph.D., she taught one year at Bethel and has since been living in Newton with her husband and three children.

“The critical thinking and writing skills I learned and honed at Bethel were essential to my success in a graduate program,” Rachel says. “Also, the close-knit community of friends I developed at Bethel has been a continuing source of support these past 10 years.”

Rachel recently finished co-authoring a textbook called Patterns in Western Civilization and continues to work on articles and book reviews as well as in the artistic medium of printmaking, which she began as an undergraduate.

James Regier, '03

James Regier wrote an award-winning senior seminar paper on Mennonites in Germany during World War II. He entered the doctoral program in Modern European History at the University of Notre Dame.

Jacob Gunden, '02

Jacob Gunden became a history and government teacher at Inman (Kan.) High School.

Heather Esau Zerger, '96

Heather Esau Zerger was a double major in English and history. She earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota and now practices law in the Kansas City area.