Former Vice President is back for another year
By Julia Kramer · News Editor
For the third year in a row, former Vice President Mike Pence will teach classes about political science and faith at Grove City College.
Grove City College President Bradley Lingo is happy to have his presence back on campus.
“Vice President Pence has become a valued member of the Grove City College community through the wisdom, encouragement and personal investment he brings to our students,” Lingo said. “His example of faithful leadership and service to the common good is one that I hope inspires our students as we prepare them to serve and lead.”
Serving as the college’s first distinguished fellow for The Center for Faith & Public Life, Pence will again be teaching toward the center’s goal of “advancing the vision and values that undergird American freedom.”
“The stakes for America’s rising generation could not be higher,” Pence said. “Grove City College’s Christ-centered, world-class education is more important now than ever before, and I am humbled to continue to play a small role in training up future leaders who will impact our nation in faith and the public square.”
In previous years, Pence taught different “tiers” of classes, with a larger lecture class of 200 students and smaller, more exclusive seminars for students affiliated with the college’s Institute of Faith & Freedom.
Brayden Rush, a junior political science major, attended one of the lecture classes in the spring semester of 2025 and observed Pence’s teaching approach.
“He emphasized his experiences running for office and the mistakes he made and the lessons he learned from those mistakes,” Rush said. “So much of what we see in politics today is the corruption and moral decadence from our politicians, as well as hostility towards Christians in some cases. Pence offered his own experience and showed how it is possible to be in public service and live out our faith well.”
While Pence’s status as “professor” is still rather recent and many students will be meeting him for the first time this year, the vice president’s connection with the college administration goes back much further.
Invited by former Grove City College President Paul McNulty in 2017, Pence gave the commencement speech for the college’s graduating class as a personal favor.
Initially meeting in political circles in Washington, McNulty and Pence became better acquainted through their families’ involvement at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Va., where their kids attended and their wives worked.
McNulty stressed that the event was not “political” but that the Pences were doing it “as friends.”
The 2017 commencement, however, received a mixed response. Some students objected to his connection with the Trump administration and critiqued the college for bringing him to speak. While this concern has largely lost relevance on campus, people outside the college have continued to loudly post their objections toward Pence on social media for his failure to support Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence has continued to teach on campus and has remained a professor despite McNulty, his co-teacher, retiring in 2025.
Although precise details about course registration and who he will be teaching with this year are still in the works, Pence voiced his enthusiasm to be back.
“I am honored to return to Grove City College’s classrooms this fall as a distinguished visiting fellow for the Center for Faith & Public Life and look forward to my third year as part of this truly unique Christian college,” Pence said.
