Anna Cepek, Class of 2012, earned her major in Mathematics at Bethany Lutheran College. She completed a Ph.D. in Mathematics at Montana State University and then traveled to South Korea for a postdoctoral fellowship focused on research in configuration spaces of manifolds. In her role as a graduate student and teaching assistant, Anna taught one class each semester, tutored, graded assignments, prepared lectures, and deeply engaged with abstract mathematical theory and discovery.

Anna describes her passion for mathematics as rooted in both challenge and wonder. “Math is the most challenging subject that I have ever studied… when I do finally understand, that extreme difficulty is what makes my realization all the greater.” She views mathematical ideas not just as abstract constructs, but as patterns created by God—discoverable through logic and reason: “Within all the things that we can sense, God created patterns… God even created patterns that… they exist as ideas which I can verify to be true only after I logically prove them.”

Anna’s goal is simple yet profound: to combine her love for numbers with her gift for teaching. “I want to change this poor mindset which is so prevalent in our country, one person at a time, by showing them the beauty that I see in math.”

Reflecting on her time at Bethany, Anna says that the solid academic mentorship and Christ-centered community profoundly shaped her path: “If Bethany didn’t make the Gospel such a priority, it wouldn’t have had its proper place in academia… sharing the same faith as my professors was absolutely wonderful.” Those formative relationships fostered both intellectual growth and lifelong spiritual grounding.

Anna’s journey—from mathematics major to doctoral scholar and educator—exemplifies how a Bethany mathematics education equips graduates for careers marked by academic excellence, Christian witness, and a heart to transform others through teaching, service, and the pursuit of truth.