This story was published before Missouri Valley College became Missouri Valley University in August 2026.
Jan Jedlička (Opava, Czech Republic) has been awarded the Loren C. Gruber Endowed Honors Award for his Honors thesis, “What Makes Golfers Satisfied?: A Case Study Comparing Customer Preferences at Golf Courses in American Midwest and Central Europe.”
Jedlička is a May 2020 graduate majoring in Sports Management and minoring in Exercise Science; he has served as Chair of the Honors Student Advisory Board. After graduation Jedlička will join the M.Ed. program in Athletic Program Leadership and Administration at Goucher College in Towson, MD and will serve as the graduate assistant for Goucher’s golf teams.
Other spring 2020 Honors theses include Cara Hilzendeger (Accounting, “How Accounting Students Are Not Prepared For Graduation”), Kimberley Ndlovu (Pre-Med Biology, “Microbial Analysis of Rhizosphere and Non-Rhizosphere Bacteria of Lindera benzoin & Lithospermum canescens”), Sarina O’Donnell (Math, “Four Color Theorem”), Makayla Rogers (Theatre, The Girls of Cabin 6), and Hannah Spoonhower (Elementary Education, “Bullying Effects and Prevention Programs on a Local and National Scale”).
The Loren C. Gruber Endowed Honors Award was created by Dr. Loren C. Gruber, professor of English at Missouri Valley College. His final year of teaching at MVC coincided with the first year of the Honors Program (2012), and he created this endowed award to celebrate the research and creativity of the Honors Program students.
