The live oak canopies have shaded this corner of Shreveport’s historic Highland neighborhood longer than anyone can remember, arching over the arboretum paths that carry students from red-brick residence halls to classes in Georgian-style buildings that have stood since the early 1900s. Squirrels chatter and spiral up the trunks. On a quiet morning, the campus might be mistaken for a photograph from another era — until you notice the construction transforming a 1947 science hall, the apartment-style village barely a year old, the bicentennial banners still catching the breeze — a college in motion.
Centenary College of Louisiana turned 200 in 2025, a milestone few American institutions can claim. It is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River — and after two centuries, it is still finding new ways to lead. The past year has brought groundbreakings, openings, new degrees, and landmark gifts, with more ahead as the College begins its third century.
Centenary College is a selective, residential, national liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church and a member of the Associated Colleges of the South. With smaller class sizes, students receive individualized attention from their professors. They learn from faculty who know their names, their goals, and their potential. That closeness is not a marketing line; it is the essence of the Centenary experience — and it shows in the results. Graduates earn strong placement rates in medical (94%), law, and other professional schools.
“What sets Centenary apart isn’t just our history. It’s what happens here every day. Our faculty know their students by name, challenge them personally, and champion them long after graduation. That’s been true for two hundred years, and it’s the foundation we’re building our third century on,” said Dr. Christopher Holoman, president of Centenary College.
A culture two centuries in the making
Encouraging students to form a global outlook starts early in a Centenary student’s educational career. Incoming freshmen are invited to participate in the one-of-a-kind Centenary in Paris program, launching their college years with an immersive experience in one of the world’s greatest cities. For many, it is a first passport stamp, a first metro map, a first week of independence — shared with classmates they met only days earlier.
For Caleb Williams ’29, the trip set the tone for everything that followed. “It’s like the ‘Welcome’ from Centenary, really, because you think Centenary in Paris is great and then you get on campus, and it’s even better here.”
That global perspective doesn’t stop after the first semester. Each May, students continue their international experiences through May Modules; last May alone, Centenary students traveled to Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Northern Ireland, Barbados, and Australia.
Back home in Shreveport, campus life unfolds beneath those majestic oaks. More than 60 student organizations — from Greek life to service groups to the arts — mean every student can find their place, or places. And the daily rhythm of campus makes its own quiet argument for the residential liberal arts: the shaded walk from residence hall to morning class, the conversations that follow students from classroom to the Caf Deck.
But ask students and faculty what makes Centenary different, and the answers go deeper than programs and places. This is a liberal arts education in the truest sense: not a generic degree, but a multi-faceted experience that teaches students how to think critically, how to be individuals, and, as more than one Gent has put it, how to be a human. Students have the freedom and independence to craft their own educational path, with the personal attention of professors pushing them further than they ever expected they could go.
This fall marks four years since the Learning Commons opened its doors in Magale Library, gathering the Center for Teaching and Learning, Disability Services, First-Year Mentoring and Advising, Career Services, and the experiential learning curriculum under one roof — a hub for study, collaboration, and connection.
“What still strikes me is how much of that mission is carried out by students, for students,” said Dr. Rachel Johnson, Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning. “As an alum, I know how much the friends and mentors I found on this campus shaped who I became; as director, I get to watch our peer mentors build that same kind of community for someone else become leaders in the process.”
Building for the future
That 1947 science hall is Mickle Hall, where the College’s forward momentum is most visible. In June, Centenary broke ground on the first phase of a multi-million-dollar renovation of the historic science building, reimagining the home of its celebrated science and health sciences programs for the next generation of researchers and health care professionals. Phase one introduces a new ADA-compliant entrance and accessibility ramp and prepares the building for broader structural upgrades, with completion expected by late August. The campus plans to celebrate with a ribbon cutting following the annual President’s Convocation on Tuesday, August 25, at noon. The project received a major boost in February, when Congress approved a $10 million federal appropriation in support of the renovation — funding that complements the planning, fundraising, and partnerships already transforming Mickle Hall into a state-of-the-art home for the School of Health Sciences.
“The renovation of Mickle Hall represents an extraordinary investment in our students and in the future health and well-being of Louisiana,” said Dr. Scott Chirhart, Dean of the School of Health Sciences. “By preparing the next generation of health professionals, researchers, and community leaders, we are strengthening both the educational experience at Centenary and the workforce that Louisiana will rely on in the years ahead.”
Just across campus, the Bicentennial Village marked its first anniversary this summer. Named in honor of the College’s 200th anniversary, the four apartment-style buildings expanded Centenary’s residential offerings.
New programs, new investments
Centenary’s academic offerings grew on both ends of the degree spectrum this year. A new International Studies major gives undergraduate a formal pathway to pair the College’s signature global focus — the one that begins in Paris — with rigorous interdisciplinary study of the wider world.
“These new programs reflect who Centenary is at its core,” said Dr. Karen Soul, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. “The International Studies major deepens the global perspective that begins for our students in Paris, while the M.Ed. in Leadership extends Centenary’s commitment to transformative education and invites working professionals to advance their careers with our program. We’re growing in ways that stay true to our mission.”
This spring, Centenary launched its first hybrid Master of Education in Leadership (M.Ed.), expanding graduate offerings designed for working professionals ready to lead in their schools and communities. It joins the College’s Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) and Master of Teaching (M.A.T.).
“Once I got into the [M.Ed.] program the passion and desire to be more than just what I was being taught really started to bubble up inside and motivated me to become more than a teacher,” said Jason Rowland, Bossier Parish Schools Superintendent and a graduate of Centenary’s M.Ed. program. “Getting this degree literally changed my stars. It changed my entire life.”
The year’s most personal investment came in the humanities. With a $1 million gift, John Garrett Ratcliff and Joy Fair Ratcliff established the John Garrett Ratcliff Endowed Chair of Philosophy in loving memory of their son, Thomas Kalford Ratcliff. The endowment will support faculty research and teaching along with the Thomas Kalford Ratcliff Library, carrying forward Thomas’s passion for philosophy, social justice, and compassion for those too often left behind.
Even the campus’s famous green spaces are getting new life: a recent grant from Amazon to the biology department is funding an on-campus pollinator garden — a natural fit for a campus shaded by an arboretum — while a second grant helped bring four 3D printers to Centenary’s labs.
Looking ahead
This August, new class of Gents will make the walk generations have made before them — out of the residence halls, beneath the oaks, along the shaded paths to their first classes. The bricks are the same ones their predecessors passed. By early spring, the azaleas will do what they have always done — set the campus ablaze in pinks, oranges, whites, and reds. And what waits inside the buildings keeps changing: new labs taking shape in Mickle Hall, new degrees, new mentors who will learn their names within the week. Two hundred years in, that is the Centenary promise — a place old enough to feel timeless, and restless enough to keep becoming something new.
