Sarah Longwell, Class of 2002, knows what a difference Kenyon has made in her life. "I took 'Quest for Justice ' with (Professor of Political Science) Pamela Jensen, and it changed my entire life," says the media-relations specialist with Berman & Company. "Professor Jensen taught me to think and to discuss in a way I never had before."

Longwell's experience is far from unique; Jensen is one of the big reasons political science is one of the most popular majors at Kenyon. She received the Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 1998 and was named the first Harry M. Clor Professor of Political Science in 1999.

Jensen is especially proud of the College's "amazing freshmen advising system," as well as the stimulating first-year courses that Kenyon offers. In "Quest for Justice," which she has taught since she arrived in 1979, students explore the relationship between the individual and society as exemplified in the writings of political philosophers, statesmen, novelists, and contemporary political writers. They examine questions about law, political obligation, freedom, equality, justice, and human nature, and confront contemporary issues such as race, culture, and gender.

The first woman to become a full professor of political science at Kenyon, Jensen has been around long enough to wax nostalgic about the College and its students. "What I love most about the students who come to Kenyon is that at the end of four years, they are almost always surprised at how far they have come, while the faculty is not," she says. "We genuinely give students the opportunity to come into their own."