Mississippi College Players Win Who’s Who Honors
An NCTTA Feature - December 2011

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chair

Two Mississippi College table tennis players were among 71 outstanding undergraduates on the Clinton campus joining one of the nation’s most prestigious honors organizations.

On December 1, accounting major Zhicheng “Johnson” Liang of Yangjiang City, China and Christian Studies major Ben VanHorn of Clinton, Miss. were named to the Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges & Universities in 2011-2012.

“This is quite a select group of students,” said Jim Turcotte, MC’s vice president for enrollment management and student affairs. “You should be quite proud to be in this group.”

Founded in 1934, the Who’s Who organization is one of the most highly regarded and longstanding in the nation. MC President Lee Royce, and other school leaders joined parents at a luncheon to celebrate the students induction into Who’s Who. Supplying an inspirational message was guest speaker Jerry Rankin, president emeritus of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

Liang and VanHorn are members of MC’s coed table tennis team that finished in fifth place at the NCTTA national championship games in Minnesota in April 2011. They are both extraordinary table tennis players who excel in the classroom and are great ambassadors for Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College, school officials say. VanHorn is the only American-born player on the team. All the other MC players are natives of China.

Liang, who was joined by his wife at the program, and VanHorn both plan to pursue graduate studies after receiving their Mississippi College diplomas in May 2012. VanHorn expects to attend New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and become a preacher. He would be following in the footsteps of his father, Dr. Wayne VanHorn, Mississippi College’s dean of the School of Christian Studies and the Arts, a former Baptist preacher in Mississippi, and one of MC’s top table tennis fans.

In late November, the VanHorn family hosted MC’s Chinese table tennis players and other Asian students at their Clinton home for Thanksgiving dinner. It’s become an annual tradition for the VanHorns to warmly welcome the Christian university’s Chinese students during the holiday season. Mississippi College enrolls nearly 5,300 students, including some 180 students from China.

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