Cornerstone University Launches Honors Program Featuring a Minor in Influence & Innovation

Cornerstone University has launched a distinctive new Honors Program for fall 2026 designed for students seeking a rigorous Christian worldview academic experience exploring great ideas, artificial intelligence technologies, and influential leadership. Centered on an integrated minor in Influence & Innovation, the program prepares high-achieving students for Christ-centered influence across industries and communities.

“Graduates today are entering a world undergoing rapid change through competing ideas and life-altering technologies,” said Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, president of Cornerstone University. “Our singular program and Cornerstone’s most distinguished faculty will educate students for Christ-centered, morally grounded influence and innovation. Honors students will engage great ideas and enduring questions of humanity and learn how to apply them to the real challenges facing industry and society today.”

The Honors minor in Influence & Innovation is a distinctive feature of the program and is solely offered through the university’s Honors program. It incorporates fifteen credit hours of advanced study in the following areas:

• Executive Presence for Public Influence — Communicate persuasively with a Christ-centered presence in public and professional settings.
• Wisdom and Applied Artificial Intelligence — Apply AI and emerging technologies with wisdom and a Christian understanding of the human person.
• Systems & Design Thinking Intelligence (SDTI) — Diagnose complexity and design solutions to real organizational and cultural challenges.
• Christ & the Great Ideas — Engage foundational Christian truth and the great ideas of humanity through disciplined Socratic dialogue via six 1-credit hour consecutive seminars.

“High-achieving students are sharpened through direct engagement with Cornerstone’s most distinguished faculty, accomplished national leaders, and innovators who are respected for their Christ-centered faithfulness applied within their industries and ministries,” continues President Moreno-Riaño. “Students are mentored and challenged to think through a discerning Christian worldview and apply ideas and solutions that benefit industry and humanity.”

The Cornerstone Honors Program distinguished faculty and leaders include: media professionals Eric Metaxas and Ryan Bomberger, innovator and inventor Joanna Ng, and education leaders such as Ian Rowe — alongside leading scholars in Christian thought and public life including Dr. Douglas Groothuis, Dr. John G. West, Dr. William A. Dembski, and Dr. Moreno-Riaño, as well as leaders in science and health care such as Dr. Nathan Lanning and Dr. Kristin Collier.

Cornerstone University’s Christ-centered program enhances every major, including business, education, health sciences, engineering, ministry, and the arts. The minor in Influence & Innovation is exclusive to Honors students.

Now enrolling for fall 2026, Cornerstone University invites academically driven students to be challenged and distinctively prepared for the marketplace and ministry from a Christian worldview. Learn more at cornerstone.edu or contact admissions@cornerstone.edu.