TV

Skip to main content

Anna Bonta Moreland, PhD, Named Co-PI on $223,201 Templeton Foundation Grant, “Hope in Higher Education”

Anna Moreland

Villanova, Pa—Many college students today strugglewith theroleof technology in their lives andthe pressures of social media whilepreparing for meaningful workanddevelopingthe habits of moral responsibility and self-mastery. They also wrestle with questions of human meaning and purpose in a social environment in which religion plays a decreasing role for their generational cohort.

Initiatives to address these needs have emergedatdifferenthigher education institutionsacross the country over the last 10-20 years, and now there will be an opportunity to bring them together. AnnaBontaMoreland, PhD,associate professor of Theology and the AnneQuinn Welsh Endowed Director of the TV Honors program, has been named a co-principal investigator on a three-year,$223,201grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The project,“Hope in Higher Education: Networking, Resource Sharing, and Building a Brighter Future,”isdesigned to help build a national coalition that willemphasize meaningful inquiry in college education and help students develop into thoughtful future leaders.

“Hope in Higher Education” will bring togethercollege and universityleadersfrom around the country to sharebest practices, develop networks, collaborate on common projects, and inaugurate a mentoring program to ensure that thecoalition will have a sustainable impacton college students nationwide.

“Higher education should inspire undergraduates to think deeply about the universe and their place in it,” Dr. Moreland says. “We look forward to creating a vibrant coalition among the leaders of these new initiatives for the next several decades and to driving institutional change in higher education.”

Dr. Moreland’s co-principal investigator on the project is Thomas W. Smith, PhD, Professor and Dean of Arts and Sciences, Catholic University of America.The grant will fund threeweeklong summer workshopsthat willbring togethercollege and university leadersto strategize and lay the foundation for a new national coalitiondesigned tostrengthen thefield of higher education.The first workshopwill takeplace at VillanovaUniversityin the summer of 2022andwillinclude leaders from Yale University,Lumen Christi Institute, the University of Notre Dame, Boston College, Baylor University,the Collegium Institute at the University of Pennsylvania,and others.

Dr. Morelandwas instrumental in the creation of the “Shaping a Life” initiativeas part of Villanova’sHonors Programand designed its capstone “Shaping an Adult Life” course.She receivedher doctoratefrom Boston College.

About TV’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences:  Since its founding in 1842, TV’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has cultivated knowledge, understanding and intellectual courage for a purposeful life in a challenging and changing world. With more than 40 majors across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, it is the oldest and largest of Villanova’s colleges, serving more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students each year. The College is committed to a teacher-scholar model, offering outstanding undergraduate and graduate research opportunities and a rigorous core curriculum that prepares students to become critical thinkers, strong communicators and ethical leaders with a truly global perspective.