This 2026-2028 expansion grant will build upon and scale up the work of the “Educating Augustinian Character: Cultivating the Pilgrim Virtues” Institutional Impact Grant. This collaborative grant between the Honors Program, the Department of Humanities and the Augustinian Institute, serves students across Villanova University, funded by the Lilly Foundation through the “Educating Character Initiative” at Wake Forest University. The internal arm of the ECI grant is designed to suffuse university life with the five Augustinian pilgrim virtues (humility, forgiveness, patience, wonder, conviviality), transforming campus culture through programming aimed at faculty, staff, and undergraduates. These activities will 1) build a shared understanding of the distinguishing aspects of Augustinian character and virtues; 2) deepen the Augustinian formation of increasingly specialized students in their curriculum and student life; and 3) coordinate efforts, build partnerships, and pool resources to do this work.
This expansion grant would enable us to respond to the overwhelming interest of faculty, staff, and students in the ECI grant that has been clear across our grant’s signature events. Only a few months into this institutional impact grant, we are already not meeting demand. This expansion grant would: 1) enable us to offer an additional “Educating Augustinian Character” faculty and staff workshop per year; 2) offer a programming budget for an enhanced and expanded Augustinian Ambassador Program; and 3) enable us to retain the grants administrator through the third year of the Lilly Grant.
