As we head into 2024, let’s look back at just some of the many successes had by Moravian University, our faculty, students, and alums.
10: The School of Behavioral and Community Health Added Three New Programs.
Moravian’s School of Behavioral and Community Health launched three new programs in the fall: an online Master of Social Work, a blended (live and online) Master of Arts in School Counseling, and a revised, blended (live and online) Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling.
9: Student Composers Scored a Win at Competition.
Of 44 scores written for a string quartet and submitted to the Allentown Symphony New Music–Chamber Music Composers Competition, two of our music composition majors —Grace Young ’23 and Ryan Anderson ’25—made the final eight best scores. Young’s piece Dinner Party was inspired by Judy Chicago’s famous installation The Dinner Party. Anderson, who is of Ukrainian heritage, wrote his winning composition, Appassionata, in response to the war in Ukraine.
8: Art Alums Enjoyed Acclaim.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp acquired a painting by Nokukhanya Langa ’13 for their permanent collection. Installation artist Jonathan Latiano ’06 premiered his most ambitious work to date, The Only Thing That’s the End of the World Is the End of the World, at Payne Gallery throughout the spring semester.
7: Moravian University and Penn State Abington Partner in a 4 + 2 Program.
This new 4 + 2 pathway program will allow undergraduate students from the Penn State Abington Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation and Human Services (RHS) and/or the Bachelor of Science in Psychological and Social Sciences (PSS) programs to obtain pre-admission to the Moravian University Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling or School Counseling programs.
6: Kin Cheung Was Chosen to Join U.S.–China Relation’s Program.
Kin Cheung, associate professor of East and South Asian religions and chair of the Department of Global Religions and Philosophy, has been named a fellow of the National Committee on United-States-China Relation’s Public Intellectuals Program (PIP), joining a select group of scholars and leaders from top institutions across the United States and China.
Launched in 2005, PIP identifies outstanding members of the next generation of American China specialists—in the academic, professional, or policymaking spheres—who, in the tradition of earlier China hands, have the interest and potential to venture outside of academia or their professions into areas relevant to foreign policy and public education.
5: President Grigsby Was Named to the 2023 Higher Education Power 100 for Pennsylvania.
The Higher Education Power 100 recognizes the state of Pennsylvania’s top education leaders by City & State PA, a multimedia news organization that covers Pennsylvania’s state and local government, providing non-partisan news coverage of issues affecting the state. The City & State article announcing President Grigsby’s place on the list included this commentary on his tenure at Moravian: “Moravian College alumnus Bryon Grigsby returned to lead his alma mater in 2013, guiding its 2022 transition into Moravian University, as well as its merger with Lancaster Theological Seminary. Grigbsy, a historian who also oversees Moravian Theological Seminary, headed up the institution’s strategic plan, adding and expanding degree programs and upgrading campus facilities. He also guided Moravian’s recent partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network, establishing an outpatient psychiatric clinic and a graduate clinical counseling program.”
4: We Saw Our Second Cohort of Millenium Fellows.
Nine Moravian students were selected for the Millennium Fellowship Class of 2023. They are among only 9 percent of the 44,000+ students chosen to participate in this prestigious program. The fellowship is a semester-long project, supported by the United Nations Academic Impact and Millennium Campus Network, to advance undergraduate leadership worldwide in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Moravian Cohort worked together throughout the semester to address sustainability, hunger, and quality education.
3: Joselyn Salazar ’23 Was Awarded A Fulbright Scholarship.
Joselyn Salazar ’23, who graduated with a major in political science and a self-designed minor in Latin American Studies, was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship for the 2023–2024 academic year at the primary school CEIP La Jurada in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
2: Moravian Professors Were Awarded More Than $3.1 Million in Research Grants.
The National Science Foundation awarded a three-year $503,000 grant to biology professor Natasha Woods for her program Diverse Undergraduate Research Students in Ecology. Woods is working with students from Moravian as well as from schools in the Lehigh Valley on field research into the impact of storm events on the flora that protect the integrity of barrier islands. Barrier islands are important to protecting the mainland from the ravages of storm events.
A $1.2 million grant awarded through the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program supports Moravian’s five-year plan to prepare 28 scholars to become excellent and equitable STEM educators who are well-qualified to teach biology, general science, computer science, and mathematics in high-need schools.
Daniel Proud, professor of biology, received an $888,044 NSF grant for a five-year research project to advance understanding of how species diversity has been shaped by evolutionary processes linked to geological and climatic histories. Undergraduate students will be trained to use powerful bioinformatic tools, cutting-edge molecular methods, and advanced microscopy techniques—skills that they can take with them to graduate school.
Biology professor Anastasia Thévenin received a $409,139 NIH grant that supports her lab’s research into protein-protein interactions in cells that lead to or prevent cancer. Thévenin and her students have focused on pinpointing molecular events that take place between a tumor-suppressor protein, connexin 43 (Cx43), and a tumor-causing protein, Src. They have proposed to use the findings of their work in developing Cx43-based molecules for use as Src inhibitors in prostate cancer cells.
To help address the state’s need for teachers, the Pennsylvania Department of Education awarded $1.5 million to 15 universities across the state who are positioned to offer an Accelerated Program for PK–12 Special Education Teacher Certification to at least one partner—a school district, private or charter school, technical institute, or intermediate unit. Moravian is one of those universities and has received $99,912 in funding. The grant supports an 18-month post-baccalaureate program for assistant teachers and nonteacher professionals of the partnering institution.
Sara Benham, professor of occupational therapy, and Jeff Bush, professor of computer science, received $29,000 to support their work with students on 3D Adapt, an app that will enable persons with disabilities and the clinicians who assist them to download a design file for an assistive device that can then be made from a 3D printer.
1: We enrolled our largest class ever!
On August 25, 2023, Moravian University welcomed 514 first-year students to campus. It’s the largest pack of Greyhounds to set foot on our campus in its 281-year history, sprinting past the previous record of 486 new students in the fall of 2015. We also saw seeing record-breaking enrollment in transfer students at 104.