With several projects in the works, St. Thomas received two grants worth nearly $2,450,000

The Bush Foundation awarded $450,000 to UST to improve undergraduate teaching and learning, and Lilly Endowment Inc. gave $1,987,999 for a Christian vocational program.

The Bush Foundation money will fund campus seminars and send faculty to conferences. Course development grants for faculty to revise their courses are provided, as stipends for students and faculty to work together beyond the classroom. The grant also funds an annual day of celebration on campus.

Amy Kritzer from the theater department served on the Bush Program Grant Committee.

ìI am really enthusiastic about the opportunities the Bush grant will offer us,î Kritzer said. ìI hope that it will encourage more students to pursue questions that they themselves pose. Asking questions is the first stage of learning, and if you seek the answers independently, through your own effort, the learning goes much deeper than it does if someone hands you pre-digested answers.î

Philosophy professor Steve Laumakis also served on the committee.

ìI think the grant will improve undergraduate teaching in at least two ways,î Laumakis said. First, it will help faculty learn about and employ inquiry-based instruction, and second, it will promote and increase the levels of student-faculty collaborative interactions.î

The Bush Foundation grant of $450,000 over three years is renewable for another three years. St. Thomas will match the grant, bringing the total investment to nearly $2,000,000 over the maximum six years.

The grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. is for an undertaking called ìReappropriating Vocation: An Integration of Modernity and the Richness of the Christian Faith.î

Don Briel from the Center for Catholic Studies was the chairman of the implementation grant committee that prepared the $2 million proposal.

ìWe ought to offer students attending St. Thomas the possibility of thinking through their deeper sense of their lives and their careers in the light of religious faith,î Briel said.

The university also will raise $1 million to help students and faculty understand the meaning of their lifeís vocation. One donor has already given a major gift toward the goal, Briel said. He hopes that other donors and foundations will help St. Thomas meet the commitment.

The funds will set up student internships in Catholic Studies and Justice and Peace Studies, Latino Leadership Scholarships, an international symposium on business as a vocation and other programs.

ìWe hope to develop courses in a wide variety of departments and programs that will provide opportunities for students to think about these issues,î Briel said. ìIn addition, there will be new programs in Campus Ministry and Student Affairs that will encourage students to participate in discussions of these topics.î

Katie Stephens can be reached at kastephens@stthomas.edu