Dedications and Dedication

Recently Avila has been blessed with several dedications of new physical improvements on campus: a one-stop student services suite in the Hodes Center, a new basketball court – the Bill Waris Memorial Court, and a spectacular new entrance to campus - the Jeanne Hamilton Olofson Plaza. They compliment recent enhancements like the Jeanne Collins Thompson Residence Hall, the McCullough Family Courtyard, and the McCarthy Family Observation Deck. These improvements have been truly transformational in several ways.

For many years, the physical environment of Avila was taken for granted, little changed, and a sore point in our ability to attract and retain students. We would rely on the fact that our faculty and staff are exemplary in their dedication and care for students, in responding to their needs, and in creating powerful learning opportunities for them. In a sense, we were relying on these interior graces that must be personally experienced in order to understand and appreciate. These changes, which are transforming the very face of Avila, provide us with grounds and facilities whose outward and visible signs compliment and reflect the interior graces that have long been associated with the care and concern of our faculty and staff.

In these recent spate of dedications, our people, and especially these individual donors who are most passionate about Avila and the learning it offers, honor the dedication of the men and women who have for so many years, blessed Avila with their dedication to students and a commitment to transforming their lives.

So on this Thanksgiving, I am most grateful for these dedications and the dedication it honors and also for the ways the outward and visible signs of Avila now reflect the inward grace we have long held.