Let There Be Hope

Dear Friends,

We’ve heard it so many times over the past 12 months: This year will be different. Our celebrations will be different, our ability to gather will be different, the way we work and study will be different. How could anything ever be the same? How could we not emerge from 2020 fundamentally changed?

These thoughts can be daunting, even frightening. But I also find great hope in pondering what is different from this time one year ago, and also what has remained the same. Even as we’ve been apart—separated by the pandemic, and by unrest and uncertainty in our world—we, as Villanovans, have found ways to come back together, finding common ground in Veritas, Unitas, Caritas.

Even amidst anxiety, grief and, at times, anger at injustice and inequality, we have found a way to be united and to face any challenges head-on, and to become even stronger in the process.

The events that made 2020 feel so different were also opportunities to appreciate anew the people who make our community so special. In this issue of Villanova Magazine, you will read some of their stories—of faculty and staff who dedicate themselves to innovation and to helping the entire Villanova community to thrive; of students who persevered through a semester like no other; and of alumni who draw on their Villanova experiences to work for the common good. They saw challenges, and they rose to meet them, because that’s what Villanovans do.

Through courage and faith, and by turning our values into action, we have faced challenging, changing times, and emerged even stronger. I hope the stories you will read in the following pages will remind you of our community’s strength and resilience.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 CLAS

President