President's Report 2008-2009

FATHER PETER DONOHUE: If you were going to say something about your experience at Villanova, what immediately comes to mind?

DAVE EDERER: The students, professors and administrators are passionate about what they do here.

WILL CULLEN: I remember the Augustine & Culture Seminar freshman year, sitting down with 14 other students—not just arts students like me, but people from the sciences, engineering, nursing and business—and discussing the greatest books of Western culture.

ABBY BUTKUS: For me, Villanova is about developing as a whole person, gaining a better understanding of others, forming relationships and learning about myself.

AMEER JONES: I grew up in Philadelphia and was a part of a mentoring program Villanova offered to introduce high school kids to the fields of science, engineering and technology. We created Web sites, we did rocket launches, egg drops. It was amazing. I got to visit the campus, and I developed an emotional connection with the staff and students who were part of the program.

FR. PETER: Wait, what’s an egg drop?

AMEER: You build a device for the egg to sit in, and then you drop it from a roof. If your egg doesn’t break, then it’s a good device.

(laughter)

FR. PETER: So you always knew you wanted to be an engineer.

AMEER: I didn’t always know that. Coming in, I was a business major. I had an interest in both, and Villanova’s Summer Business Institute gave me a chance to do both. I chose engineering as my major and business as my minor.

FR. PETER: Did anyone else come here and suddenly decide you wanted to do something different?

DAVE: I came in as a biology major, thinking I would go to medical school right after graduation. Then I traveled on a service trip to Malawi and realized that I like the more human side of medicine. I now want to go into public health.

Villanova’s core curriculum exposes you to a lot of different courses and ideas. During my first semester, I took an intro to philosophy course, and realized I really liked it. I decided to also major in philosophy because it gives me a critical and analytical look at what I’m doing.