Moravian College

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Moravian College & Theological Seminary
Moravian College Logo
Established: 1742
Type: Private coeducational
Endowment: $93,920,000.00
President: Christopher M. Thomforde, D.Min.
Faculty: 118 [1]
Undergraduates: 1,533 [2]
Location: Bethlehem, PA, USA
Campus: Urban, suburban, park
Annual Fees: $30,200
$38,500 w/housing (2008–2009) [3]
Colors: Blue & Gray
Mascot: Greyhound
Website: www.moravian.edu

Moravian College & Theological Seminary is a private liberal arts college and Seminary located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.

Contents

[edit] History

The College traces its roots to the Bethlehem Female Seminary, which was founded in 1742 as the the first school for young women in the U.S. in Germantown, Pennsylvania. The seminary was created by Benigna, Countess von Zinzendorf the daughter of Count Nikolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, who was the benefactor of the fledgling Moravian communities in Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Female Seminary was incorporated by the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1863 and became the woman's college, the Moravian Seminary and College for Women in 1913.

The College also traces its roots to the founding of two boy's schools, established in 1742 and 1743, which merged to become Nazareth Hall in 1759 and was located in the town of Nazareth. Nazareth Hall became, in part, Moravian College & Theological Seminary in 1807, and was later incorporated by the Pennsylvania State Legislature as "Moravian College & Theological Seminary" in 1863. Beginning in 1858 and continuing to 1892, the Seminary and College relocated from Nazareth to a former boys’ school on Church Street in Bethlehem, located on the present site of the Bethlehem City Hall. The men's Moravian College & Theological Seminary thereafter settled in the north end of the City of Behlehem (the present day North Campus) as a result of a donation from the Bethlehem Congregation of the Moravian Church in 1888. The first buildings constructed at North Campus, Comenius Hall and Zinzendorf Hall, were completed in 1892 and joined the property's original brick farmhouse to form the new campus. The farmhouse was later named Hamilton Hall and still exists today.

In 1954 the two schools combined to form the single, coeducational, modern institution of Moravian College & Theological Seminary. The merger of the two institutions combined the North Campus (the location of the men's College from 1892-1954) and the South Campus (the location of the woman's College) into a single collegiate campus. The distance between the North and South campuses is about 0.8 miles of Main Street, called the "Moravian Mile." First year students traditionally walk the "Moravian Mile" as part of their orientation activities. [4]

[edit] Colonial-era college

Main article: Colonial Colleges

The college is one of the oldest in the United States, after Harvard (1636), the College of William and Mary (1693), St. John's College in Annapolis (1696), Yale University (1701), and the University of Pennsylvania (1740).

[edit] Overview

Gate of the South Campus from Main Street
Gate of the South Campus from Main Street

Moravian College currently enrolls ~1540 full-time undergraduate students in a wide variety of majors, all of which are presented in the liberal arts tradition. The Seminary enrolls over 100 full-time students in its graduate divinity programs. During most semesters at least 14 denominations are represented in the Seminary student body. Faith communities most often represented among the Seminary's students include: Moravian, Lutheran, UCC, Episcopal, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Quaker, Mennonite, Unitarian Universalist, African Methodist Episcopal, Assembly of God, Brethren, Reformed, and nondenominational. The College's varied and highly regarded music programs grow from the Moravian Church's musical traditions.

Moravian College's student newspaper is The Comenian, which is printed weekly throughout the school year. [5]

Every year the student body elects representatives to the United Student Government. USG has a Senate, from which 5 students are elected from each class, and an executive board, whose members are elected at-large from the entire student community. All serve one year terms.

A somewhat unique facet of college governance is the existence of two elected student members of Moravian College's Board of Trustees; both are full, voting members and serve two-year terms.

Moravian College & Theological Seminary awards the following undergraduate and graduate degrees: the Bachelor of Arts; the Bachelor of Science; the Bachelor of Science in Nursing; the Masters of Business Administration; the Master of Education, the Master of Divinity; the Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling; and the Master of Arts in Theological Studies. The College also has evening undergraduate programs for adults seeking continuing undergraduate education and graduate degrees. The seminary has accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. [6]

[edit] Distinctions

  • Students of the College have received a number of national awards over its history. Between 2000-2007, seven students were selected as Fulbright Scholars. Overall, nine of the College's students have received the Fulbright Scholarship. Between 2000-2007, one student received a Goldwater Scholarship and another was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist.
  • Initially in 2004 and every year thereafter, the College has been selected for inclusion into the Princeton Review's "Best 366 Colleges Guide".
  • Twenty-five percent (25%) of students participate in the College's renowned music program.
  • The internationally renowned College Choir tours throughout the United States and abroad.
  • The College's accredited Music Institute brings the world’s finest performers to Moravian—who also conduct master classes.
  • Upper class art majors have access to their own studios and advanced computer labs.
  • The College's Amrhein Investment Club has assets in excess of $1.5 million, has often outperformed professionally managed stock portfolios, and offers students an unusual hands-on investment opportunity.
  • Moravian offers a number of scholarships for high achieving students. Students who rank in the top 5% of their high school class and achieve a score of at least 1450 on the SAT are considered for the Comenius Medallion full-tuition Scholarship. Others include the Comenius Scholarship, the Trustee Scholarship, and the Founders Scholarship.
  • Outside of the classroom, Moravian’s robust athletic program has produced a long chain of All-American student athletes in sports ranging from football to nationally ranked women’s softball and track teams.
  • The College offers the following study abroad opportunities: San José, Costa Rica; Oxford, England; Buckingham, England; London, England; Rennes, France; Paris, France; Alcalá, Spain; Alicante, Spain; Seville, Spain; Erfurt, Germany; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Limerick, Ireland; Shanghai, China; Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan; Hikone, Japan; Hyderabad, India; Jaipur, India; Wollongong, Australia; Macquarie, Australia; Dakar, Senegal; Accra, Ghana; Nairobi, Kenya; Quito, Ecuador; Cordoba, Argentina; Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  • The College's SOAR Program (Student Opportunities for Academic Research) provides stipends, travel allowances, and expenses for students engaged in research or creative activities through close interaction with a faculty mentor. The program helps Moravian students gain a better understanding of scholarship in their discipline, and fosters scholar-colleague relationships. SOAR stipends can be as high as $3,000 for summer work.
  • The College's Independent Study program allows students to delve deeply into areas of personal interest with the support of senior-faculty members—an unusual opportunity at the undergraduate level.
  • Established in 1960, the College's Honors Program provides qualified seniors the opportunity to pursue a yearlong intensive study of a subject of special interest.
  • The College specifically promotes student and faculty research collaboration. Students and professors work together well—and often—at Moravian. Student-faculty research projects have included a habitat analysis of the nearby Monocacy Creek, robotic software development, and a study of cognitive changes following stroke-prevention surgery.
  • The College is a Member of the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC); members include Muhlenberg College, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Cedar Crest College, and DeSales University; students from each institution can take classes in each other member institution and can major in programs offered at other institutions not offered at Moravian, i.e., architecture
  • Approximately twenty percent of graduates attend graduate school.

[edit] Campus

The College's programs are offered on four campuses, known as the North Campus (Main Campus), the South Campus (Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus), the Steel Field Complex, and the St. Luke's Hospital Campus.

South Campus from Main Street
South Campus from Main Street

[edit] South Campus

Art and music programs are offered in Bethlehem's historic district on the college's South Campus, also known as the Church Street Campus and now the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus. Many of the buildings on that campus were built during the colonial period, including the Brethren's House, built in 1748, which served as a hospital during the Revolutionary War, and currently houses the Music Department. Also located on South Campus are the President's House, Main Hall (1854), the Widow's House, Clewell Hall, West Hall, South Hall, the 1867 Chapel, Clewell Dining Hall, and the Central Moravian Church. A number of the buildings are connected. The facilities have been renovated to include Payne Gallery (renovated from the original women's gymnasium - 1903), the College's two-level art gallery that offers several shows each year, Foy Concert Hall, an auditorium with excellent acoustics, Peter Hall, a medium-sized colonial style recital hall, Hearst Hall, a small colonial style recital hall, and individual student rehearsal rooms and art studios. Also located on South Campus are intramural fields, Monocacy Creek, and an outdoor amphitheatre. The College presents its famed and televised Christmas Vespers services in the Central Moravian Church, located on the corner of Main and Church streets across from Brethren's House. Many of the buildings on the South Campus are located in a National Register of Historic Places District and Church Street has been referred to as one of the most historic streets in America.

[edit] North Campus

Initially purchased in 1888 and settled in 1892, the North Campus is also known as the main campus, as it is physically larger and is the site of the majority of the College's buildings, academic departments, administration, and student residences. The main building of the North Campus is Comenius Hall, which was built in 1892 and is named for John Amos Comenius, the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, known as the "father of modern education" for his revolutionary educational principles. Comenius wrote in 1632 that "not the children of the rich or of the powerful only, but of all alike, boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, rich and poor, in all cities and towns, villages and hamlets, should be sent to school". The Moravians had considered schools secondary in importance only to churches. A statue of Comenius, which was a gift to the College from Charles University of Prague and the Moravian Church of Czechoslovakia, stands in front of Comenius Hall. The North Campus is also the location of Reeves Library, the newly consructed Priscilla Payne Hurd Academic Complex, Colonial Hall, The Bahnson Center, the Moravian Archives, Zinzendorf Hall, Borhek Chapel, Prosser Auditorium (capacity 300), Monacacy Hall, Collier Hall of Science, Hamilton Hall, Memorial Hall, Johnston Hall (capacity 1,600 for athletics, 3,000 for events), the Timothy M. Breidagam Athletic and Recreation Center, the Collier Hall of Science, the Haupert Union Building, the Arena Theatre, and most of the College's student housing, including dorms, townhouses, and apartments.

Located at one of the two quads of the North Campus are the soccer and lacrosse field. Intercollegiate contests are played at the center of campus with views from the residential halls, Reeves Library, and the portico of the Haupert Union Building. Also located on the North Campus is the Betty Prince field hockey field.

[edit] Steel Field Complex

Most of the College's athletic fields are located at this Complex, including the newly renovated football stadium with a grandstand capacity of 2,400 and a new Sportexe turf field, the newly surfaced ten lane Mondo Super X Performance synthetic track, the softball field, the Gillespie baseball field, the Hoffman tennis courts, the football practice fields, and a fieldhouse.

Steel Field and its brick grandstand were originally built by Bethlehem Steel to host the Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club, 1913-1930, which was arguably the most winning soccer team in US history. Beginning as an industrial amateur league club and later becoming a professional club and a founding member of the American Soccer League, Bethlehem Steel dominated the American soccer scene for many years. Like most clubs since, Bethlehem Steel relied on imported talent. In the 'teens and 'twenties, Scotland and England were the main hunting grounds for US soccer scouts. The Club won the American Cup in 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1924. The American Cup competition was instituted in 1885 and the cup was last awarded in 1929. The National Cup was won by the Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club in 1915, 1916, 1918, 1919, and 1926. The tournament is now called the U.S. Open Cup. The silver trophy given to winners of the tournament is named after British sportsman Sir Thomas Dewar who donated the trophy in 1914 to promote soccer in the United States. The winners of this cup in the past few years are the Chicago Fire, Los Angeles Galaxy and DC United. Bethlehem Steel donated the Steel Field Athletic Complex to Moravian College.

[edit] St. Luke's Hospital Campus

As a result of the efforts of Trustee Priscilla Payne Hurd, Moravian College & Theological Seminary created the St. Luke's School of Nursing at Moravian College. The students in the program spend much of their time at the Priscilla Payne Hurd Education Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem. The Center includes lecture halls, classrooms, a nurses’ learning laboratory, simulation technology, and lounges. The classrooms and lecture halls have state-of-the-art electronics enabling faculty to provide multimedia presentations including computer imaging.

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable Trustees

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 40°37.81′N, 75°22.90′W