Villanova University was founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine. To this day, Villanova’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition is the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. Villanova prepares students to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.


The strength of the Villanova experience comes in part from the University’s welcoming community. All members are bonded together by a shared responsibility to uphold the ideals of Saint Augustine and let the principles of truth, unity and love guide their lives. The Villanova community helps students grow intellectually, professionally and spiritually, and challenges them to reach their full potential.


The University’s rigorous academic experience, rooted in the liberal arts, forms an environment in which students and professors are partners in learning. The Villanova community is dedicated to providing a personalized experience that fosters every student’s intellectual and spiritual well-being. As part of their education, students are encouraged to enrich their own lives by working for those in need. Through academic and service programs, students use their knowledge, skills and compassion to better the world around them.


There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s six colleges—the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. These colleges are the setting for an experience that develops both the heart and the mind, and creates the atmosphere where students are called to ignite change.


Villanova University is located in a suburban community 12 miles west of Philadelphia, Pa.

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$884,077, with Dana Mitra and Samantha Holquist, co-PIs.

PI, Student Voice to Student Outcomes, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

PI, Youth Movements in the 2018 Midterms and Beyond: Impacts and Prospects for Permanence, New Ventures Fund & League of Conservation Voters

Acknowledges excellence in teaching of a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Tolle Lege Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Villanova University

Recognizes a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions to the welfare and functioning of her profession, department, college and the University.

University Mid-Career Service Award, Villanova University

$40,900, with Kate Phillippo and Denise Pope, co-PIs.

PI, Re-centering Youth in the Development and Validation of Student-Teacher Relationship Measures, Spencer Foundation Small Research Grants Program

URBAN (Urban Research-Based Action Network)

American Educational Research Association

Society for Research on Adolescence

An Analysis of Student-Report Instruments That Assess Student-Teacher Relationships

When Does Service-Learning Work? Contact Theory and Service-Learning Courses in Higher Education

Youth Change Agents: Comparing the Sociopolitical Identities of Youth Organizers and Youth Commissioners

The Politics of Paternalism: Adult and Youth Perspectives on Youth Voice in Public Policy

Handbook on Youth Activism

Political Activism in Colleges and Universities: Possibilities for Institutional Change toward Social Justice

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Student Voice in Higher Education (Bloomsbury Handbooks)

The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College Campuses

Contemporary Youth Activism: Advancing Social Justice in the United States

A strong ally to public school students and teachers, Dr. Jerusha Conner is an excellent source on news and trends in education policy, student engagement and well-being, student voice and youth activism. An author of numerous publications, Dr. Conner can discuss the role students can and do play in improving their institutions.

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Student Voice

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Urban Education

Education Policy

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Senior Project Initiative With Strawberry Mansion High School

Course Development Grant

villanova-experts-reflect-on-the-2010s

Professor of Education; Program Coordinator, Graduate Education | Department of Education and Counseling

Associate Professor of Geography and the Environment | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The iPad. Hurricane Sandy. Affordable Care Act. #MeToo. Brexit. Streaming services.

Since 2010, there have been so many memorable and historic events that have shifted culture and society into unfamiliar territory around the world.

Two Villanova experts have put together thoughts on a few of the decade's top stories that will continue to be relevant for the next ten years—and beyond.

Stephen Strader, assistant professor of geography and the environment Over the last decade we have seen the issue of anthropogenic or human-induced climate change shift from something discussed between select, interested scientists to the front page of the news on a daily basis. This dramatic change in the importance and coverage of climate change makes complete sense given six of the last ten years globally have been in the top ten warmest on record. Actually, it's very likely, if not certain, that the last five years will be the hottest globally on record. The odds of that happening naturally are very close to zero. 

Nowhere have the effects of a changing climate been realized more so than in the western United States, where wildfires have wreaked havoc year after year in the 2010s. States such as California, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Washington all experienced record-breaking wildfires over the last decade. Specifically, the Camp Fire in 2018 became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, destroying 18,000-plus homes and killing 85 people in the town of Paradise.  

Additionally:
Hurricanes Dorian, Irma, Harvey, Maria, etc. damaged entire countries (Puerto Rico and Bahamas) so much that there is question whether they will ever recover from the effects.  The deadliest tornado season on record occurred in 2011, including the devastating April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak and the deadliest U.S. tornado in modern history, which struck Joplin, Missouri (158 fatalities).  Between 2011 and 2017, drought and water shortages impacted the western U.S., with California seeing its worst drought in history (or worst in 1,200 years). The drought killed 100-plus million trees and resulted in water shortages that affected crops and caused municipalities to limit water use.  Record-setting rainfall and floods occurred in locations such as Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, etc., resulting in hundreds dead and millions of dollars in crop losses.   If the last 10 years have taught scientists, climatologists, policy makers and the general public anything, it's that we have our work cut out for us if we are to reverse this trend of increasing disasters around the world. The atmosphere continues to warm, and all model projections point to a progressively warmer future Earth if action is not taken. And this action can't be tomorrow or by 2025, 2050 or some other arbitrary year; it has to happen now if we want to reduce future economic and societal losses.

Yes, it's easy to be afraid and fearful of the future when all we see as scientists and citizens are rising temperatures, deadlier disasters and a lack of drastic climate action. However, we can't let this fear result in crippling inaction; we have to let it motivate us to fight, not for just our futures but our children's, grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's futures. Let's give them a chance to see the world the way we used to: beautiful. 

Jerusha Conner, associate professor of education and counseling The latter half of this decade witnessed a resurgence of student activism, sparked by Black Lives Matter protests and the dramatic events at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2015. Highlighting 2015 as a pivotal year for student activism, the authors of the American Freshman National Norms survey deemed the 2015 freshman class "the most ambitious" group in 49 years of the survey's administration in terms of their expectations for participating in protests, connecting to their communities and influencing the political structure; and the numbers of freshmen who report having participated in demonstrations as high school seniors has ticked up every year since.  In my own research with college student activists in 2016, I found three striking trends: Nearly half came to college already seeing themselves as activists; only 10% consider themselves single-issue activists (with more than half identifying seven or more issues their activism addressed); and a significant share were not protesting their own institution's policies or practices, but instead concerning themselves with broader social and political issues. They are what I call "outward-facing activists," who use their campuses to stage and mobilize campaigns, rather than as the targets of their change efforts. In the last couple of years, we have seen activism among high school students take off, as students have staged walkouts and school strikes to protest inaction on climate change and gun violence. Although these movements may appear narrowly focused on a single issue, the students involved have intentionally advanced an intersectional perspective, which draws attention to the racialized, economic and gendered dimensions of the multifaceted problems they are seeking to address. Digital natives, these young people have deployed the affordances of social media not only to mobilize their peers in large-scale collective action, but also to attract and sustain the attention of the media, pressure business leaders and politicians and shape public understanding of the issues.  One interesting shift with this generation of student activists is that, rather than turning their backs on the system or seeking to upend it, they are focused on enhancing voter registration and turnout, especially among young people. And their efforts appear to be working. Youth turnout in the 2018 midterms was double that of 2014, and record numbers of youth are continuing to register to vote. As the decade comes to a close and the 2020 campaign season revs up, the engagement of student activists in electoral politics will be important to continue to track. 

Villanova Experts Reflect on the 2010s

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