Lilly Endowment Awards $500,000 Grant to Gordon College

MEDIA CONTACT: Dan White
Office of College Communications
978.867.4843

WENHAM, MA-Lilly Endowment has awarded a $500,000 grant to Gordon College in continuing support of Gordon's "Critical Loyalty Project," an interdisciplinary academic initiative that focuses on vocational and leadership development in students and alumni. The grant is in addition to $2 million awarded to the College in 2002 which initiated the project.

Project director Dr. Tal Howard says, "Gordon as a whole benefits from this support, especially our students. We hope this initiative continues our quest to take Christian intellectual excellence to a higher level." Among the programs established as a result of the original grant are the Jerusalem and Athens Forum, a great books honors program for juniors and seniors; the Church Vocation Institute, an initiative that helps students and alumni formulate a theological framework for understanding vocation; and the Faith Seeking Understanding speaker series.

The grant is part of the Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) at the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment. To date, total Endowment investment for PTEV has exceeded $217 million among 88 colleges and universities. Thirty colleges were awarded renewal grants this year. Gordon College, through additional fundraising, will assume more than 50 percent of total funding for the 3-year period covered by the renewal grant.

Gordon College is a Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences on Boston's North Shore. The college offers majors in 36 fields and has graduate programs in education and music education. Leading the way in Christian college merit, Gordon is nationally ranked for its excellence in academics and its role in character building. These achievements recognize Gordon as one of the nation's top Christian colleges.

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