Central Faculty Receives $61,000 to Benefit Teaching

by Central College

Pella, IA (06/13/2019) — The Moore Family Foundation Faculty Development Program for Teaching is providing grant funding for 11 faculty projects at Central College for the 2019-20 academic year. The funding total is more than $61,000 for this year.

Among the projects the funding will contribute to include:

• Undergraduate research involving prairies and agriculture in the Midwest
• Research on soil chemistry (faculty and student collaborative research)
• Enhancing first-year liberal arts seminars for students
• Student trip to Germany and Poland in remembrance of the Holocaust

The Moore Family Foundation has provided significant support to the college over the years. Since 2013, 123 Central faculty have written 90 grant proposals and received a total of $408,071 in funding from the Moore Family Foundation Development Program for Teaching.

The foundation's goal is to provide Central faculty with the opportunity to strengthen engagement with students in the classroom and other education settings. The foundation funds faculty professional development in teaching, including:

• New course development
• Sabbatical leave support that directly impacts classroom teaching
• Educational opportunities in the classroom and other learning environments through educational excursions, visitors and guest lecturers
• Equipment for teaching
• Workshop, seminar or training registration fees
• Payments to Central students for their work in collaborative research with faculty members

The late Frank Moore '49 and his wife, Grace, who was designated an honorary alumna of Central in 2001, have been long-term generous benefactors to the college. Frank Moore was the director of the human research area files at Yale University, where Grace Moore was a foreign language translation editor. From 1979-88, Frank Moore was a Central trustee. Together, the couple created two scholarships funded by their annuities, one endowed scholarship, two faculty awards and a chair in anthropology, in addition to ongoing gifts from the Moore Family Foundation.

"We're extremely grateful to the Moore Family Foundation for its generous funding of a variety of initiatives that support faculty development related to student learning," says Mary E.M. Strey, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Central. "It is one of the many reasons Central can offer students such an exceptionally high-quality education."

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