Avila University
Avila University is a private university in Kansas City, sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, it offers bachelor's degrees in 36 majors and master's degrees — Master of Science in Counseling Psychology, Master in Management, Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Organizational Development, Master of Arts in Education. Its 13 buildings are situated on a campus of 50 acres in the heart of Kansas City, they include four residence halls, a fieldhouse and auxiliary pavilion for basketball and volleyball. In 1916, on the same campus at 5600 Main Street as St. Teresa's Academy, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded the College of Saint Teresa. St. Teresa's College was founded as a two-year college for women only; the first graduates of St. Teresa's College received their degrees in 1918. In 1939, Kansas City Bishop Edwin O’Hara announced that St. Teresa's junior college would be expanded to a full four-year college, the college would be housed in its own building on the campus.
In 1940, ground was broken for Donnelly Hall, it opened for classes in 1941. The first four-year graduating class received their degrees in 1942. In 1948, the college established a department of nursing, offering both a three-year diploma and a four-year bachelor of nursing degree. In May 1961, Sister Mary Daniel Tammany, president of the College of St. Teresa, announced the purchase of 49 acres of land for a new campus at 119th and Wornall Road in the Red Bridge neighborhood near the southern edge of Kansas City, Missouri; the high school, St. Teresa's Academy, is still operating on the original site. At the groundbreaking for the first building on the new campus, the announcement was made that the college would be renamed Avila College, still in honor of Saint Teresa of Avila. In 1969 Avila began admitting male students, in 1978, the college began offering graduate programs in business and psychology. Avila College became Avila University in July, 2002. Of the 1,710 students attending Avila University in the fall of 2016, females outnumber males 62 percent to 38 percent.
57 percent of students are Caucasian, 20 percent are African-American, 10 percent International and eight percent Hispanic. 20 percent are Catholic. The average ACT score of the incoming freshman class is 23. About 31% of students live on campus. Avila University is divided in colleges. College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences School of Business School of Education School of Nursing School of Science & Health School of Visual & Communication Arts School of Graduate Studies Avila's campus sits on 50 acres in southern Kansas City, Missouri. There are 13 buildings that include four residence halls, a fieldhouse, student union, library, as well as academic buildings; the campus is accessed from I-435 and sits close to the Missouri-Kansas border. Student life at Avila is quite active with more than 40 student organizations available to the student body, including the Student Senate, Group Activities Programming, Black Student Union, Student Social Work Association, Residence Hall Association, Campus Ministries, numerous academic organizations and honor socieites.
Avila University does not have any fraternities or sororities on campus. In the mid-1990s, Avila had a chapter of Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and a chapter of Alpha Phi sorority. Carondelet Hall was the first residence hall built at the current Avila University location. Carondelet houses up to 122 students at its maximum capacity. In the summer of 2005, the first two floors of the hall were renovated to fit the more modern version of a residence hall. In the summer of 2007, the third floor was renovated. Ridgway Hall was built only a few years after Carondelet Hall, has the same floor plan and room dimensions. In the summer of 2008, all three floors in Ridgway were renovated in a similar manner as Carondelet. Jeanne Collins Thompson Hall opened Fall of 2007; the 29,000 square foot Thompson Hall features three floors of suite-style housing with each suite containing four bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room, kitchenette. The facility houses staff in the 16 suites. In fall 2012, Avila celebrated the opening of its fourth residence hall, Avila Hall, a 39,000 square foot three-story residence hall on the northeast edge of campus.
The residence hall features suite style living arrangements, it increased Avila's capacity to allow up to 390 students living on campus. Avila athletic programs participate in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Avila fields 16 varsity sports including Football, Softball, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Men's and Women's Track and Field, Men's and Women's Golf, Women's Volleyball. Avila has award-winning Cheer and Dance Teams. Avila athletic teams were known as the Avalanche, but teams became known as the Eagles beginning in 1990. In 1994, Avila became a charter member of the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference. In 1999 Avila announced the addition of intercollegiate football to the athletic program, Tim Johnson was hired as the program's first head coach. Avila joined the Heart of America Athletic Conference in 2000, football began its first season of competition in Fall 2001.
In 2011, the athletic complex was expanded to provide facilities for football and soccer games to be played on campus. A 194,000 square foo
University of Missouri–St. Louis
The University of Missouri–St. Louis is a public research university located near St. Louis, United States. Established in 1963, it is one of four universities in the University of Missouri System and its newest. UMSL's campus is located on the former grounds of the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis County, with an address in St. Louis city; the campus stretches into the municipalities of Bel-Nor and Normandy. Additional facilities are located at the former site of Marillac College and at Grand Center, both in St. Louis city. Bachelor's, Master's, doctoral programs are offered through the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business Administration, the College of Education, the College of Nursing, the School of Social Work, the College of Optometry; the business school is AACSB-accredited and is the only university in the St. Louis area to be AACSB-accredited in accounting. Preprofessional, a joint engineering program with Washington University in St. Louis, evening programs are offered.
UMSL is home of an optometry school. Only 17 optometry schools exist in all of North America including Puerto Rico; the Pierre Laclede Honors College is UMSL's honors program. The university contains two libraries: The Thomas Jefferson Library, the main library of the university and the St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 and is the oldest library west of the Mississippi River; the campus contains two stops on St. Louis' regional light rail system. A student center, academic buildings, parking structures, a performing arts center, residential housing have been constructed over the past ten years as part of campus improvement programs; the university has a dual-enrollment agreement with Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait. KWMU, the flagship National Public Radio station in the St. Louis area and known on-air as St. Louis Public Radio, is owned by and licensed to UMSL. 71.6% of its undergraduate classes have 29 or fewer students, 46.2% have 19 or fewer students. The student-faculty ratio is 16:1.
UMSL has 10,431 students attending classes on-campus, compared to 6,010 students taking classes off-campus, students dual-enrolled at area high schools. The university has the equivalent of 9,488 full-time students. UMSL has been a commuter school for the St. Louis, with only about 1200 students living on-campus, though the school is making active efforts to bring more students to live on campus; the impetus for a college campus in its current location began in 1957 when members of the Bellerive Country Club put their 53-year-old club house and 125-acre grounds on the market for $1.3 million as they planned to move to larger quarters in Town and Country, Missouri. At the same time members of Normandy, Missouri School District began debating the need of creating an affordable junior college to offer an alternative to the much more expensive owned Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. Country Club members approached the Board and the asking price was dropped to $600,000.
A bond issue on September 30, 1958, received the necessary two-thirds majority and the golf club was turned over to Normandy on May 31, 1960. A group of board members and citizens popularly referred to as "The Committee of Twenty-eight" began the process to set up the junior college; the group was to meet with president of the University of Missouri. At the time, MU was responsible for accrediting junior colleges. Ellis suggested; the terms required. 140 students applied on the first day. The Clubhouse was renovated with 15 classrooms, two laboratories, a large lecture room, a library and a cafeteria; the "Normandy Residence Center under the auspices of the University of Missouri" opened in September 1960. Enrollment increased to 300 in 1961 and 550 in 1962. Interest in a four-year school arose. In 1963, the original MU campuses in Columbia and Rolla were merged with the owned University of Kansas City to form the present day University of Missouri System; the newly formed system won permission to upgrade the Normandy center to a full-fledged four-year institution.
The transfer from the Normandy school district to the University of Missouri System was delayed when the Missouri Supreme Court in 4–3 decision ruled that the school could not transfer the property without a formal open bid process. The Missouri General Assembly enacted legislation signed by Governor John Dalton on October 13, 1963, enabling the transfer and the university bought the property for $60,000 from unallocated funds at the university's disposal. With expanding enrollment classes were held in a laundromat building at Natural Bridge and Hanley and in a church basement across from the campus while buildings were built on the site of the former Bellerieve Country Club. Benton Hall opened in 1965, Clark Hall and the Library were the next buildings built. On July 23, 1973, an Ozark Airlines Fairchild Hiller FH-227B Flight 809 from Nashville International Airport crashed into the campus just east of the Mark Twain complex while attempting to land at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
37 passengers and one crew member were killed although four passengers and two crew members including the captain survived. There had been reports of a tornado at Ladue at the time but the Weather Service did not confirm it. In 1976 Marillac College was acquired, it is now called the "south campus." In 2007 Express Scripts opened its world headquarters on the campus north of University Place Drive and south of Interstate 70 in Missouri. It is the first Fort
Hannibal–LaGrange University
Hannibal–LaGrange University Hannibal–LaGrange College, is a private four-year Christian liberal arts college in Hannibal, Missouri. It is affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention, part of the Southern Baptist Convention. Enrollment was 1,150 students as of 2007, it is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college offers more than 30 majors. Hannibal–LaGrange University was created as the result of the 1928 merger of LaGrange College in LaGrange and Hannibal College in Hannibal. On May 4, 2012, the trustees at Hannibal–LaGrange University elected Dr. Anthony W. Allen as the 17th president of the university. Living former presidents include Dr. Woodrow Burt, Dr. Paul Brown, Dr. Larry Lewis, a graduate of Luther Rice Seminary, who left HLGU to be the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Home Mission Board, one of the largest mission agencies in the world. Hannibal–LaGrange teams are known as the Trojans.
The university competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as a member of the American Midwest Conference. Men's sports include baseball, cross country, soccer, track & field, wrestling, while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Hannibal–LaGrange University was ranked by U. S. News & World Report as the 62-80 best Midwest college in 2018. Undergraduate: Hannibal–LaGrange University offers undergraduate majors in many areas, including Accounting, Bible, Business Administration, Communication Arts, Computer Information Systems, Criminal Justice, English, Human Services, Music, Psychology, Recreation Management, Prepharmacy, Sociology and Liberal Studies. Graduate: HLGU offers two online graduate programs — a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in Leadership. Online: Many online classes are offered each semester for both on-campus and online-only students; as of the 2009-10 school year, undergraduate degrees in Nursing and Early Childhood Special Education were available through all-online coursework.
ADVANCE Degree Completion: HLGU's ADVANCE Degree Completion program is designed for working adults with an associate degree who want to complete their bachelor's degree in as little as 18 months. Several degree programs and locations are available. Jefferson R. Boulware, Illinois state representative and lawyer Clarence Cannon, Democratic Congress member Homer Martien Cook, president of Northwest Missouri State University Cotton Fitzsimmons, NBA and college basketball coach Asa Hodges, U. S. Representative Lindell Shumake, member of the Missouri House of Representatives Ashleigh Spencer, Australian basketball player who plays for the Bendigo Spirit in the Women's National Basketball League Official website Official athletics website
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an “open enrollment” for students who have graduated from high school; the term refers to a higher educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs. Some institutions maintain athletic dormitories similar to their university counterparts. In Australia, the term "community college" refers to small private businesses running short courses of a self-improvement or hobbyist nature. Equivalent to the American notion of community colleges are Tertiary and Further Education colleges or TAFEs. There are an increasing number of private providers, which are colloquially called "colleges". TAFEs and other providers carry on the tradition of adult education, established in Australia around the mid-19th century, when evening classes were held to help adults enhance their numeracy and literacy skills. Most Australian universities can be traced back to such forerunners, although obtaining a university charter has always changed their nature.
In TAFEs and colleges today, courses are designed for personal development of an individual and/or for employment outcomes. Educational programs cover a variety of topics such as arts, languages and lifestyle, they are scheduled to run two, three or four days of the week, depending on the level of the course undertaken. A Certificate I may only run for 4 hours twice a week for a term of 9 weeks. A full-time Diploma course might have classes 4 days per week for a year; some courses may be offered in the weekends to accommodate people working full-time. Funding for colleges may come from government grants and course fees. Many are not-for-profit organisations; such TAFES are located in metropolitan and rural locations of Australia. Education offered by TAFEs and colleges has changed over the years. By the 1980s many colleges had recognised a community need for computer training. Since thousands of people have increased skills through IT courses; the majority of colleges by the late 20th century had become Registered Training Organisations.
They offer individuals a nurturing, non-traditional education venue to gain skills that better prepare them for the workplace and potential job openings. TAFEs and colleges have not traditionally offered bachelor's degrees, instead providing pathway arrangements with universities to continue towards degrees; the American innovation of the associate degree is being developed at some institutions. Certificate courses I to IV, diplomas and advanced diplomas are offered, the latter deemed equivalent to an undergraduate qualification, albeit in more vocational areas; some TAFE institutes have become higher education providers in their own right and are now starting to offer bachelor's degree programs. In Canada, colleges are adult educational institutions that provide higher education and tertiary education, grant certificates and diplomas; as well, in Ontario, the 24 colleges of applied arts and technology have been mandated to offer their own stand-alone degrees as well as to offer joint degrees with universities through "articulation agreements" that result in students emerging with both a diploma and a degree.
Thus, for example, the University of Guelph "twins" with Humber College and York University does the same with Seneca College. More however, colleges have been offering a variety of their own degrees in business and technical fields; the academic and economic value of the college degree is still being tested in the marketplace. Each province has its own educational system, as prescribed by the Canadian federalism model of governance. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, most Canadian colleges began to provide practical education and training for the emerging baby boom generation, for immigrants from around the world who were entering Canada in increasing numbers at that time. A formative trend was the merging of the separate vocational training and adult education institutions. Canadian colleges are either publicly funded or private post-secondary institutions. There are 150 institutions that are equivalent to the US community college in certain contexts, they are referred to as "colleges" since in common usage a degree-granting institution is exclusively a university.
In addition to graduate degrees, universities grant Associate's degrees and Bachelor's degrees, but in some regions and/or courses of study and universities collaborate so college students can earn transfer credits toward undergraduate university degrees. University degrees are attained through four years of study; the term associate degree is used in western Canada to refer to a two-year college arts or science degree, similar to how the term is used in the United States. In other parts of Canada the term advanced degree is used to indicate a 3- or 4-year college program. In the province of Quebec, three years is the norm for a university degree because a year of credit is earned in the CEGEP system; when speaking in English, people refer to all colleges as Cégeps, however the term is an acronym more applied to the French-language public system: Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel. The word College can refer to a private High School in Quebec. Canadian community college systemsList of colleges in Canada Colleges and Institutes Can
Harris–Stowe State University
Harris–Stowe State University is a black public university in St. Louis, Missouri; the university offers 50 majors and certificate programs in education and arts & sciences. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, it is east of the Saint Louis University campus. In 1857, St. Louis Public Schools established a normal school for white students. In 1863 philosopher Anna Brackett became principal of the school, it became the first normal school led by a woman in the United States. In 1920, it was authorized to issue a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Education degree. In 1890, the St. Louis school system established Sumner Normal School to train black teachers. In 1929, its name was changed to Stowe Teachers College, after author Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, had promoted the abolitionist cause in the antebellum United States; the U. S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education mandated integration of public-school systems. In response to this and Stowe Colleges were merged into one institution, which retained the "Harris Teachers College" name.
At the behest of Stowe alumni and other St. Louisans, the name "Stowe" was added, the school became Harris-Stowe College. In 1979, the college was added to the state system of public higher education, under the name of Harris-Stowe State College, its four-year education degree was changed to a Bachelor of Science in Education. It subsequently expanded its programs to offer several new degrees in education, including the B. S. in Urban Education, designed to enable non-teaching urban education personnel to address problems specific to urban schools. In 2005, the college attained university status, was renamed Harris–Stowe State University. Harris–Stowe State University comprises three academic units: Anheuser-Busch School of Business Accounting Business Administration Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Finance Marketing Healthcare Management Information Systems and Computer Technology Computer Studies Management Information Systems College of Arts & Sciences Biology Pre-Med Urban Ecology Math Sustainability & Urban Ecology Computation and Physical Science Biology/Chemistry Urban Agriculture Communication Studies Criminal Justice Juvenile Justice Policing Political Science International Relations Pre-Law Public Policy Administration Urban Politics Professional Interdisciplinary Studies Sociology Law and Society Social Justice Urban Ecology Urban Affairs Urban Studies Public Administration History Psychology College of Education Educational Studies Early Childhood Education Elementary Education Middle School/ Junior High Math, Social Studies Secondary Education Biology English Math Social StudiesAll degree programs at Harris-Stowe are dual level with the first level emphasizing general education studies and the upper level concentrating on professional studies.
Harris–Stowe State University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The Anheuser-Busch School of Business receives additional accreditation through the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs and the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education; the School of Education receives additional accreditation through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The Office of Student Engagement sponsors or hosts more than thirty activities or special interest clubs and a dozen academic clubs and honor societies, several campus affiliate chapters of national organizations, nearly 12 Greek organizations. Academic Organizations Sigma Alpha Pi National Honor Society Alpha Chi Honor Society Accounting Students Association Kappa Delta Pi Kappa Mu Episilon Delta Mu Delta The Harris-Stowe State University mascot is the Hornet; the university competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as a member of the American Midwest Conference.
Harris-Stowe sponsors four men's and five women's teams in NAIA sanctioned sports: The Harris-Stowe State University Men's Basketball team won the American Midwest Conference championship in 2017 and 2018. The William L. Clay, Sr. Early Childhood Development/Parenting Education Center is an early childhood child care center that sits on the campus of Harris–Stowe State University. Harris-Stowe invested $11 million into the new facility, used to train early learning professionals, provide parenting education, high quality full day care for children. Harris-Stowe was awarded an FY09 Area Resources for Community and Human Services start-up and expansion grant to assist in the purchase of developmentally appropriate materials for the center's new infant/toddler rooms. Arlene Ackerman, former superintendent of public schools in District of Columbia, San Francisco and Philadelphia David S. Cunningham, Jr. Los Angeles, City Council member, 1973–87 Kimberly Gardner, reformist prosecutor in City of St. Louis Julius Hunter, retired television anchorman, former St. Louis University vice-president, author Bobby Wilks, U.
S. Coast Guard aviator, first African-American promoted to Captain in the Coast Guard Official website Official athletics website
Concordia Seminary
Concordia Seminary is a seminary associated with the Lutheran Church and located in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, missionaries and church leaders for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod; the current president of the seminary is the Rev. Dr. Dale A. Meyer; the provost and chief academic officer is the Rev. Dr. Douglas L. Rutt. Concordia Seminary is the third oldest Lutheran seminary, one of the largest seminaries in the United States. Founded in 1839, the seminary resided in Perry County, Missouri. In 1849 it was moved to St. Louis, in 1926 the current campus was built. Concordia shares the duty of clerical training for the LCMS with Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana; the St. Louis institution was at one time considered the "theoretical" seminary of the LCMS while Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne was considered the "practical" seminary, although those distinctions are no longer recognized. Concordia Seminary offers a Master of Divinity degree leading to ordination, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Sacred Theology, Doctor of Ministry, Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
The seminary is considered theologically conservative. It does not train women for ordination as pastors, however it does offer a program by which women may be rostered as deaconesses, it promotes historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible. It is an accredited member of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Radio station KFUO-AM 850 had its studios on the seminary campus until they were relocated to the LCMS International Center, although the station continues to use a transmitter tower on the campus. For many years the nationally broadcast. Dedicated on November 15, 1992, the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus serves as the house of worship for the Concordia Seminary community. Aside from the primary worship space the chapel building contains a choir practice room, one classroom, the dean of chapel's office, the housefellow's quarters, a chapel, used for small worship services and for worship practice.
Concordia Seminary Library has the capacity to house 250,000 volumes and to seat over 300 people, providing study space for divinity students and carrels for graduate students and scholars. The book collection numbers over 245,000 volumes. Included are the personal libraries of many of the founding fathers of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and its theologians, including C. F. W. Walther. A copy of the 17th-century Calov Bible, owned by Johann Sebastian Bach is in the collection. Located next to Founder's Hall, the Luther Statue was dedicated at the former site of Concordia Seminary on Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis in 1903. In 1926, when the present campus was dedicated in Clayton, the statue was relocated to the new campus site; the statue is an exact replica of one that exists in Germany. The statue in Germany is located where Martin Luther made his famous speech, "Here I Stand", at the Diet of Worms. Luther Tower was designed by architect Charles Klauder and was completed in 1966, it stands 156 feet tall.
At its base is a small chapel, the Chapel of the Holy Apostles. Its crown contains a 49-bell carillon; the bells are dedicated to the memory of all Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod pastors. The largest bell weighs the smallest weighs 17 pounds; the Concordia Historical Institute is the Department of Archives and History of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. The Institute is located on the Concordia Seminary Campus; the building includes a reference room for patrons, a conference room, two levels of museum exhibit space and two stack areas for storage of the collections. The stack areas are maintained at humidity to preserve the resources; the Institute maintains two historic sites in Perry County, publishes the Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, assists districts and congregations of the Synod in preserving their historical records. Concordia Park is located in the DeMun Neighborhood on the grounds of Concordia Seminary; the City of Clayton has leased this passive 1.5-acre park from Concordia Seminary since 1992.
It consists of several trees. Benches and tables are provided for visitors. Concordia are not affiliated with any league, it offers club sports including golf and soccer. Known as the Fighting Preachers, the basketball team schedules games with other independents as well as with some NCAA Division III teams. There is a longstanding rivalry with the other LCMS seminary, Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana; the basketball team plays in the Eldon E. Pederson Fieldhouse; the fieldhouse was an airplane hangar on an airbase in Kansas. In 1949 the seminary purchased it, disassembled it, re-erected it on the campus. At one time it served as the practice court of the NBA's St. Louis Hawks and as the home court for the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis. Concordia Seminary became a focus of national media attention in 1974 when 45 of its 50 faculty members, together with the vast majority of students, processed off campus to form a rival institution known as Seminex, or Concordia Seminary in Exile.
The procession protested the suspension of the seminary's p
Conception Abbey
Conception Abbey, site of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is a monastery of the Swiss-American Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation. The monastery, founded by the Swiss Engelberg Abbey in 1873 in northwest Missouri's Nodaway County, was raised to a conventual priory in 1876 and elevated to an abbey in 1881. In 2017 the community numbered sixty-five monks who celebrate the Eucharist and Liturgy of the Hours daily and who staff and administer Conception Seminary College, the Printery House, the Abbey Guest Center. Monks serve as parish priests and hospital chaplains in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph and other dioceses. There is a large postal facility attached to The Printery House, operated by secular employees, which includes package shipping and delivery facilities. Conception Abbey is located in Missouri just outside Conception Junction, Missouri. Conception Abbey was established on 8 December 1873, by Benedictine monks of the Swiss abbey of Engelberg as a place of refuge should their monastery be suppressed by the Swiss government.
They came in response to the appeal of the Rev. James Power to minister to the spiritual needs of a colony of Irish and German settlers which he had established in northwest Missouri in 1858, prior to the Civil War. Benedictine Sisters from Maria Richenbach, a convent located not far from Engelberg, arrived in Missouri in 1873 soon after the monks, hoping to found a convent where special devotion to the Eucharist could be fostered; the founders of Conception Abbey were Fathers Frowin Conrad, O. S. B. and Meinrad Widmer, of Lucerne, Switzerland. Frowin Conrad, named Placid at birth, was born in Auw, Canton Argau, Switzerland, on 2 November 1833, the eldest of twelve children, eleven boys and one girl. Of the eleven boys, five became four of these Benedictine monks. Educated by the Jesuits as a youth, he entered the abbey school of Einsiedeln to study theology and entered monastic life at Engelberg. Fr. Frowin made his profession in 1853 and was ordained a priest in 1856. In the next seventeen years, he served as prefect and professor in Engelberg’s school, held many of the major offices in the monastery, pastor of the monastery’s parish, chaplain to the nearby convent of Maria Richenbach.
These appointments witness the fact that he enjoyed the complete confidence of the abbot of Engelberg, Anselm Villiger. Having been directed to found a monastery of his order in the United States in 1873, Fr. Frowin founded the Benedictine monastery of New Engleberg at Conception, erected into an abbey in 1881. In 1885 Fr. Frowin was chosen as the abbey's first abbot. Meinrad Widmer was baptized as Joseph Widmer on 1 March 1844 at Hohenrain, Canton Luzern, Switzerland. During his boyhood he attended the Catholic school of his hometown, was confirmed in 1855, worked on the family farm; the Mother General of the Sisters of Mercy at Ingenbohl, Canton Schwyz, employed him to work on the extensive farm of their convent. When he was twenty-eight, he left Ingenbohl for Grafenort in Unterwalden to work on the estate belonging to the Abbey of Engelberg. There he met Fr. Frowin Conrad and soon afterwards decided to become part of the new Benedictine foundation. At his religious profession he took the name Meinrad in honor of the monastery of Saint Meinrad in Indiana, whose abbot and prior were so helpful in the early days of the Engelberg foundation.
Joining Fr. Frowin and Fr. Meinrad was Fr. Adelhelm Odermatt, O. S. B, he was born Karl Odermatt on 10 December 1844 at Nidwalden. He entered Engelberg as a novice on 29 September 1865, he became a professor in Engelberg's school and assistant pastor of the Engelberg parish at the time Frowin Conrad was pastor of the parish. Fr. Adelhelm was assigned to Maryville as pastor of the parish there. Fr. Adelhelm and Fr. Frowin, prior of the new foundation, seem to have disagreed about the nature of the new foundation in Missouri: Fr. Frowin was influenced by the customs of the Beuronese foundations and Saint Meinrad Abbey in Indiana while Fr. Adelhelm hoped to reproduce in the United States Engelberg's spirit. Fr. Adelhelm and another Engelberg monk left Conception on 1 June 1881 seeking a location for a new monastery, they established Mount Angel Abbey in 1882. In 1880, according to the U. S. Federal Census enumerated in June, the monks numbered twenty-two in their household and the sisters another twenty-four in a separate household.
In the Album Benedictum published for 1880 it was noted that the monks served the following parishes: one priest served the cathedral in St. Joseph, one priest served Saint Columba Parish in Conception and two priests served Saint Mary Parish in Maryville and its stations in Nodaway County at Barnard, Hopkins and Rosendale; the Album Benedictum noted for 1880. The school was founded on 2 July 1886 and was called the College of New Engelberg with classes offered on the high school and junior college level. By 1915 the college enrolled 118 students. In 1942 under the guidance of Abbot Stephen Schappler the college changed its name and restricted enrollment to candidates for the priesthood, offering a 12-year program including a preparatory high school, a junior college, a senior college, a school of theology. In 1956 the Benedictine High School was moved to Omaha; the seminary’s enrollment peaked at 549 students in 1965 but went into decline following the Second Vatican Council. Clarence Thomas studied to become a p
