Following a year full of increased activity for Moody Experience programs, Andy Osborn, program manager of educational initiatives, welcomed campus partners and students April 28 at Cohen House to celebrate student impacts and thank campus collaborators for their contributions throughout the year.
“We are here to celebrate the fact that we have this funding from the Moody Foundation,” Osborn said. “We’re here to celebrate the students who are experiencing enriching experiences beyond the classroom as part of a variety of different programs, but we’re also here to celebrate all the people who are working hard to make sure that these opportunities can happen.”
The Moody Experience, which stems from a $100 million grant from the Moody Foundation, is a university-wide effort to offer students an extensive array of enhanced educational opportunities beyond the classroom.
The $100 million gift was given by the Moody Foundation in 2021, becoming the largest gift in the university’s history and elevating the Moody Foundation’s cumulative donations to Rice to more than $125 million.
The Moody Experience has generated more than $2 million in the past 2 1/2 years to support three strategic areas: expanding access to and support for experiential learning, fostering community and connection and enhancing student development and learning. The programs aim to enhance the undergraduate experience, ensuring all students can thrive academically and professionally and develop into educated citizens who advance the public good.
Matthew Taylor, senior associate provost for strategic and educational initiatives, recognized that in the short time that the funds have been activated, they already are creating a demonstrable impact on the campus and students.
“This historic gift is one of the drivers of this moment in the history of the university and one of the drivers of what’s going to make the high aspirations of [the strategic plan] Momentous attainable,” Taylor said. “In the coming years, the Moody Experience is going to play a critical role in achieving Rice’s aspirations.”
As a display of the Moody Foundation’s already-present impact on student life, three Owls shared how their college years have been positively influenced.
Maya Harpavat, a junior studying health sciences and English with a minor in medical humanities, spoke of how the Elizabeth Lee Moody Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the Humanities and the Arts has shaped her education.
“Before coming to Rice, I’ve only heard of research as maybe wet lab research or hard science research,” Harpavat said. “We’re in the middle of the Med Center, so you get that narrative over and over again; but thanks to the Moody humanities research fellowship, I discovered opportunities for humanities research that could intersect with my interest in medicine. Now, I’m currently building an expressive writing program for cancer patients in the medical center, combining my humanities backgrounds through the amazing fellowship and my medical background. Because of the generous support of the fellowship and the research cohort, I was able to see research in a completely new, different and exciting way, and as a future physician, this completely shaped the way I view person-based medicine in the future.”
Additionally, Harpavat shared ways that she connected with other students while serving the Houston community through the Moody Civic Immersion program and was able to travel to Udaipur, India, for a research/writing project with support from the Moody Opportunity Fund.
Brandon Nunez, a junior studying sports medicine and psychology, shared his experience as a first-time international traveler as part of the Moody Global Fellows program.
“I always dreamed of leaving the confines of my small town and seeing what the world had to offer; however, the reality for me as a first-generation, low-income student was that global travel was always just a distant dream,” Nunez said. “The Moody Global Fellows program changed that reality for me. Throughout the program, I worked closely with my cohort of fellows the semester before we traveled to Costa Rica, and we got to design our travel itinerary and add in personal excursions where we could develop our own professional, academic and personal goals.”
Alysa Bijl-Spiro, a junior studying philosophy and English, spoke about the experiences made possible by the Moody Undergraduate Research Fellowship and the Frances Anne Moody-Dahlberg Gateway Program in the Social Sciences.
“I’ve been a Moody Research Fellow in Humanities since my freshman year and received funding to conduct an independent research project on high school literature curricula in Texas schools,” Bijl-Spiro said. “My project investigated which stories and narratives were being told and which were being silenced, a topic that continues to feel relevant today. This semester, I had the opportunity to participate in Journey Toward Justice, an African and African American studies and sociology class funded by the gateway program that focused on the civil rights movement and included the incredible opportunity to travel to Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, over spring break.”