About Alvernia
Our Franciscan Identity
"Knowledge Joined with Love"
"To Learn, To Love, To Serve"
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Alvernia Mission
Guided by Franciscan values and the ideal of “knowledge joined with love,” and rooted in the Catholic and liberal arts traditions, Alvernia is a rigorous, caring, and inclusive learning community committed to academic excellence and to being and fostering:
- Broadly educated, life-long learners;
- Reflective professionals and engaged citizens;
- And ethical leaders with moral courage.
Alvernia Core Values
The mission statements of the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters and Alvernia University are the sources of the five core values from the Franciscan tradition:
- Service
- Humility
- Peacemaking
- Contemplation
- Collegiality
All members of the Alvernia community including trustees, administration, faculty, staff, and students embrace Alvernia’s core values.
Alvernia History & Timeline
The roots that were to become Alvernia University were planted in 1926 when the Bernardine Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis established a Teacher’s Seminarium for the education of the Sisters. Thirty-two years later, 1958, the institution was expanded into a four-year liberal arts college. Alvernia received its charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1960.
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Alvernia University’s 50th Anniversary
Honor the Past
Alvernia’s golden anniversary presented the perfect springboard for honoring the vision and dedication of its founding order, the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters. Their legacy of leadership began in 1958.
Celebrate the Present
On September 25, 2008, Alvernia celebrated a change in institutional status to Alvernia University, the first university in the City of Reading.
Envision the Future
With the change to university status and the renovation of the Upland Center, Alvernia has made an enduring commitment to adult education. Similarly, new garden-style apartments speak to the strategic goal of dramatically increasing the number of residential undergraduate students.
The University Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is a forty-member body of volunteers consisting of campus, community, congregational, and business leaders charged with upholding the mission and vision of the institution and ensuring solid management and adequate resources for decades to come.
For the first time in Alvernia’s history, the chair of the Board of Trustees is an Alvernia graduate. Kathleen D. Herbein, Class of 1995, was installed as chair of the board of trustees in July of 2008. Alfred J. Weber, President of Tweed-Weber, Inc., serves as vice chair. The executive committee also includes Alvernia President Thomas F. Flynn, Sr. Danielle Marie Kubelsky, OSF '64, Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Coordinator of Health Benefits/Government Programs; and University Counsel Heidi B. Masano, Esq., Managing Partner at Masano Bradley.