For more than a decade, the Villanova community has gathered to honor the most salient value that represents our community: caritas.
NOVAdance is a student-run dance marathon and fundraising event that lasts for a whole day. The goal of this initiative is to raise money to support families affected by pediatric cancer and for cancer research. NOVAdance transcends a one-time event.
Students involved in it spend the whole year building relationships with children and families supported by the foundation Be Positive (B+), as well as collecting funds year-round.
Usually, NOVAdance takes place at Jake Nevin Field House on Villanova Campus, a very convenient location for all students.
However, this year NOVAdance is being celebrated on the Cabrini Campus.
Many students might not appreciate this because of the unusual distance, but having Cabrini Campus as the center for NOVAdance this year is practical and symbolic.
Cabrini Campus is a newly renovated space that can facilitate a more efficient event development. Many students involved in the planning of NOVAdance find Cabrini an improvement for this initiative.
“It gives Cabrini an opportunity to be used before it is open,” Eduardo Calderon, head technician of the Villanova University Tech Crew, said. “Jake Nevin Field House is also older, and the Dixon Center has gotten a nice renovation as well. It also brings attention to Cabrini Campus as a whole. In this way, students can have an opportunity to see what the campus has to offer next semester.”
Holding one of the most meaningful traditions at Cabrini is the perfect way to inaugurate and integrate this new campus into our university.
NOVAdance is not only an event, but also part of our identity and what we want to be as a community. The role of Cabrini Campus in our college life is still being defined, and physical spaces like it acquire meaning through the memories we build in them. NOVAdance will transform Cabrini from being an external agent to a part of Villanova and strengthen the sense of belonging.
If Cabrini is to become truly Villanova, there is no better way to begin than with a tradition that reflects who we are.
