A University-wide, multi-year commitment to prepare students, faculty and staff to lead in an AI-shaped future.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, President Cheryl A. McConnell, PhD, announced a defining University-wide priority: The Initiative for Human Formation in an Age of AI.
“Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn, how faculty teach, how employees work and the professions graduates will enter. Saint Joseph’s is responding by strengthening what matters most in today’s environment: human judgment and the formation of the whole person along with rigorous academic preparation for the workplace of tomorrow. This is not a technology initiative at the margins of the University. It is a University-wide, multi-year commitment to prepare our students, faculty and staff for an AI-shaped future, while ensuring that technology serves our mission and our humanity — not the other way around,” said Dr. McConnell.
The commitment will take shape across three interconnected areas: preparing faculty to teach and innovate in an AI-shaped environment; deepening the student experience around core human capacities such as emotional intelligence, ethical reasoning, critical and creative thinking, and problem identification and framing; and building the institutional capabilities that allow faculty and staff to use AI thoughtfully, responsibly and effectively.
The Initiative will include an AI Innovation Studio: a new collaborative space where faculty, staff, students and community partners will come together to explore how AI and human ingenuity can address complex, real-world challenges. The Studio will foster interdisciplinary and community collaboration, experimentation and the development of practical solutions that put human needs and values at the center of the work.
Saint Joseph’s will also host an ongoing Horizon Series, bringing together industry leaders and experts for discipline-clustered conversations about how AI is reshaping the workforce, professional practice and society; emerging opportunities and challenges; and the ethical implications of AI across fields. Open to faculty, staff, students, regional leaders, government representatives and the broader community, the Horizon Series will foster dialogue about what an AI-shaped future means for the University’s graduates and the professions they will be entering.
Work already underway demonstrates how that commitment is moving into practice. It includes scaled faculty innovation grants that support faculty-designed course and departmental projects; a framework to track and measure how core human formation competencies develop in Saint Joseph’s students; an early version of the student experience navigator, a dedicated human guide who complements academic advising and helps students connect the parts of their SJU experience; and additional development opportunities that build employees’ capacity to use emerging AI tools thoughtfully, effectively and responsibly across the University.
This work follows several months of consultation with the Board of Trustees, alumni, faculty, staff, students and regional governmental and business leaders, and draws on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”
The Initiative includes strategic collaboration with and a lead gift from the Sanchez Dooner Foundation, along with additional financial support from like-minded donors. Collectively, these gifts represent a multi-million dollar investment that will support the University community for years to come.
“This is not a technology initiative at the margins of the University — it is a commitment that reaches every student we serve and every area of the institution. Human formation is both our foundation and our distinction, and we intend to lead with it,” said Dr. McConnell.
“Saint Joseph’s already prepares students to be adaptable and resilient, and to go out and do good in an increasingly complex world. Our contributions deepen and expand work our alma mater has already begun, and we’re excited to be innovating with AI in collaboration with the University,” said Brian Dooner, BS ’83, president of the Sanchez Dooner Foundation, and Marlene Sanchez Dooner, BA’ 83.
Jean McGivney-Burelle, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, emphasized that the University’s work must remain human-focused: “As the landscape of artificial intelligence continues to evolve, our focus must remain on people — creating opportunities for faculty, students and staff to engage these technologies thoughtfully, critically and ethically, while strengthening the distinctly human capacities that will matter even more in an age of AI.”
Visit sju.edu/AI for more information.
About Saint Joseph’s University
Founded in 1851 as Philadelphia’s Jesuit university, Saint Joseph’s University prepares students for a rapidly changing world by focusing on academic excellence and courageous exploration. With an intellectual tradition distinguished by a foundational liberal arts core and diversified by strong professional programs in business, nursing, health and science, and education, Saint Joseph’s students are empowered, challenged and supported by high-quality faculty members to follow their own path. As a comprehensive university with locations in Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, undergraduate and graduate students study in the University’s five schools and colleges — the College of Arts and Sciences, the Erivan K. Haub School of Business, the School of Education and Human Development, the School of Health Professions and the School of Nursing and Allied Health. With academic offerings in the most sought-after majors, including leading programs in the first-in-the-nation Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, a Saint Joseph’s education is enriched through the University’s network of cooperative education employers, clinical placements and professional internships. Outside of the classroom, the University’s Division I student-athletes compete at the highest levels in 21 different sports. Upon graduation, nearly 100% of students are employed, pursuing advanced degrees or volunteering in prestigious service programs. The University’s network of more than 110,000 proud alumni keep alive the rallying cry — The Hawk Will Never Die.
About the Sanchez Dooner Foundation
The Sanchez Dooner Foundation is a private operating foundation advancing human flourishing through education, cultural access and well-being. It is an operating foundation, building and developing programs, content and technology in collaboration with nonprofit partners.
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