Celebration Highlights
Nazareth University’s centennial is a two-year long celebration to honor and recognize the many incredible places, people, programs and moments that have made – and continue to make — Nazareth so beloved by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. While many upcoming Centennial Celebration events and activities are planned, a significant amount of centennial-related initiatives have already been completed, including:

Centennial Kick-off Event at Naz Weekend 2023
Nazareth University officially kicked-off its Centennial Celebration with an event at Naz Weekend 2023 in September. The ceremony announced a wide range of collaborative, impact-focused activities planned throughout the two-year celebration, and unveiled the centennial theme, "A Century of Uniting Education and Action."

Centennial Celebration Presenting Sponsor Announced
Nazareth University named Wellington Steele & Associates and the Leva Family as its Centennial presenting sponsor, thanks to their generous gift of $100,000 to support Nazareth’s two-year Centennial celebration. Ed Leva ‘91, a Nazareth alumnus and member of Nazareth’s Board of Trustees — and president and co-founder of Wellington Steele & Associates — says that the sponsorship honors his late mother, Beverly Lucity Leva, who attended Nazareth in the late 1950s.

Centennial History Book
As Nazareth celebrates 100 years of educating people who’ve made an impact on their communities, alumni stories from across generations and life experiences have been collected for a unique historical archive and printed/digital book. More than 6,000 alumni, faculty and students participated, submitting 4,260 stories for inclusion in the Nazareth Centennial History Book and hundreds of individuals have ordered a copy of the book, which will provide a more complete history of Nazareth and its people to be preserved for generations to come.

Centennial Celebration Lights-up Nazareth Campus
Purple lighting continues to visually celebrate the excitement of the Nazareth University Centennial Celebration. Since fall 2023, a wide range of campus areas and buildings have been lit in beautiful Nazareth purple each evening, including the NAZ letters on Smyth lawn, Portka Hall balcony, Admissions House porch, French House, Cloister Walk, and the O'Connor Complex outdoor seating area, among other various campus nooks now aglow in purple.

Centennial Summit: Burma
In October 2023, Nazareth University hosted the first Centennial Summit, a history-shaping event regarding human rights in Burma. The Centennial Summit featured Nazareth's Konar Center for Tolerance & Jewish Studies, partnering with the Congress of Nations and States (CNS), to host Burmese Changemakers Living in Exile: Frontline Reports on Indigenous Land Rights, Religious Freedom & Gendered Violence. Diverse Burmese speakers of different faiths, genders, and ethnicities collaborated together in this unprecedented, global event.

We Are Naz/Wear Your Naz Days
Members of faculty, students, and alumni took to social media in December and February to share images of them adorned in their Nazareth attire, as part of an ongoing series of Centennial “We Are Naz/Wear Your Naz” Days. Approximately ten other similar social media activations are planned throughout the two-year centennial Celebration.

Centennial Mural
Fittingly, Nazareth’s famous tunnels and their equally famous murals are providing a wonderful canvas for celebrating the centennial. A new, centennial-themed tunnel mural has been painted by current student Ellery Mertens '26 and her mom, Meredith '96.

Changemaker Chat Podcast
A special edition podcast is now being produced to honor Nazareth University’s Centennial Celebration, featuring engaging conversations with notable individuals who’ve changed — and continue to change — their industry, their community, and the world for the better, inspired by their connection to Nazareth. This podcast series kicked-off in February with a conversation between Nazareth University President Beth Paul and John Drain ‘83, CFO of Hearst Television and chair of Nazareth’s Board of Trustees.

Golden Insights Webinar Series
A year-long webinar series aimed at sharing the inside scoop of Nazareth with campus leadership. The five-part series kicked off in February with members of our Strategic Enrollment Management team detailing the proactive enrollment strategy that has resulted in the highest number of undergraduate applications in more than 10 years for Nazareth.

Centennial Messaging Integrated Across Campus
A concerted effort has been made to integrate centennial messaging into as many events and activities on campus as possible. Examples include:

  • Centennial remarks read on public address system at all Nazareth Athletic events, with a Centennial-themed video played on video board at all Golden Flyer Stadium events
  • Centennial recognition in playbill inserts for the Theater and Dance department’s productions of The Spitfire Grill and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
  • Centennial banners adorn roadways throughout campus
  • Centennial signage/posters displayed at numerous on-campus events, including Shannon Lecture Series, various Arts Center performances and rehearsals, and events in Linehan Chapel and the Shults Forum.

Faces of Nazareth
Hundreds of members of the Nazareth University community have submitted self-portraits to be part of a commemorative mosaic art image in honor of the Centennial Celebration. Prints of the final mosaic design will depict Smyth Hall and will be available for purchase later in 2024.