St. Thomas Aquinas College Secures $345,639 NEH Grant to Advance Faculty Research and Student Learning

St. Thomas Aquinas College has reached a defining moment in its academic development. The Sparkill, New York institution has been awarded a $345,639 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), one of the most competitive federal funding programs supporting scholarship in the United States. The NEH grant will fund the next phase of the College’s Loyalist Studies Institute, expanding faculty research in Revolutionary War history while opening new student learning opportunities in digital humanities.

For prospective students, families, and anyone following higher education news in the USA, the announcement is more than a headline. It demonstrates how a college of roughly 2,000 students competes on a national academic stage, and what that level of scholarly engagement means for the students who enroll there.

Interested in how undergraduate research shapes a modern college education? Request more information from St. Thomas Aquinas College to explore academic programs across its four schools.

Why This NEH Grant Matters for Faculty Research

Awarded through a nationally competitive review process, the grant supports a project titled Loyalist Soldiers in Revolutionary America: Documenting De Lancey’s Brigade and the Loyal American Regiment, 1776–1780. The initiative falls under the NEH’s Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition program, launched as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Federal humanities funding is notoriously difficult to secure. Proposals are evaluated by panels of scholars who assess the significance of the research, the rigor of the methodology, and the institution’s capacity to deliver results. St. Thomas Aquinas College’s success in this process signals that its faculty scholarship now stands alongside work produced at far larger research universities.

Ken Daly, President of St. Thomas Aquinas College, framed the award as validation of the institution’s academic direction. In the College’s announcement, he emphasized that the grant reflects both the exceptional scholarship of the faculty and a deep institutional commitment to experiential learning and academic research. His message carried a clear implication for students: at St. Thomas Aquinas College, undergraduates work alongside faculty as partners in the research process, not as passive observers.

The Loyalist Studies Institute: From Seed Funding to National Recognition

The NEH award did not emerge from nowhere. It builds directly on momentum created in 2024, when The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation invested $229,624 to establish the Loyalist Studies Institute. That initial funding allowed the College to build a digital research platform, recruit undergraduate researchers, and launch a growing public archive documenting New York’s Loyalist history.

That early investment produced measurable results. The Institute’s database now documents more than 11,000 Loyalists, the colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. With the new NEH grant, researchers will expand that foundation significantly, connecting military records with biographical information, geographic data, and historical context to create a comprehensive, searchable public resource.

A Missing Perspective on the American Revolution

Loyalist history has long occupied the margins of American Revolutionary scholarship. By some estimates, as many as one in five colonists maintained loyalty to Britain, yet their experiences remain underrepresented in mainstream narratives and, until recently, were difficult to access in the historical record.

Dr. Heath Bowen, Dean of the School of Arts & Social Sciences and Director of the Loyalist Studies Institute, addressed this gap directly. As he explained in the announcement, the project broadens the story told about the Revolution by bringing together records that have historically been difficult to access, leading to a better understanding of the individuals, communities, and experiences that shaped Revolutionary-era New York.

The project will recover, preserve, and publish thousands of military records documenting British American Loyalists who served in two of New York’s most significant provincial regiments. Interactive exhibits, historical visualizations, datasets, and educational resources will make these materials available to scholars, teachers, students, and the general public.

How Faculty Research Strengthens Student Learning

The most compelling element of this story, particularly for students deciding where to attend college, is the role undergraduates will play in the work itself.

Through the NEH grant, students at St. Thomas Aquinas College will participate directly in faculty-led research with national significance. Working alongside faculty members and nationally recognized historians, undergraduate researchers will gain firsthand experience in:

• Archival research — locating, handling, and evaluating primary source documents from the Revolutionary era
• Documentary editing — preparing historical records for accurate scholarly publication
• Digital humanities — using technology to organize, analyze, and present historical data
• Data curation — building and maintaining large, searchable databases
• Historical interpretation — writing and presenting conclusions drawn from original evidence

These are not simulated classroom exercises. Students will contribute to publicly accessible scholarly resources used by researchers across the country. Few undergraduate experiences offer this combination of intellectual rigor, professional skill development, and genuine contribution to a national body of knowledge.

Fellowship opportunities connected to the project will allow selected students to work even more intensively, researching, interpreting, and writing history as active participants in the profession rather than as spectators to it.

Considering a degree in history, government, or the humanities? Explore the School of Arts & Social Sciences at St. Thomas Aquinas College to see how its programs connect classroom learning to real scholarship.

The 250th Anniversary Context: Why Timing Matters

The NEH grant arrives at a consequential moment. As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of independence, museums, archives, and colleges across the country are reexamining the founding era. The NEH’s Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition initiative was designed to support exactly this kind of work: projects that preserve foundational records and expand public access to the full range of voices from the Revolutionary period.

By documenting the service records of De Lancey’s Brigade and the Loyal American Regiment, St. Thomas Aquinas College is ensuring that a complex and often overlooked chapter of American history is preserved and shared with future generations. The work carries genuine public value. These records will inform museum exhibitions, classroom curricula, genealogical research, and scholarly debate for decades to come.

There is also a distinctly New York story embedded here. Both regiments documented in the project were raised in New York, and the Hudson Valley region itself saw significant Revolutionary War activity. A college in Rockland County leading nationally recognized research on the region’s own history creates a powerful connection between campus, community, and country.

What Faculty Research Means When Choosing a College

Prospective students often evaluate colleges based on campus facilities, athletics, location, and cost. Faculty research rarely tops the checklist, but it should be part of the conversation, and this announcement illustrates why.

Three Reasons Undergraduate Research Opportunities Matter

1. It changes the classroom dynamic. Faculty who are actively publishing and researching bring current scholarship into their teaching. Students learn from professors engaged with their fields, not just from textbooks about them.

2. It builds a differentiated résumé. Graduates who can point to documented experience in archival research, data curation, and digital humanities stand out in applications to graduate school and in the job market. The skills developed through a project like this one, including critical analysis, database management, and historical writing, transfer directly to careers in education, public history, law, government, museums, and information science.

3. It signals institutional investment. Winning competitive grants requires administrative support, qualified faculty, and functional infrastructure. When a college secures a $345,639 federal award, it demonstrates that the institution invests seriously in its academic programs and its people.

Have questions about how research opportunities work on campus? Schedule a campus visit to St. Thomas Aquinas College to meet faculty and see the Loyalist Studies Institute in action.

Questions Every Prospective Student Should Ask

Students comparing colleges can use St. Thomas Aquinas College’s achievement as a benchmark. When visiting any campus, consider asking:

• Do undergraduates have opportunities to participate in faculty research?
• Are there funded research fellowships or paid research positions available to students?
• Which faculty members are actively publishing or leading major projects?
• How does the college support students who want to present or publish their own work?

At institutions where the answers are strong, as they now demonstrably are at St. Thomas Aquinas College, students gain far more than a degree. They gain a professional track record before graduation.

A Growing Institution With Expanding Opportunities

The NEH grant is the latest in a series of developments at St. Thomas Aquinas College. The College has recently launched a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity, elevated women’s flag football to varsity status within the ECAC league, and earned accreditation reaffirmation along with national recognition for excellence, value, and student success. Together, these developments paint a picture of an institution in motion, investing in new academic programs, athletics, and scholarly distinction at the same time.

Located on 76 acres in Rockland County, New York, the College serves approximately 2,000 full- and part-time students across four schools: Arts & Social Sciences, Business, Education, and STEM. With more than 100 majors, minors, and specializations, recognition from U.S. News & World Report as a Top-Tier Regional University, and status as a Yellow Ribbon Program institution, the College combines liberal arts breadth with career-focused preparation.

Preserving the Past, Preparing Students for the Future

There is a fitting symmetry in this project. A college rooted in the liberal arts tradition is using cutting-edge digital methods to recover the stories of people whose choices defined a founding era. In the process, it is preparing its own students to become the historians, analysts, educators, and archivists of the next generation.

The records preserved through this NEH grant will outlast everyone working on the project today. So will the skills, experiences, and professional confidence that St. Thomas Aquinas College students build while creating them. That is the lasting value of connecting faculty research to student learning, and it is a model worth watching as the College’s national profile continues to grow.

Ready to move forward? Explore admissions at St. Thomas Aquinas College and submit your application today to join a community where students contribute to scholarship of national significance.

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