section_path: Early life, family, and education/University
section_name: University
paragraph_text: University
  
  In 1973, Prevost was planning to attend Tolentine College, an Augustinian seminary in Olympia Fields, Illinois, but it closed that same year. He promptly enrolled in Villanova University, an Augustinian college located near Philadelphia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in mathematics in 1977. At Villanova, he took elective courses in Hebrew and Latin (which was seen as unusual because he was not majoring in theology), read the writings of Saint Augustine, and discussed the work of Karl Rahner with other students. Prevost also worked as a cemetery groundskeeper at Saint Denis Roman Catholic Church in Havertown, Pennsylvania, while studying at Villanova.
  
  He returned to his father's native Hyde Park to obtain a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Catholic Theological Union in 1982 and taught physics and math at St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago's Wrightwood neighborhood during his studies. He earned a Licentiate of Canon Law (JCL) in 1984, followed by a Doctor of Canon Law (JCD) degree in 1987, both from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. During this period, he also learned Italian. His doctoral thesis was a study of the role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine. Villanova University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2014.