Testimonials:

Mark Summe said his motivation to enter the science research field was originally fueled by “a desire to drastically change the world.” This desire, he says, was transformed during his time as an undergraduate studying chemistry and mathematical science at Franciscan University of Steubenville.“We need faithful Catholics to be a part of science to sway the vote back to real, empirical science that seeks to integrate faith and reason, not separate it,” he says.Now studying chemical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, Mark says his undergraduate career at Franciscan taught him to see a bigger picture.

A career in medicine often comes with a high price — long years of study, high debt and delaying the start of family.  But at the age of 26, Lynne O’Mara is a general surgery physician assistant in Boston’s prestigious Brigham and Women’s Hospital, earns a good salary, and just had her first baby with husband Patrick ’09 — all without investing four years in medical school and a residency.While studying biology at Franciscan University, Lynne shadowed physicians and PAs and chose to pursue the accelerated 23-month Physician Assistant Program after graduation. She loves the autonomy to diagnose and treat her own patients, prescribe meds, and assist in surgery.

“My job is immensely satisfying. I help teach people who they are.” Every day at work, Teresa Jensen, MD, uses the philosophical formation she received from Franciscan University (BA ’02, MA ’03) as she serves patients at the Order of St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, in pediatrics and internal medicine. Ever since she was 12 years old, she knew she wanted to be a doctor, but a master’s degree in philosophy was not originally part of the plan that culminated with four years of medical school at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.Growing up, Jensen saw firsthand how the culture influenced medical professionals to view patients as cases rather than people.

Joe Norton ’13 belongs to a family of Franciscan University alums. He’s one of eight to attend, and one of six who have already graduated. He’s one of four who have graduated with a computer information science major. Joe minored in business management. It’s a combination that he describes as essential given his career as a software engineer with the social jukebox and music service Radio in San Francisco.“I use cutting-edge technologies on a small backend team to serve data for millions of customers, primarily through writing code for our distributed backend. Duties include payments processing, new feature development, user notifications, data storage retrieval, security, and more,” says Joe.