Antonia Mysyk

Before college, Antonia Mysyk ’21 never liked history. At Franciscan, she became a history major. What changed?

“I fell in love with the history curriculum,” explains Antonia, who received the top history award in May. “Going to Franciscan, you get to see how our Catholic faith thrived throughout the ages, how it developed and grew, and how it influenced history.”

The Catholic faith was another thing she “wasn’t really into” when she was younger. But during her senior year of high school, a friend brought her on a retreat that changed her life. After that, Antonia felt something lacking at every secular college she visited. Then, the friend who had brought her to the retreat told her about Franciscan. When she visited, she knew this was where she belonged.

“That thing I felt lacking at other colleges was fulfilled at Franciscan,” she remembers. “Everyone was so Christ-centered and so joyful that it really touched my heart.”

Before long, Antonia and that same friend, Kate Shaughnessy ’22, were roommates at Franciscan.

While majoring in history, Antonia also added two minors: legal studies and criminology. In fact, she had wanted to go to law school since her sophomore year in high school, when she began competing in mock trial; during her junior year, her team went all the way to nationals.

“Doing mock trial was an amazing experience,” she says. “I got to build relationships with different judges and lawyers and really see what the legal field looks like.”

At Franciscan, her interest in law continued to grow. This fall, she starts law school at Case Western Reserve University—just a short drive from her hometown of Chardon, Ohio— intending to pursue either criminal law or constitutional law.

On one hand, her interest in criminal law stems from an internship she once did at a local courthouse that had a rehabilitation program for drug offenders. There, Antonia was inspired by seeing how the law can serve not just to punish but also to reform someone’s life.

On the other hand, she is considering constitutional law to help defend the constitutional rights that are under attack in our present culture, especially in the Church.

Before heading to law school, she will spend this summer with her sister doing an unusual job: Traveling around the country to different horse shows, they will professionally braid horses’ manes before each show.

With so many exciting adventures ahead, Antonia says she hopes to carry her faith into everything she does.

“My time at Franciscan taught me that our faith and Christ belong to every single aspect of our lives,” she says. “And that’s something I hope to take with me forever.”