Outstanding Alumni
Five exceptional alumni were honored at the 35th annual Alumni Awards Banquet held September 27 during the 2024 Homecoming Weekend. President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, congratulated and thanked the honorees.
“What we’re doing here—how we’re forming students, how we’re working with them, how we’re molding them, how we’re challenging them, how we’re inviting them to something greater—impacts the students and then that impact lives forever,” Father Dave told the audience. “I’m just really grateful to our honorees for reminding me of what God does once you leave here.”
Father Brian Cavanaugh, TOR ’69, received the Rose M. DeFede Faithful Franciscan Award for his service to his alma mater, including with Student Life, Campus Ministry, University Relations, as an athletics chaplain for the Barons’ rugby team, and now Information Technology Services. Father Cavanaugh is known for sharing inspirational quotes and stories online under the name “Apple Seeds.”
“I am grateful for all the friars who have gone before us and upon whose shoulders we proudly stand,” Father Cavanaugh said. “I’m proud of the friars with whom I live, shoulder to shoulder, supporting one another in our ministry as faithful Franciscans.”
Abriana (Flynn ’06) Chilelli received the John J. Carrigg Award for her excellence as a leader in the field of Catholic education as assistant director of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and diocesan liaison for the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education.
Catholic education “is a complete unity of faith and reason and never a divide between those things, and in that way, a full integration of the human person to come to know God the Creator and then to come to love him,” said Chilelli.
Dr. Damian Olsen ’08 received the Father Dan Egan Alumni Award f. A leading expert in Natural Procreative Technology, Olsen specializes in the surgical treatment of female infertility while avoiding methods that conflict with Church teaching on marriage and the dignity of the human person.
Robert Praetzel ’15 received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for applying his entrepreneurial skills to revitalizing Steubenville. A successful software engineer, Praetzel helped renovate abandoned buildings, opened Numa Spaces, and co-founded Chesterton & Co. Cigars, a store with “a space for camaraderie and virtue-based fellowship with other Catholics.”
Dan Vansteenburg ’93 received the Professor Edward J. Kelly Award for achieving success as an entrepreneur and for his generosity in sharing its fruits. Vansteenburg owns 47 Jimmy John’s stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. With 55 percent ownership in a new Jimmy John’s in Steubenville’s Franciscan Square, he and his wife, Brenda, have chosen to donate their profits from it to the University.
“This is a bigger honor for me than I can express with words,” Vansteenburg said. “For me to be here on the stage in front of you people receiving this award is really a testament to God and his love of me.”
Religious Vocations Fair
Representatives from more than 50 religious communities
and dioceses visited Franciscan University for the Religious Vocations Fair, held Friday, October 11, 2024.
Among them were Franciscan alumni from 18 religious communities and dioceses including the TOR Franciscan Friars, OFM Capuchins, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Dominicans, Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, and more. Sponsored by Franciscan University’s Priestly Discernment Program, the annual fair allows current and prospective students to learn about a religious vocation from those living it.
Austria Parents’ Week
Last fall, education professor Dr. Rebecca (Homol ’01)Rook traveled to Austria for Parents’ Week. During Parents’ Week, families can visit their students studying abroad in Gaming and enjoy special trips and events. Here’s what Rook had to say about the experience.
St. Augustine said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
I recall being struck by this statement many years ago. Having never traveled abroad, I thought, “I really need to see more of the world.” Although I didn’t study in Austria as an undergraduate at Franciscan, six of my siblings did, and they still describe the experience with nostalgia. When my son decided to study in Gaming this fall, I felt it was time for me to read more of the world’s book. My husband, Phil ’01 MBA ’07, and I eagerly signed up for the Parents’ Week, and what we encountered on this pilgrimage was unforgettable.
Arriving in Gaming, we were greeted by our children with roses and smiles. The beauty of the 14th-century Kartause, where the students live and study, was awe-inspiring.
For four days, we stayed there and experienced incredible hospitality from the Austrian faculty and staff, including a tour of the grounds and an Austrian Ball where the students danced in dirndls and lederhosen. While our children attended classes, the parents explored local sites planned by Franciscan’s hospitality staff. Melk Monastery, a Baroque Benedictine abbey overlooking the Danube, was a favorite. The charming town
of Dürnstein, with its vineyard-covered hills and castle ruins, offered breathtaking views. Each day’s excursion included Mass, celebrated by Father Nathan Malavolti, TOR.
One particularly moving experience was visiting the Mauthausen Concentration Camp on the feast of St. John Paul II. We celebrated Mass in a chapel built after the camp’s liberation; affixed on the exterior of the chapel was a cross sent by St. John Paul II himself. It was a sacred, indescribable moment.
Throughout the trip, we celebrated Mass in several unbelievably beautiful churches, each steeped in history. St. Michael’s Church in Mondsee, known from The Sound of Music, was a highlight. During the Mass, the first reading was from Ephesians 3:17-19: “That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” While I have experienced the enormity of God’s love time and time again, this was the first time I had something visible to compare its magnitude, and I was simply overcome.
The second half of the Parents’ Week was a four-day excursion to Salzburg and Vienna. Staying in the heart of each city allowed us to explore palaces and churches and enjoy world-class pastries and gelato. In Salzburg, we attended a Mozart concert and dinner at St. Peter’s Monastery. The performers involved the audience, making it an unforgettable evening of laughter and joy shared with our children and other Franciscan families.
As the pilgrimage drew to a close, I said to Phil, “This trip has been the perfect representation of everything Franciscan is. We’ve experienced encounter, community, and conversion here. My heart is so full.”
That feeling has only continued to grow as I’ve reflected on the experience. The beautiful landscapes, rich architecture, and culture made a lasting impression, and our faith has been enriched. We can’t wait to make this pilgrimage again when another one of our children studies in Gaming. There are more pages of Austria’s beautiful book waiting for us to read.
Learn more about upcoming Parents’ Weeks at austria.franciscan.edu/parents-week.
Franciscan University celebrated its annual Homecoming Weekend September 27–29, 2024. In addition to the Alumni Awards Banquet, the festivities included a Household Life Mass, the Kelly Roggensack Memorial Races, St. Francis Festival, Alumni Nuptial Vow Blessing, and more. The weekend was full of athletic events including a rugby game and men’s and women’s soccer matches. Franciscan students, alumni, and the community also joined in eucharistic adoration at a Saturday night Festival of Praise.
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