For as long as she can remember, Rylie Severson has wanted to be a doctor.
Medical vocations run in her family—her dad, David Severson ’99, is a dentist; her mom, Leah (Novicky ’00) Severson, is a nurse; and her grandfather and uncle are surgeons—so the idea of becoming a physician felt natural to Rylie.
“I never thought of doing anything else,” she says.
Franciscan University runs in her family, too. Her parents met here, and their three oldest children have all attended: Rylie, her older sister, Ella ’24, and her younger brother, Caden. When Rylie entered Franciscan’s Pre-Med Program, she was continuing along the path she always knew she would take.
Now a senior psychology major, Rylie says her call to be a doctor feels stronger than ever because of the life-changing experiences she’s had at Franciscan.
One of those experiences happened freshman year, when she got involved in the Center for Leadership and learned about vocation from Dr. Joshua Miller in the Personal Vocation Office.
“I realized how important it was not to wait for my vocation down the line, but that it’s something I’m living every day,” she explains.
For Rylie, that vocation means connecting with other humans and alleviating suffering, not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
With that goal in mind, she went on medical mission trips to villages in Ecuador in 2023 and 2025, where she had more life-changing experiences.
“Seeing how well the physicians on the trip cared for people was very inspiring and formative on my path of being a doctor,” she says.
Junior year, when Rylie returned from a semester in Gaming, Austria (which she says was an “incredible adventure”), her friend Shawn Lunde ’23 had a question for her: Would she help lead a new hospital ministry he was creating?
“I said, ‘Of course!’” she remembers.
In Ecuador, and in her summer job as a certified nurse’s assistant, she had seen so many lonely patients who never had visitors. Now, through the new Mother Teresa Hospital Ministry, she and other student volunteers visit hospital patients every Monday.
“I’ve had patients I’ve laughed with, cried with, so many different emotions,” she says. “Every time I go, it’s a beautiful experience.”
Rylie also volunteers weekly at the Sycamore Center, a local after-school youth program, where she paints, plays, and prays with children.
“I think it’s important these children have people in their lives who love them, and who keep coming back week after week,” says Rylie, who, with six younger siblings and many cousins, is in her element around children. “It’s brought me so much joy.”
That joy will remain with her as she applies to medical schools with the goal of starting in 2026. It is a joy that springs from the heart of her vocation—not just the vocation of her future but the one she lives every day: a vocation of connecting with other people wherever she meets them. Whether it’s in a hospital room, a distant village, a youth center, or a doctor’s office, she hopes to help heal each person, one life-changing encounter at a time.
