FORT WAYNE, Ind.—The University of Saint Francis proudly awarded degrees to the Class of 2025 today at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
Saint Francis President Dr. Lance Richey and Board of Trustees Chair Richard A. Poinsatte offered congratulations and encouraging words to graduates before an inspiring address from keynote speaker Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress.
Shanks, who recovered from a life-threatening illness, encouraged graduates to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to seek God in using both aspects for the greater good. He told the graduates he wants them to not just have a successful life, but to have a consecrated one.
“Graduates, the world will ask you to lead with strength,” Shanks said. “But don’t be afraid to lead with surrender. Be vulnerable. Be open. Make time for silence. Let your life be rooted in prayer. Let your faith speak not only through what you accomplish, but through what you endure, what you entrust to God, and what you allow Him to transform. Your weakness may be the very place where someone else finds hope.”
Shanks talked about his vulnerability during a battle with COVID-19, which led to being in a medically induced coma for 45 days. His wife, Melissa, reached out to the community for prayer and a novena to St. Jude was started. On the ninth day of the novena, Shanks began to recover. “It was in that complete surrender, in that helplessness, that God moved most powerfully,” he said.
God began a deeper work in him, he said. “When the noise falls away, when the masks come off, we are left with what matters most—our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God,” he said.
Shanks urged graduates to shape their lives through not only through their achievements, but through interior communion with God.
Saint Francis awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters to Donald F. Schenkel, former president of Northeast Indiana Bank Holding Corporation and later chairman and CEO of Tower Financial Corporation. Schenkel helped guide Saint Francis through many key milestones when he served on the Board of Trustees. He later served as vice president for university relations. Schenkel has continued to support Saint Francis over the past decade through his engagement in focus groups of strategic significance, including the university’s Renew 2028 strategic planning process.
Saint Francis celebrated the awarding of 545 degrees to 408 undergraduate students and 90 graduate students. These totals included 66 students graduating in online programs and 58 students graduating from Saint Francis Crown Point.
Founded in 1890 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, the University of Saint Francis offers more than 60 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs through the College of Health Sciences and the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business. In addition to its traditional programs, Saint Francis designs focused curricula for working adults in Fort Wayne, Crown Point and online. USF Downtown houses the music technology program while offering enhanced internship and networking opportunities for students. The University of Saint Francis, recognized as an NAIA Five-Star Champion of Character institution, has 20 athletic programs boasting two individual and four team NAIA national championships. Approximately 1,800 students from a broad geographic region attend Saint Francis.