| ALUMNI & FRIENDS
NEWSLETTER |
| JUNE 2025 |
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| Jason Shanks inspires graduates at 2025 Commencement |
Jason Shanks shared his personal story and urged the Class of 2025 to build consecrated lives as the keynote speaker at the University of Saint Francis Commencement on May 3 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
After words from Saint Francis Board of Trustees Chair Richard A. Poinsatte and President Dr. Lance Richey, Shanks offered a heartfelt message of encouragement to the graduates and their families and friends. Shanks is president of the National Eucharistic Congress.
Shanks, who recovered from a life-threatening illness, urged graduates to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and to seek God in using both aspects for the greater good. He told the graduates he wanted them to not just have a successful life, but to have a consecrated one.
“Graduates, the world will ask you to lead with strengths,” 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 him 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. “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 not only through their achievements, but also through interior communion with God.
Saint Francis awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters to Donald 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.
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.
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