Father Dave Pivonka, TOR '89 President | Franciscan University website

More than 200 students, faculty, and staff members from the Franciscan University of Steubenville have recently returned from a series of global mission trips. The university's Missionary Outreach Office organized these student-led missions, which took place during their spring breaks, to various locations including Ecuador, Belize, the Dominican Republic, and several U.S. cities such as New York and Los Angeles.

Amelia Brennan, coordinator of Missionary Outreach, highlights the primary intention of these trips, stating, “The Lord is working through our mission trips to help students understand their personal vocations to holiness through encounter, conversion, and community. Our students find that when they give of themselves out of love, they also come to know the love of Christ in a tangible way.”

The university offers an ongoing focus on missionary work through its Office for Personal Vocation. Brennan added, “Through mission trips, we offer our students another opportunity to be who they are called to be and then make a gift of themselves.”

Students shared their experiences at an event called “Gratitude Sunday” following the completion of the trips. Among them was Columban Honan, a junior philosophy major, who participated in a mission trip to the Bronx, New York. On his experience helping a recovering drug addict named Steven, he said, “Connecting with Steven and watching him in eucharistic adoration was so powerful. My confidence in missionary work just shot right up.”

Katie-Marie Zickert, a graduate student who led a mission to Honduras, expressed her encounter with an elderly blind man as transformative. She expressed her gratitude, saying, “This trip lit a fire in my belly and confirmed for me that I am on the right path and that my whole life is going to be a mission.”

Additionally, Michael Henderson, a sophomore, shared his reflections from his time in New York City. He stated, “I received confirmation of my desire to join the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and to live a life completely in the service of God and his people.”

Franciscan University emphasizes its distinct approach to running an entire program directed at missionary work, including retreats, ministries, and faith formation throughout the year.