Alumni Profile

Chelsea Graham says that her combination of classes and field placements provided both the theory and the practice necessary to become a professional social worker. Since Franciscan is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and Chelsea is in the Advanced Standing Program, many of Chelsea’s classes count toward her master’s degree, which she is currently pursuing in addition to working part time as a behavioral health professional with a family services agency.In her career, Chelsea works with families who have children with behavioral problems, specifically families with children who have autism, intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome, and other mental health issues.

Melissa McCartney became passionate about pursuing a career as an Operating Room (OR) nurse during her clinical sessions as a nursing student at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Still, she never imagined that she would land her dream job after getting married and moving to Nebraska just three weeks after her graduation.After relentlessly searching for open nursing positions that fit her level of experience, she applied on a whim for a job as an OR nurse. Two hours after submitting her application, she got a call for an interview. Reflecting on her time in the workforce, Melissa says her education at Franciscan helped set her up for success in her job.“It’s been such a blessing,” Melissa says. “It’s been the most amazing job ever. The things I have done seem like they’re right out of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.”

Joe Norton ’13 belongs to a family of Franciscan University alums. He’s one of eight to attend, and one of six who have already graduated. He’s one of four who have graduated with a computer information science major. Joe minored in business management. It’s a combination that he describes as essential given his career as a software engineer with the social jukebox and music service Radio in San Francisco.“I use cutting-edge technologies on a small backend team to serve data for millions of customers, primarily through writing code for our distributed backend. Duties include payments processing, new feature development, user notifications, data storage retrieval, security, and more,” says Joe.

United States Air Force Captain Anne Delmare ’08 didn’t arrive as a student on Franciscan’s campus until her sophomore year. That’s because she spent her freshman year taking classes 4,000 miles away.“I knew I wanted to travel and learn a new language,” says Anne, so after high school, she headed to the University of Navarra in northern Spain. There, she studied Spanish language and culture, and earned credits toward the undergraduate Spanish major she would later complete at Franciscan University.Anne also majored in business, following in the footsteps of her enterprising father and other relatives, owners of a successful family winery in Huntly, Virginia.

“The business world is no longer local,” says David Kirk ’11. He should know: he’s a financial analyst for Cisco, a company that designs networking systems to connect the global world.

“No matter what you end up doing, you can do it more effectively, more ethically, with an economics degree.”Stephen Hepburn initially planned to major in theology and philosophy, but with strong encouragement from his parents, enrolled instead as an accounting major. His economics course his first semester made him seriously consider switching majors, and after receiving a special exception to spend his second freshman semester in Franciscan University’s study abroad program in Gaming, Austria, and meeting economics professor Dr. Michael Welker, Stephen realized he had discovered a major he loved.