Numbers always came naturally to Franciscan University chemistry professor Dr. Jeff Rohde and his three brothers (who now, respectively, work in business, finance, and organic chemistry). That may have had something to do with their father, an aeronautical engineer at NASA.
Not that Papa Rohde gave the boys much help. According to Jeff, they rarely needed it, which was, in fact, something of a letdown for their father.
I still find it incredible that God guided me to Franciscan University. While I did not go to school here, I always wanted to work where I can fully immerse myself in the mission of the institution and become a key part of extending the fruit of that mission.
I was first introduced to Franciscan University when my wife, Suzanne, and I were just married. We led the youth ministry program at our parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and beginning in 2002, we brought our youth group to the Steubenville Youth Conferences.
Like most children, Anne Hendershott never tired of asking why. But unlike most adults, she never stopped asking that question.
“I’ve always been curious about why people do what they do,” explains Franciscan University’s newest sociology professor. “When I’ve got a question, I’m like a dog with a bone. I should have been a detective.”
Maybe. But that would have been a loss to Franciscan, as well as the Church.
For summer 2015, while other Franciscan faculty squirreled away in their offices, researching and writing, assistant professor of music Dr. Jessica Ewell went to the Scottish Highlands, recording her third album, Songs of the Summer Realm.
Ewell, who is blind, composed the album’s songs using standard audio equipment, along with screen reading software and Braille music. She describes the project as “Celtic fusion,” centered on the theme of King Arthur and the idea of Christendom.
