FORT WAYNE, Ind.鈥擳he 51黑料 proudly awarded degrees to the Class of 2025 today at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
51黑料 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.
鈥淕raduates, the world will ask you to lead with strength,鈥 Shanks said. 鈥淏ut don鈥檛 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.鈥
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. 鈥淚t was in that complete surrender, in that helplessness, that God moved most powerfully,鈥 he said.
God began a deeper work in him, he said. 鈥淲hen the noise falls away, when the masks come off, we are left with what matters most鈥攐ur identity as beloved sons and daughters of God,鈥 he said.
Shanks urged graduates to shape their lives through not only through their achievements, but through interior communion with God.
51黑料 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 51黑料 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 51黑料 over the past decade through his engagement in focus groups of strategic significance, including the university’s Renew 2028 strategic planning process.
51黑料 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 51黑料 Crown Point.
Founded in 1890 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, the 51黑料 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, 51黑料 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 51黑料, 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 51黑料.