Franciscan University Celebrates Five Outstanding Alumni

Franciscan University of Steubenville honored five exceptional alumni at the 35th annual Alumni Awards Banquet held September 27 during the 2024 Homecoming Weekend.

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR '89, president of Franciscan University, congratulated and thanked the honorees.

"What we're doing here-how we're forming students, how we're working with them, how we're molding them, how we're challenging them, how we're inviting them to something greater-impacts the students and then that impact lives on forever," he told the audience. "I'm just really grateful to our honorees for reminding me of what God does once you leave here. That's why our alumni are such a blessing."

Father Brian Cavanaugh, TOR '69, received the Rose M. Defede Faithful Franciscan Award for his many years of service to his alma mater. His service has included Student Life, Campus Ministry, University Relations, many years as an athletics chaplain for the Barons' rugby team, and now Information Technology Services. Father Cavanaugh is best known for finding inspirational quotes and short stories and sharing them under the name "Apple Seeds" with readers of his monthly "quoteletter," website, Facebook page, and books.

"I am grateful for all the friars who have gone before us and upon whose shoulders we proudly stand," Father Cavanaugh said. "And I'm proud of the friars with whom I live, shoulder to shoulder, supporting one another in our ministry as faithful Franciscans."

Abriana (Flynn '06) Chilelli received the John J. Carrigg Award for her excellence as a leader in the field of Catholic education. As assistant director of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and diocesan liaison for the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, Chilelli is working to make Catholic schools into mission-focused witnesses of joyful hope in today's bleak landscape and culture of secular education.

"I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the University professionally … and for forming my imagination on what Catholic education ought to be," said Chilelli. "[Catholic education] is a complete unity of faith and reason and never a divide between those things, and in that way, a full integration of the human person to come to know God the Creator and then to come to love him."

Dr. Damian Olsen '08 received the Father Dan Egan Alumni Award for his fidelity to Church teaching and commitment to excellence in his medical profession. A leading expert in Natural Procreative Technology, Olsen specializes in the surgical treatment of female infertility while avoiding methods that conflict with Church teaching on marriage and the dignity of the human person. Olsen was not able to attend the ceremony and was given the award in absentia.

Robert Praetzel '15 received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for applying his entrepreneurial skills to revitalizing his community in Steubenville. A successful software engineer, Praetzel helped renovate abandoned buildings downtown and co-founded Chesterton & Co. Cigars, a store with "a space for camaraderie and virtue-based fellowship with other Catholics." He also opened Numa Spaces, a Catholic co-working collaborative downtown offering entrepreneurs high-speed Wi-Fi and other office amenities.

"We saw these buildings that were empty, falling in on themselves, and dilapidated, not as they were but as they could be," said Praetzel. "The University provided myself and my friends and family the opportunity to see things and how they could fulfill their purpose better, and then we've been gifted with the tools of education to know how to implement those changes."

Dan Vansteenburg '93 received the Professor Edward J. Kelly Award for achieving success as an entrepreneur and for his generosity in sharing its fruits. Vansteenburg owns 47 Jimmy John's stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. With 55 percent ownership in a new Jimmy John's in Steubenville's Franciscan Square, he and his wife, Brenda, have chosen to donate all their profits from it to the University.

"This is a bigger honor for me than I can express with words," Vansteenburg said, after crediting his wife, Brenda's support for his business success. "For me to be here on the stage in front of you people receiving this award is really a testament to God and his love of me."

View and download photos of the 2024 Alumni Awards Banquet here.

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