Many of the university’s graduates are embarking on their careers with an impressive body of work and demonstrated experience in their chosen fields.
Matthew Salisbury, a communications media graduate and co-founder of Creative Rhetoric, graduated with two feature-length screenplays and two graphic novels among other projects completed during his time at the university. His first graphic novel, Paul of Tarsus, will arrive in stores next month.
Christopher Lane, a business graduate, not only studied marketing in his classes, but also gained practical experience by working with the admissions department on the university’s own marketing campaigns. He believes the university’s hands-on approach to education will help graduates in job interviews by providing them with a list of concrete accomplishments.
“I think it allows you to kind of separate yourself from … the rest of the applicants that are out there for the job, that are right out of college,” he said.
A New University Model
The inspiration for John Paul the Great Catholic University came to Connolly during a visit to the Eucharistic adoration chapel at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
It was 11 p.m. on a Friday night in early November 2000 and, as Connolly prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, he was amazed to see that almost 20 students were still gathered in the chapel, deep in prayer. He wondered if it would be possible for one university to combine the spirituality of Franciscan University with the sort of top-caliber business and technology programs offered at the University of California, San Diego.
John Paul the Great Catholic University represents his effort to do just that.
In 2003, Connolly and four other lay Catholics from San Diego’s North County – Philippe Dardaine, Wes Fach, Scott McKenna and Ed Snow – founded the university. For its first 18 months, it operated under a temporary name, New Catholic University. But after the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, the university’s board of trustees voted unanimously to name the university after the late Pope.
Two degree programs were available when the university’s first students arrived in 2006 – a Bachelor of Science in communications media, with an emphasis in entertainment media, and a Bachelor of Science in business, with an emphasis in entrepreneurial business. Since then, the university’s academic offerings have continued to expand.
Starting in 2009, communications media students have been able to pursue their degree with an emphasis in either screenwriting, directing and producing, interactive media or video journalism.
Meanwhile, business students have been given the opportunity to major in business with an emphasis in the “business of entertainment.”
Also in 2009, John Paul the Great Catholic University opened a graduate school of biblical theology and began offering a Master of Business Administration program with an emphasis in entrepreneurial business.
The university also plans to offer a Bachelor of Science in technology with an emphasis in video game development (starting in 2010) and computer engineering (starting in 2011). Future degrees will include a Master of Business Administration in politics, a Bachelor of Science in fashion and a Bachelor of Science in music.
The university plans to receive its regional accreditation by 2012 and be housed on a permanent campus by 2015.
Regardless of their chosen field of study, all of the university’s students receive a solid grounding in Catholic theology and spirituality.
Every Wednesday during the academic year, students are required to attend a school Mass in the campus chapel and, at a time of their own choosing, commit to at least one hour of Eucharistic adoration each week. But students often surpass this minimum level of spiritual participation, and it is not uncommon for groups of students to gather for recitations of the rosary or night prayer, attend weekday Masses on campus or take class assignments to the chapel, where they can work on them in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
“At the end of the day, that’s really what drew me to the university – the idea of an authentically Catholic university,” said Lane, whose friends have shared “horror stories” about heterodox theology classes at “some big-name Catholic schools.”
“It was nice knowing that what I was learning was authentic Church teaching,” he said.
For more information on John Paul the Great Catholic University, visit www.jpcatholic.com.
Printed with permission from The Southern Cross, newspaper for the Diocese of San Diego.
Denis Grasska is the assistant editor of The Southern Cross, newspaper for the Diocese of San Diego.