University News

The Saint Francis University School of Science, Environmental Engineering Program , and Center for Watershed Research & Service is pleased to welcome Fulbright Scholar Dr. Ruben Mamani to campus. Dr. Mamani hails from Bolivia and has expertise in air quality and international development projects. He has contributed to research projects investigating air pollution and climate change in the high Andes of Bolivia. He studied the transport of aerosols from Amazonian biomass burning reaching the glaciers of the Andes mountains as an associate researcher at the Atmospheric Physics Laboratory of

The move-in dust has settled, and students are getting down to business with the first week of classes under their belts! Compiled here, you will find statistics, video links and photo galleries from the kick-off of the 2016-17 academic year. 2016-17 Fast Facts 2,290 total student population Undergraduate Students We have 1,702 undergraduate students. Of those, 62% are female, 38% are male. 1,309 are Pennsylvania residents; 393 come from outside of PA - with 348 of them coming from 31 different U.S. states. We have 46 international students from 22 countries outside of the U.S. 303 (or 17.8%)

A First-Year Convocation was held on August 19, and all first-year students were in attendance. The Deans from the Schools at Saint Francis alongside the Provost Wayne Powel, President Father Malachi Van Tassell, T.O.R., current student Gabrielle Beck, and alumna Elisha Fleig processed into the filled auditorium to officially welcome students academically to the University and offer words of wisdom. After a welcome and opening prayer, Fr. Malachi expressed his confidence in the first-year students’ ability to succeed, and current student Gabrielle Beck (double major in psychology and Spanish )

Heather N. McHenry, PA-C, ’08, MPAS, ’09, has been selected as the speaker for the 2016 Graduate Commencement ceremony on May 8. About Ms. McHenry Heather McHenry says she knew immediately—on her first trip to Honduras as a Saint Francis undergraduate—that she was hooked on medical missions. “It opened my eyes,” says McHenry of the experience. Even though she was not a licensed provider at the time and could only assist the physical therapy team in charge of the trip, she says she found the work immensely gratifying. After earning her master’s in physician assistant science and licensure

Graduating with the class of 2015 were two unordinary “students:” Maizie and JoJo. These “students” came to Saint Francis University from the Central PA Humane Society where they had been given up by previous owners. As part of a psychology course on animal behavior, a group of students guided by Dr. Stephen Gilmour, now professor emeritus of psychology, applied classroom theory in training these “hard-to-adopt” dogs. The end goal was simple: prepare both dogs to find a loving, forever home. Work hard, train hard. Four students—Ann Beliles ‘15, Anna Fielding, Nathan Herdman and Meghan Studds

On November 11, 2013, the Saint Francis University Board of Trustees elected Rev. Malachi Van Tassell, T.O.R. to assume the office of president of Saint Francis University. His term will begin after Rev. Gabriel Zeis, T.O.R. concludes his tenure at the end of the academic year 2013-2014. Father Malachi is the son of Fred and Barbara Van Tassell and a native of Poughkeepsie, NY. He is the oldest of five children and has nine nieces and nephews. He professed vows as a Franciscan in 1999 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2004 at the Immaculate Conception Chapel at Saint Francis University