Our mission as a Catholic and Franciscan university is to educate, to evangelize, and to send forth joyful disciples for lives of worldwide mission.

At Franciscan University, you’ll find professors, spiritual mentors, and lifelong friends who will challenge and help you to grow mentally and spiritually. In the midst of our academically excellent and passionately Catholic community, you’ll discover who God made you to be and leave here prepared to flourish—professionally, spiritually, and personally.

Admissions 

ROOM: GRAND E

Communicating the Joy of the Gospel

ROOM: RIVERVIEW 2

Movie Screening

Movies: A Pathway To Grace, the SIGNIS way

The Academy-Award nominated film 3 Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, will be screened, followed by facilitated discussion among the attendees.  The methodology used will be in the long tradition of SIGNIS and its predecessor, the International Catholic Organization for Cinema, which seats awards juries in some 40 international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, and Berlin.  This is not a lecture or panel discussion, but participant conversation.

Dr. Frank Frost is an award-winning television producer (Bernardin, The Other Holy Land), founder of Movie Moments of Grace and co-founder of the National Film Retreat.  He is Senior Producer at Frank Frost Productions, LLC, and is director of The Teilhard de Chardin Project www.teilhardproject.com.  He serves as President of SIGNIS Catholic Communicators Forum and President of SIGNIS North America.  He and his wife Mary are currently producing a television biography of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The Evolution of Teilhard de Chardin, slated to appear on PBS in 2020.

Rose Pacatte, FSP, is the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, CA, and an award-winning film reviewer for St. Anthony Messenger and the National Catholic Reporter and author and co-author of books on media literacy education and scripture and film. Her two most recent books are biographies of actor Martin Sheen and the artist Corita Kent (both for Liturgical Press.) Rose has An MEd in Media Studies and just received a Doctorate in Ministry in Pastoral Communications.

Session-Design

Dealing with Data: Key Tips for Turning Numbers into Stories

Many media professionals consider themselves “word people,” not “number people.” But publication staff and communications directors all need, from time to time, to make sense of data for various audiences.
This session will provide an overview on how to
1) Select the right story form for the data you have;
2) Create the right graphics to illustrate the data; and
3) Present data details and vocabulary clearly and simply.

Sharon Boehlefeld is the features and multimedia editor at The Observer in the Rockford Diocese. She has worked in diocesan and community newspapers since the early days of computerized publishing. She also has a master’s degree and additional post-graduate study in sociology, giving her a background in statistical analysis and both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She’s been an adjunct faculty member and a guest lecturer in college journalism and sociology classes. “Translating” the language of numbers into the language of words and graphics was a routine part of her job as a reporter and an editor in the secular press.

ROOM: GRAND D

General Interest Track

A Light Piercing the Darkness of Human Sex Trafficking: A Worldwide Epidemic

Human trafficking is a critical social concern that has garnered considerable recent media attention. Learn about this epidemic, contributing factors and what is being done or can be done to help the situation.

Sr. Celine Goessl, SCSC

ROOM: RIVERVIEW 2

Movie Panel Discussion

Courageous Conversations: A SIGNIS North America presentation

A panel of video, film, and journalism practitioners presents examples of the way media have been used productively to facilitate discussions of subjects that can require courage to address in today’s religious and political environment, with emphasis on the international dimensions.

Fr. Edward (Eddie) Siebert, S.J. is founder and president of Loyola Productions, Inc. in Los Angeles, CA. Siebert’s extensive experience both in secular and Catholic circles includes everything from newsroom stints at WDIV NBC Detroit, WWL CBS New Orleans, to chronicling Pope Francis in Rome, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Siebert received an MFA in film production from Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and Masters Degrees from USF and the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and is on the part-time faculty for the school of film and television at LMU.