John Carroll University
Points of Pride

University Highlights

• U.S. News & World Report Ranking — For the 22nd consecutive year, John Carroll University ranks among the top 10 universities in the Midwest that grant master's degrees, according to the 2011 edition of "America's Best Colleges," U.S. News & World Report. John Carroll ranks #7 in the region. The University also ranks #4 in its "Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching" and #15 in "Great Schools, Great Prices."

• John Carroll also is included in Barron's "Best Buys," one of only 280 schools to earn that distinction, and ranked “one of the best colleges in the Midwest” in The Princeton Review.

• Our graduation rates significantly exceed national and Ohio averages. 65 percent of JCU undergrads receive their bachelor's degrees in four years, placing the University among the top 7 schools in Ohio.

• In 2010, JCU was selected by the Ohio Board of Regents and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation as one of four sites in Ohio and the only private school for the distinguished Teaching Fellows Program. The program is designed to attract talented and committed individuals with backgrounds in the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering & mathematics - into teaching in high-need secondary schools. The one-year program will offer prospective teachers rigorous preparation with extensive clinical experience resulting in a master's degree and teacher licensure. Each participant will receive a $30,000 fellowship.

• John Carroll University's impact on Northeast Ohio's economy exceeded $115 million in the year of analysis (FY 2006). This spending by our employees, students, and visitors generated nearly 1,500 jobs and produced more than $54 million in household earnings within the region. Our vendors and their employees, in turn, recycle spending within the region for additional goods and services.

• Our Commitment to Ohio: John Carroll's widely acclaimed financial-aid strategy — Ohio Access Initiative — enables qualified Ohio families with annual incomes below $40,000 to enroll their incoming freshman tuition free. More than $2 million has been raised to support the program, which received a Northern Ohio Live 2007 Awards of Achievement Honorable Mention/Education award.

• Fighting Ohio's "Brain Drain" - More than 58 percent of John Carroll graduates remain in Ohio to become leaders at work and in their communities. 500 companies in Northeast Ohio are owned or operated by Carroll alumni.

• For three consecutive years, since 2008, the University has been nationally recognized and named to The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for our commitment to community service. Service to others is a defining element of the University's campus culture; students have many opportunities to engage with the local community from the time they are freshmen. In 2009-10, JCU students volunteered more than 36,000 service hours.

• The Saint John's Bible - the first handwritten and hand-illuminated Bible in 500 years — debuted at John Carroll in April 2008. It was the only opportunity to view original pages from this historic manuscript in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The University also has received the first three of seven volumes of the “Wisdom Books,” a stunning full-color reproduction of The Saint John's Bible, for permanent display in the Grasselli Library and Breen Learning Center. The gift was made possible through a generous donation by Target in honor of retired Target Executive Vice President John Pellegrene, a John Carroll Class of 1958 alumnus.

• John Carroll students and grads are in demand: within six months of graduation, 97 percent of our graduates are employed, in graduate school, or completing a commitment to a year of service; our computer science students are routinely recruited for paid internships after their sophomore year; more than a dozen students are employed at the Cleveland Clinic each summer as paid chemistry, biology and psychology interns/researchers; and each spring, more than half the class of junior accountancy majors participate in full-time internships—almost all with Big Four and other public accounting firms.

• Our students learn from distinguished faculty who are experts in their respective fields. 96 percent of our 189 full-time faculty members hold doctoral degrees or the terminal degree in their field; 9 are Fulbright Fellows. 190 have published books, articles or have received research grants in the past two years. Our student/faculty ratio is 14:1.

Academics

Core Curriculum for Worldly Aspirations – Each undergraduate at John Carroll completes the University Core Curriculum, which provides a solid base for all further studies at the University. Through the completion of the first-year seminar, a year of foreign language, philosophy, religious studies, science and mathematics, social sciences, and humanities, students build a foundation in the liberal arts. The core curriculum prepares students not only in their undergraduate studies, but in future endeavors and professions, as well.

The John M. and Mary Jo Boler School of Business

• The Boler School of Business is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as its accountancy program. This dual accreditation is held by only 11 percent of business schools in the world.

• Our MBA program offers short-term international experiences in China, Russia, and India. Other study-abroad programs include the Boler London Program and the Ghana Summer Institute.

• Within Ohio, John Carroll traditionally is among the highest passing percentage on the CPA examination for first-time test takers. Compared with students from other Ohio schools, Boler students rank among the highest in CPA exam passing percentage. In 2010, Boler students ranked 3rd nationally on passing the Audit section of the CPA exam for first-time candidates with advanced degrees.

• Each year, approximately 50 percent of junior accountancy majors are employed in full-time internships during their spring semester. Most of the internships result in full-time job offers after graduation. Overall, accountancy generally places 100 percent of its graduates in jobs.

• The Boler School of Business has partnered with the Zagreb School of Economics and Management in Croatia in an effort to expand international educational initiatives. The partnership also seeks to develop an exchange of economic and social research.

• The University cultivates a spirit of innovation through the Edward M. Muldoon Center for Entrepreneurship, named for the late Edward Muldoon, Class of ’48, businessman and benefactor. The Center's principle mission is to bring the reality of entrepreneurship to the academic program and leverage the strengths of the University to assist the growth of private businesses. The Center consists of many parts:
  • Entrepreneurs Association-Ohio's top business owners' association in terms of principal shareholders of private companies.
  • Entrepreneurs House-a residential option for freshmen interested in entrepreneurship.
  • Entrepreneurship Education Consortium with other colleges/universities in Northeast Ohio.
  • Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO)-the premier student entrepreneurship network with chapters on more than 400 university campuses across North America.
  • Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE)-an international nonprofit organization that works with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize university students to make a difference in their communities. Students form teams and apply business concepts to develop outreach projects to help people in need. A JCU SIFE team won the SIFE 2009 Regional Competition and recognition as the John Carroll Student Organization of the Year.

• Boler management major, Franco Carapellotti ‘10, won CNN’s iReport Film Festival: Campaign 2008 contest with a short political satire film co-produced with a longtime, hometown friend. Their film won them an all-expenses paid trip to help cover the 2008 presidential inauguration with CNN.

• A Boler team of four students was one of nine national finalist teams in 2007 at the Fourth Annual Spirit of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) National Collegiate Venture Forum in Santa Barbara, California. The teams presented their business plans to a world-class panel of evaluators, early-stage investors, and product development and market-industry specialists.

• BSOB annually collaborates with the JCU Center for Service and Social Action and the Cuyahoga Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition to provide volunteer income tax preparation assistance to low-income taxpayers in February and March. Students, staff, and faculty participated in the program. Every hour of volunteer time on average was worth up to $4,500 to a low-income family.

The College of Arts and Sciences

• A commitment to K-12 education in Northeast Ohio - John Carroll is home to several programs that enhance K-12 education, including the Center for Mathematics and Science Education, Teaching and Technology (CMSETT); the Cleveland Heights - University Heights School District partnership; the Institute for Educational Renewal: Lakeland Regents Science Academy; a Literacy Specialist Project; Project QUE; Reading First - Ohio Center; and the School Psychology Specialist-Level Program.

• Study-abroad programs include the Jesuit Beijing Center, the London Arts and Sciences Semester, the Boler London Business Semester, the Irish-American Scholars Program, and the Japanese Experience. The partnership in The International Student Exchange Program provides other opportunities for students in 35 different countries around the world.

STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED

• 2010 Fulbright Scholars: Kelly Crawford ’10, a middle childhood education major, was awarded a Fulbright to teach English in Korea. Matthew Joyce, a 2004 history alumnus, is conducting research in China, specifically the contributions of the Yi minority to the Long March.

• 2009 Fulbright Scholars: Dina Baky ’09 spent nine months teaching in the Bordeaux Region of France. Joshua Marcin '09 researched banking and financial education options for families in El Salvador who receive money from relatives working abroad (remittances); he put his research into action by advocating on their behalf. He also was named a 2008 Truman Scholar. The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation annually provides up to $30,000 in funding to students pursuing graduate degrees in public service fields.

• Ralph Bunche Institute: Taneisha Means '09 spent summer 2008 in Durham, North Carolina, in the prestigious and highly competitive Ralph Bunche Summer Institute at Duke University.

• Bryan Mauk '08 was awarded the 2008 William E. Simon Fellowship for Noble Purpose, which included a $40,000 cash grant. Mauk applied the cash award toward his Metanoia Project for the homeless and opened a drop-in shelter. Mauk is the recipient of numerous honors for his exemplary commitment to community service, including the 2007 Howard R. Swearer Student Humanitarian Award and the 2007 Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Award.

• Jesuit Volunteers International: Emily Ferron '10 is currently teaching at Saint Xavier High School in Chuuk, Micronesia. Saint Xavier is a boarding school for the best and brightest in the South Pacific. Ferron’s duties include teaching chemistry, English, literature, psychology, and physical education; coaching basketball and track; and serving as the Girls' Moderator.

• Samantha Cocco '09 is about 500 miles away from Chuuk on the Island of Pohnpei in Micronesia teaching English, theology, math, and music. Other JVI volunteers are Matthew Wooters '09 in Punta Gorda, Belize; Alex Phillips '10 in Houston, Texas; and Jurell Sison '10 in Detroit, Michigan.

Tim Russert Department of Communication and Theatre Arts

In 2009, the University renamed its Department of Communication and Theatre Arts in memory of alumnus Tim Russert ’72. It also established the Tim Russert Endowed Scholarship and partnered with NBC to create a Meet the Press Fellowship for a John Carroll graduating senior. Andrew Rafferty '09 was selected as the first fellow for a nine-month position at Meet the Press under the direction of the program's executive producer. Joe Toohey ’10 is the current fellow.

Other notable achievements in the department include:

• In 2010, The Carroll News was named the state's "Best College Non-Daily Newspaper" for the third consecutive year by the Ohio chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). Over the last 10 years, newspaper has won more than six dozen national awards.

• The JCU Debate Team, under the guidance of Brent Brossmann, Ph.D., is ranked third in the nation by the American Debate Association.

• The department is John Carroll's largest in terms of majors.

• A significant reconstruction and digital enhancement of the television studio was completed in 2008.

• Dolan Center for Science and Technology*

• More than a dozen students are employed in a JCU program at Cleveland Clinic each summer as paid chemistry, biology and psychology interns/researchers.

• In 2007, the University graduated more chemistry majors than any of the 27 other Jesuit colleges and universities in the nation.

• 100 percent of undergraduate physics majors participate in research during the academic year.

• Students and faculty participated in the filming of a documentary focusing on global warming for the summer 2007 "Live Earth" concerts. Actor Chad Lowe, the film's director, visited campus for this event.

Global Education

Scores of John Carroll students study abroad every year through programs administered by the University's Center for Global Education. Annually, over 100 students participate in semester programs around the world. Another 100 or more students travel for short-term programs during academic breaks and over the summer, including a few students that studied on a ship that went around the world and visited 13 different countries.

Graduate Studies

• More than 20 degree programs and certificates of advanced study include arts and sciences, business, education, communications, humanities, nonprofit administration, and religious studies.

• An interdisciplinary master's program in Nonprofit Administration brings together the Boler School of Business, Communications, Political Science, and Sociology as a great example of collaboratively responding to the needs of the region.

Center for Service and Social Action/Campus Ministry

Service is an integral part of the academic, spiritual, and co-curricular experience for John Carroll students. Consistent with John Carroll University's mission, students, faculty, staff, and alums engage in service activities and immersion experiences.

• JCU students annually perform more than 36,000 hours of community service.

• 2,100 members of the JCU community, including students, faculty, and staff, participated in some form of service on behalf of the University during the academic year.

Immersion Experiences

• More than 150 students participated in immersion experiences traveling to Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Ecuador, Appalachia, Chicago, Biloxi, New Orleans, Louisville, and Cleveland. They have served meals, helped build homes and spent time with families discussing faith, values and mission. Fourteen immersion trips helped students learn about the challenges faced by people living in other parts of the country, the world, and in their own backyard.

Arrupe Scholars Program for Social Action

• The Arrupe Scholars Program recognizes John Carroll students for their significant commitment to two interrelated values of John Carroll's mission: intellectual inquiry that demands critical thinking and engaging in social justice and community service that leads to social action. Each student receives a scholarship of approximately $13,500 (half the total cost of tuition).

Poverty and Solidarity Initiative

• The Poverty and Solidarity Initiative launched in summer 2007 under the direction of James Lissemore, Ph.D., in the Department of Biology. The interdisciplinary course and summer internship sequence focuses on the causes of poverty and the people who are affected by it.

Athletics

• Teams at John Carroll have captured over 70 league titles, and have placed among the top ten Division III schools in the nation on several occasions.

• Individually, John Carroll can boast over 700 first team All-OAC selection and OAC champions, more than 80 Division III All-Americans, six national champions and three national Players of the Year.

• In 2009-10, the JCU men's basketball team battled its way to the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh time in 12 years. There are over 400 Division III schools that sponsor men’s basketball.

• Over 30 varsity athletes have been named Academic All-Americans either by their respective sport or by national organizations such as ESPN The Magazine.

• In 2010-11, John Carroll celebrated 40 years of women’s intercollegiate athletics and inducted its first women’s team — the 1993 volleyball squad — into the Athletic Hall of Fame.

• John Carroll remains a small college leader in television production and video webcasting. Over the last two years, over 20 athletic events have been broadcast on regional sports network SportsTime Ohio, and the sports information staff has internally produced nearly 125 webcasts covering 11 different sports.

• In October 2009, more than 85 John Carroll University alumni wrestlers, members of the 2009-2010 John Carroll wrestling team, parents, friends, and staff gathered at the University RecPlex to dedicate the David R. Meuse Wrestling Room.

Grants and Gifts for the Greater Good

• An anonymous donor has bequeathed $4.45 million to help deserving students in need of financial assistance. It is the largest anonymous gift commitment by an individual in the history of the University.

• Alumnus Jim McDonough ‘55 and his wife, Jacque, made a $1 million gift to the President’s Opportunity Fund, created to enable JCU President Robert L. Niehoff, S.J., to strategically allocate resources to capital improvements.

• In July 2010, John Carroll was one of four sites in Ohio and the only private school selected by the Ohio Board of Regents for the Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellows Program. The Fellowship Program is designed to attract talented and committed individuals with backgrounds in the STEM fields - science, technology, engineering & mathematics - into teaching in high-need secondary schools. The one-year program will offer prospective teachers rigorous preparation with extensive clinical experience resulting in a master's degree and teacher licensure. Each participant will receive a $30,000 fellowship while enrolled in the program. They will then teach for three years in low-income urban and rural secondary schools. Twenty participants will be selected for this prestigious opportunity at John Carroll.

• Also in 2010, John Carroll was awarded $271,000 from the John Huntington Fund for Education to support scholarships for students from Cuyahoga County with unmet need.

Among other research and program grants awarded to John Carroll since 2008 are four awards totaling almost $2 million:

• Catherine Rosemary, Ph.D., a faculty member in education and allied studies, received $926,708.56 from the U.S. Department of Education through the Ohio Department of Education to support the sixth year of Reading First Ohio, a statewide program to improve teacher quality in high-need districts. In addition, Prof. Rosemary, and co-principal investigator, Kathleen Roskos, Ph.D., received $235,781 from the Ohio Department of Education to fund the second year of the Literacy Educator Training Consortium, which benefits Ohio's high-need schools and districts. Both projects are in collaboration with other universities.

• Jeffrey Johansen, Ph.D., chair of the biology department and an internationally regarded algae researcher, received $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to study terrestrial cyanobacteria in Chile. The project includes funding for John Carroll student researchers.

• Sherri Crahen, Ph.D., dean of students, received $298,996 from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women. The multiyear grant will enable John Carroll to develop policies, support services, and educational programs. Dean Crahen will work in collaboration with local agencies, including the University Heights Police Department, which will receive funds for equipment through the grant.

Other Points of Pride in the Jesuit Tradition

• Members of the John Carroll community were appointed to national Jesuit leadership positions in 2008 by Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., superior general of the Society of Jesus. Rev. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., a member of the class of 1984 and former member of the John Carroll Board of Directors, and past president of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, was named to lead the Detroit Province. JCU board member Rev. Patrick Lee, S.J., was chosen to direct the Oregon Province. In 2009, Fr. Kesicki also was named provincial for the Chicago Province. His dual roles were part of a reorganization of the provinces.

• John Carroll University figures prominently in the lives of all five men ordained as priests in the Diocese of Cleveland in May 2008. Two of the men, Rev. Stephen Flynn and Rev. Michael McCandless, graduated from JCU in 2002. Two more, Rev. Jared Orndorff and Rev. Edward Suszynski Jr., graduated from Carroll a year later. A fifth priest, Rev. Joseph Brankatelli, attended John Carroll from 2001 to 2003.

• John Carroll's Labre Project reached a milestone in July 2009, when it served the homeless for the 200th consecutive Friday night since the street ministry's inception on campus in 2004. In that time, hundreds of JCU students, faculty, and staff have visited Cleveland-area people who are homeless. They meet homeless men and women where they live, building friendships week to week while sharing food and fellowship.

• Nearly $300,000 has been raised since 2007 at John Carroll's "American Cancer Society Relay For Life" event. During its first year on campus, John Carroll's event turned out to be the top collegiate Relay For Life in the nation for its enrollment bracket of 2,500 to 4,999 students.

• In summer 2007, John Carroll hosted Heartland-Delta V, a conference of 500 delegates from 12 Jesuit colleges and universities in the Midwest and Delta regions.

• His Eminence, Cardinal William J. Levada, visited John Carroll in April 2007. Cardinal Levada, the former Archbishop of San Francisco, was the first new cardinal to be elevated by Pope Benedict XVI.

• John Carroll hosted the AJCU Core Curriculum conference in 2007, which brought 40 representatives from other Jesuit institutions to our campus to discuss how mission and core connect.