"Onward, On." We shout it from the sidelines, use it as a sign-off, and mean it as an affirmation. It binds us as a community and signals that you belong here.
Onward is your north star, our shared direction, and also our promise to you — a college experience that's distinctly John Carroll — designed with intention, backed by generations of Blue Streaks, and proven to pay off. Onward will launch in Fall 2026.
Intentionally linked, distinctly John Carroll.
Every student has a team of mentors and advisors working together on their behalf. Your Onward Team gives you coordinated support and a collective champion.
Guided by mentors who believed in her, Ella Whalen '28 discovered a new direction and published her own children's book.
Click on each role to learn more about how they'll support your journey.
You'll meet your advisor before Orientation, and they'll guide your academic planning from your very first semester. As the lead of your Onward Team, they'll get to know your goals, help you assess your strengths, and make sure you're building an academic plan that supports your future. They coordinate with the rest of your Onward Team to ensure everyone is working in unison.
Your Navigator is an upper-division student leader who supports you throughout your first year.
You'll first engage with a Faculty Mentor who will help you explore possibilities in your academic area of interest. After you declare your major, you'll transition to a Faculty Advisor who will work with you through graduation.
Your Career Specialist joins your team as you define your professional direction.
You'll be paired with a dedicated JCU alum — part of a powerful, engaged network.
You can add other supporters to your Onward Team. These team members collaborate with your core team to deliver seamless, personalized support. Examples could include:
You'll meet your advisor at Orientation, and they'll guide your academic planning from your very first semester. As the lead of your Onward Team, they'll get to know your goals, help you assess your strengths, and make sure you're building an Onward Plan that supports your future. They coordinate with the rest of your Onward Team to ensure everyone is working in unison.
Your Navigator is an upper-division student leader who supports you throughout your first year.
You'll first engage with a Faculty Mentor who will help you explore possibilities in your academic area of interest. After you declare your major, you'll transition to a Faculty Advisor who will work with you through graduation.
Your Career Specialist joins your team as you define your professional direction.
You'll be paired with a dedicated JCU alum — part of a powerful, engaged network.
You can add other supporters to your Onward Team. These team members collaborate with your core team to deliver seamless, personalized support. Examples could include:
A nearly $100,000 NetVUE grant is helping bring Onward to life — implementing a discernment-driven advising model, allowing students to align their coursework with their vocational goals from day one.
Explore how this grant is powering OnwardEvery student creates a personalized roadmap. Your Onward Plan, owned by you and visible to your Onward Team, helps you see your options so you'll never miss a step.
Onward guarantees applied professional experience for every student, from internships to community projects, woven directly into your curriculum. Discover your purpose as you link what you do and what you learn, make a difference, and write a stand-out professional story shaped for an inspired future.
Explore the comprehensive catalog of experiences available to you. Use the filter below to find opportunities that match your interests.
Build the skills today's workplaces expect—critical thinking, problem-solving, ethical leadership, and clear communication. Through the Linked Pair, you'll explore one theme across two disciplines, and with Core courses built into your major, including writing, presentations, and a Capstone, you'll graduate ready to lead.
Choose from 70+ majors and minors to shape a path that fits you. Mix programs across our three colleges—or design your own major, like SNL's Marcello Hernandez '19. And taking on more won't slow you down: 94% of students graduate in four years or less, and two-thirds finish with two majors or a major and a minor.
Partner with local nonprofits through the Center for Service-Learning and Social Action to tackle real-world challenges directly in your classes. Apply academic excellence to meaningful projects, gaining professional experience while delivering community impact. Develop into a bold, ethical leader, ready to engage with the world and lead.
Work with faculty on research in Cleveland and abroad, including projects with NASA or the Cleveland Clinic. Through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), gain funding, mentorship, and summer for original work, then present at DISCOVER.
Build ethical leadership through Leadership Scholars, the Leadership Development Minor, or the Leadership Formation Series, and lead through residence life, orientation, student government, athletics, campus ministry, CSSA, or one of 100+ student organizations.
Gain real-world experience through internships, co-ops, clinicals, or student teaching. With JCU's industry connections, you're guaranteed at least one applied professional experience opportunity before graduation.
Find mentors, build work experience, and earn money working on campus. Each year, JCU employs more than 700 students.
Connect directly to those most in need through the Center for Service-Learning and Social Action's partnerships with more than 85 community organizations in Cleveland and beyond. You might go even deeper by applying to the selective Arrupe Social Justice Scholars program.
Expert guidance and resources for students who want to start their own venture or non-profit. LaunchNET provides mentorship, workspace, and funding opportunities to help turn your ideas into reality.
Understand social structures and community dynamics directly through domestic and international immersions focused on justice – in Cleveland, at the US/Mexico border, or in Honduras.
Pause, reflect, and explore your purpose. Experiences like Manresa and other retreats invite you to step away from campus and find your calling.
Build global awareness in classes with 10-day international travel, semester-long study abroad with a JCU professor, or study abroad at one of 45+ partner institutions.
Every student, from the first-year on, builds a professional network and skills through our distinctive Onward Launch program. By graduation, your next move — to career, graduate school, or service — is already in motion.
Whichever Launch you choose, and even if you change your mind along the way, you’ll be supported through your Onward Experience, and welcomed into JCU’s connected, proud alumni network.
Embedded into each of the three colleges, Professional Development programs are unique and comprehensive four-year experiences designed to help you prepare for Launch. All JCU students engage in a series of career events, workshops, networking and skill-building experiences, with each college offering distinctive components and curricular requirements.
Your Career Specialist from your Onward Team will coordinate and facilitate the Career Community that connects you with people, opportunities, and resources in the field or fields that interest you. Career Interest Communities cut across majors and sometimes even colleges and unite students on particular professional pathways.
Take your career exploration on the road – across Cleveland and to major cities nationwide. These trips connect you with alumni, employers, and industry leaders, giving you behind-the-scenes access to offices, labs, studios, and startups. You'll see how careers take shape and build your network long before graduation.
You'll meet Experts-in-Residence through JCU's Career Communities, where they share hard-earned insight with students exploring their fields. Each has reached the highest level in their profession – and some are even nationally known, like retired NBC News correspondent and JCU Journalist-in-Residence Pete Williams. During their time on campus, these experts lead workshops, give talks, join events, and advise students directly.
Practice ethical decision making and build professional connections at a JCU-sponsored event. A local industry leader presents a real ethical dilemma from their work. Over dinner, JCU students, alumni, professionals, and faculty explore potential solutions – then hear how the issue was resolved.
A senior-led John Carroll tradition where students share short, reflective speeches about the people and experiences that shaped them. Seniors invite mentors, friends, and community members to join them in a space of gratitude. The series celebrates how students have grown as people "for and with others" and offers a final moment of Ignatian reflection before commencement.
JCU's robust alumni network connects you with a global community of professionals who are ready to open doors and champion your success. From mentorships, internships, and more, you’ll gain insider access to diverse career paths and real-world insights long before graduation. You’ll launch into your next move – to career, graduate school, or service – backed by a supportive and connected network.
Professional Networking opportunities bridge the gap between the classroom and the workplace, connecting you with industry leaders and innovators across the region and beyond. Through career fairs, site visits, and guest speaker engagements, you’ll build high-value relationships that will help you navigate today’s job market.
JCU's accelerated graduate pathways let you earn a bachelor's and master's degree in as little as five years, saving time and money while deepening your expertise. With options in business, exercise physiology, counseling, biology, and more, you can start graduate coursework as an undergraduate and move seamlessly into advanced study. Your Onward Team helps you build the Plan and stay on track, so you Launch into the workforce with an extra degree – and a competitive edge.
At JCU, faculty mentors and advisors accompany students every step of the way towards admission to competitive Master’s and PhD programs in fields like psychology, data science, and the humanities, just to name a few. These members of your Onward Team walk alongside you as you prepare to pursue advanced graduate studies.
John Carroll pre-health and pre-law advisors provide holistic support to students on the path towards admission to medical, dental, physical therapy, and law school, just to name a few. These advisors become core members of your Onward Team when you declare an interest in attending professional school.
For students drawn to global impact and prestigious scholarship, JCU mentors and advisors accompany you through the competitive application and discernment process for programs like the Fulbright, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and more.
Onward Stories
Hear how Blue Streaks are going Onward — through their Team, Plan, Experience, and Launch — in their own words.
Communication and Sports Administration double major Gianluca DiGiocomo came to John Carroll knowing what his passion was, and found a team that helped him build his resume and blossom into who he is today. With the support of mentors, advisors, and peers, Gianluca turned that passion into real experience and real impact.
For Cecilia Mrosko, the support and accompaniment of her Peer Navigator helped with everything from where to find resources in the library to her discernment process in selecting a major. Cecilia wanted to pay it forward and became a Peer Navigator to help first year students by serving as a member of their team and walking alongside them on their JCU journey.
Prior to coming to John Carroll, Jae Tomanovich heard that a career in sports wasn't realistic. At JCU, he found a team of mentors and peers who believed in him and helped turn his dream into reality. With their support, he's gained real-world experience with the Cleveland Guardians and is taking on the role of Ballpark Runners Supervisor.
For Nick Colbert, the amount of professors and students who were willing to help him navigate his journey and not feel overwhelmed during his first two years fueled his personal and professional growth. Their guidance and support inspired him to become a Peer Navigator his junior year to apply what he learned by serving as a mentor for the next generation of JCU students.
Arriving at John Carroll University feeling uncertain about his major and future vocation, Elijah Williams found clarity through his team of mentors and advisors that met him exactly where he was. With these dedicated faculty and staff members walking alongside him and supporting him, Elijah was able to navigate the process of self-discovery and find a clear, confident path forward.
Coming into John Carroll, Maddie Harrington was unsure which academic major she wanted to choose. With guidance from her Peer Navigators, she turned her initial uncertainty into a focused double major in Communication and Peace, Justice & Human Rights, with and a calling for nonprofit marketing down the road. The significance of this support inspired Maddie to become a Peer Navigator herself and help other students discern their path.
Through close guidance from his team of mentors and advisors, Luka Pranjeta is turning opportunity into action. Guided by a JCU alumnus mentor who navigated the same balance of academics, soccer, and work, Luka is using his AI minor to launch his own business and shape his path after graduation.
Psychology major Mary Calo was eager to get started in the Accelerated Dual Degree program for School Counseling as an undergraduate student. With guidance every step of the way from her advisor, she's been able to get her foot in the door taking graduate courses early and feel more comfortable stepping into her Master's Degree program.
Guided by faculty mentorship Rachel Ciotti merged her passion for working with high school students and her love of English into a multifaceted path featuring an internship with JCU's Office of Admission and a landmark undergraduate teaching assistantship. Through support from her mentors and advisors, she's transformed her various interests into a clear vocational trajectory toward one day becoming a college English professor.
Supply Chain Management major Riley Higgins wasn't sure which path in business was right for her at first. With guidance from her team, she explored her options, found her fit in supply chain management, and is ready to gain real-world experience through her internship this summer with The Lubrizol Corporation.
Communication major Caitlyn Minney was able to secure two internships as only a sophomore. With support from her mentors and advisors in WJCU, John Carroll's award-winning radio station, Caitlyn interned with WLKR/WKFM helping to promote the station, and with the Lake County Captains, a minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, working behind the scenes to run the show for the game.
Through JCU's Inside/Out: Modern Social Problems course, Sarah Hastings studied alongside incarcerated women, discovering that true advocacy begins with intentional listening and meeting people where they are. She brought that spirit of accompaniment to her role as a Peer Navigator, ensuring every new student felt seen, heard, and supported from day one.
After a professor's mentorship connected her with a JCU Board member at American Airlines, Abby Walker traveled to Texas for interviews and secured a summer internship at their Dallas headquarters. In her revenue management role, Abby will work on ticket pricing and have the opportunity to interact with many JCU alumni in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Partnering with her professors to conduct research, Lauren Koppelmann had the opportunity to present her findings at a national conference for Sports Psychology. This immersive experience allowed her to network with professionals in her field of interest and has inspired her to conduct future research.
First year student and Communication major Delaney Dalman translated her passion for journalism into immediate action by joining both The Carroll News and Blue Streak Media. One of her first assignments for The Carroll News was to interview Carolyn Noll Sorg, at the time JCU's VP for Enrollment & Marketing. Currently, Delaney's gaining media production experience by partnering with Integrated Communications & Marketing to work on InFormation, Noll Sorg's podcast as President-elect of John Carroll University.
As a member of JCU's inaugural nursing cohort, Kayla Trogu balanced three jobs while excelling in the classroom, in the pool as a student athlete, and in clinicals, earning her the Mark A. Kadzielski '68 Distinguished Nursing Student Award. After graduation, she'll begin her career in the Emergency Department at University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center.
Exercise Science major Will Rahill spent 10 weeks in Ireland this past summer as a physical therapy and strength and conditioning intern with youth Gaelic football and soccer teams, embracing new environments and perspectives. This experience directly influenced his approach to grad school as he'll be attending the Army-Baylor Doctor of Physical Therapy program and will serve as a military physical therapist in the US Army after earning his DPT.
With support from his team of instructors, mentors, and coaches, Tom Wasinski learned not what to think but how to think, how to overcome challenges, and how to wrestle with difficult questions. They championed both his accountability and growth, reaffirming his desire to become a theology teacher in the future and repay the favor of a Jesuit education to the next generation.
After being selected as the 18th NBC/John Carroll University Meet the Press Fellow, James Feeks will join the team behind Meet the Press, NBC's longest-running television program, for a nine-month fellowship this fall. James credits the connections he made across campus and his well-rounded Jesuit education that propelled him into this next step after graduation with clarity and confidence
Driven by a lifelong dream of becoming a doctor, Dan Sunyak combined rigorous internships with transformative global immersion trips and retreats through Campus Ministry. These experiences forged a deep seeded Jesuit passion for service and learning, shaping him into a uniquely compassionate and highly competitive medical school candidate.
Every student starts with a core circle of support — faculty, staff, and peers — and expands it as they explore new interests and opportunities along the way. Planning to go straight into the workforce? Interested in graduate or professional school? Considering a competitive volunteer program or fellowship? We add people with the right experience to your corner.
These examples show the kinds of people who can become part of your Onward Team throughout your time at JCU. Your team will be unique to you, and it will change as you discover new interests and opportunities.
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