Megan (Mastroianni ’09) Mohan

Megan Mohan has been always been interested in human behavior: Why do we do what we do or feel the things we feel? She originally enrolled at Franciscan University as an English major, but in her sophomore year, she took a psychology class with Dr. Jim Flannick and was hooked.

“Dr. Flannick has an integrated vision of the human person,” Megan says. “He is very aware of the infinite dignity and worth that each individual person possesses; his witness and teaching has shaped the way I see myself and others.”

The Church’s rich understanding of the value of the human person enriched her study of psychology, Megan says, and she has carried that integration of the theoretical and empirical bases of psychology with the Catholic view of the person with her since graduation.

Immediately after graduating from Franciscan, Megan began volunteering with a Philadelphia-based nonprofit pro-life and chastity education ministry. She traveled throughout the United States and Europe, speaking to tens of thousands of teens. Megan also served as a campus minister for three years at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, Maryland. “I used the tools I learned at Franciscan every single day during my ministry at MDSA,” she says. Currently, Megan works as the associate director of Anthem, the youth and young adult office of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Megan continues to speak at youth conferences, retreats, and other events around the country. The solid understanding of psychology’s broad range of real-world applications that she learned at Franciscan, she says, has greatly benefitted her in all of these endeavors.

“If you are called to study psychology, you may very well have a vocation to heal,” Megan says. “And that is a true calling! God is raising up men and women to be healers, and the program at Franciscan really prepares you for that. It is of vital importance for the Church and for our society that we have psychologists who have a real understanding of the human person and a passion for their Catholic faith.”