Michelle Ginter ’16

Michelle Ginter says her passion for sacred and ecclesiastical architecture was “a natural fruit” of her time as a double major in Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Theology and Humanities and Catholic Culture Programs.

“While I need to hone my technical skills to become an architect, I believe that my strong liberal arts education is a great foundation for an architecture career,” she says.

Currently a graduate student studying architecture at the University of Notre Dame, Michelle says her undergraduate career at Franciscan helped teach her to see good architecture as “a synthesis of history, philosophy, art, and potentially many other disciplines with a coherent and orderly end.”

“I still have many technical and practical skills to learn, but I have the tools for critical thinking, expressing myself coherently, a disciplined life, and a transcendent objective to help me achieve my career goals and to keep my pursuits in perspective.”

Michelle says Franciscan University, and particularly the Humanities and Catholic Culture Program, prepared her for life beyond undergraduate by making her a better person. Together with her experiences in household life, she says the discipline and rigor she learned of the intellectual life in the Humanities and Catholic Culture Program are invaluable.

“I am confident in my pursuits because of my holistic education and personal formation,” she says.

Although Michelle isn’t sure exactly what her future after graduate school holds, she plans on pursuing a career as an architect.

“I plan on working for an architecture firm and eventually getting my license,” she says. “Also, I look forward to being married and raising children and shaping, promoting, and building Catholic culture in my family.”