SFU named to the Forbes 2022 America’s Top 500 Colleges List

Saint Francis University has landed on the prestigious list of Forbes 2022 America’s Top 500 Colleges.

In its annual list, Forbes ranked colleges and universities in the U.S. based on the return on investment and outcomes top schools delivered for their students. According to Forbes, their methodology highlighted schools whose students graduated on time, secured high salaries and low debt; and went on to have successful careers.

In addition to the traditional ranking criteria of graduation rates and alumni salaries, Forbes factored in high-level achievements of students and graduates as an indicator of institutional quality. Key leadership success outcomes of two members of the Saint Francis University community helped propel SFU onto the 2022 top 500 list.

Matthew Berzonsky, a junior Environmental Engineering major from Indiana, Pa, demonstrated SFU success on a national stage when he was named a prestigious Goldwater Scholar for 2022 in March.

The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater is one of the oldest and most sought-after undergraduate scholarships in the United States. It identifies and supports college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming the United States’ next generation of research leaders in the fields of the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

Berzonsky was one of only 417 college students from across the United States to be awarded a Goldwater Scholarship this year. He was selected from an estimated pool of 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nominated by academic institutions to compete for the 2022 Goldwater scholarships.

In May, Pablo Medina, a 2016 summa cum laude graduate showcased the value of an SFU degree on an international stage. The now 29-year-old vice president of EQT Partners, one Europe’s largest private capital firms, appears on Forbes 2022 directory of “30 under 30" in Europe highlighting entrepreneurial leaders in the category of finance.

Medina is a founding member of EQT's growth team, which launched a $2 billion fund in the last year and a half that has invested in European unicorns Mambu, Vinted and Wolt, among others. EQT holds more than $70 billion in assets under management, and Medina initially joined in 2019 to help build its presence in Iberia in Spain. He previously worked in investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

At Saint Francis, Medina excelled as a triple major in Finance, Accounting, and Management Information Systems and an NCAA Division I Soccer player.