John Paul the Great Catholic University

Hello! I am Mary Leskowicz, a graduating Digital Music student at John Paul the Great Catholic University.

As an artist, it is my goal to create goodness, truth, and beauty through my artwork. Part of doing so, is cultivating a culture of live music. For this event in particular, live original music.

I have been working on my EP, Dear Someone, for quite some time, reflecting on the challenges of college and early adulthood through a series of personal letters. Beginning in the sixth grade, I started writing to “dear someone,” an unknown recipient who nonetheless became my closest confidant. Over time, I came to understand that this person was myself but an older version shaped by experience and growth. Dear Someone explores the question of who we are at the threshold of a new chapter, and who we become by the time we leave it behind.

I couldn't keep this music to myself though, because music is made to be shared with others. As part of JPCatholic's first class of Digital Music students, I want my senior thesis project to celebrate this momentous occasion. Dear Someone: Love, Class of '26 is a concert that will take place on Wednesday, August 26th, 2026, at the Grand Ritz Theater in Escondido. I have collaborated with my fellow students, Theo Pashley, Regine Modina, and Luke Bennet (among others), to put on a concert of all original music that highlights the diversity and creativity within our little cohort. Each of these artists are extremely hard-working and talented, and the world should hear their music.

If you want to assist us in our community of live music, I ask that you consider donating to this project. Some aspects of the concert include feeding the musicians and crew day of, purchasing technical equipment to highlight the music, printing of the programs, among other small details. Any support is appreciated. I can't wait to share this project with you all and be joined in the shared goal of cultivating a culture of live music on campus and beyond. Thank you!

The 2 person show that I'm hoping to pursue for my practicum unfolds within a dream. It includes both present experience and past aches and longings.

I chose this play because it won my heart from the first read. Its dreamlike world carries a childlike hope and innocence, and yet it tears your heart. One moment can lift you up into the clouds, the next takes you deep down into the trenches. It’s poetic, playful, and poignant.

[Themes: love, war, letting go, hope, integration, healing.]

--Lisa, Senior Acting Student at John Paul the Great Catholic University

About JPCatholic

I chose John Paul the Great Catholic University because I wanted to study music somewhere that took both the art and the artist seriously. JPCatholic is a small, creative university in Escondido, California, where the Digital Music program trains students across songwriting, production, and sound. But more than the curriculum, it's the community that shaped me — professors who pushed me to dig deeper into my work and peers who challenged me to grow. Every senior completes a thesis project: a substantial, original body of work that represents the fullest expression of what they've learned. For me, that project is Crossroads.

What Inspired This Album

There's a small stream somewhere in the Oregon wilderness where everything changed for me. I was a senior in high school, sitting on its banks during a retreat I hadn't exactly been excited to attend, having spent the past few years chasing belonging, losing myself a little in the process, drifting quietly away from the things that actually mattered to me. But sitting there by the water, something shifted. That moment was the beginning of what I now understand to be a metanoia: a slow, imperfect, ongoing transformation. Between then and my senior year of college, I've been sitting with the questions that come with growing up, not the checklist kind, but the deeper ones. Who am I becoming? What do I need to leave behind? How do you find your way back to yourself? That's what this album is about.

Who I Am

I'm a senior at JPCatholic studying Digital Music, and I'm proud to be part of the first graduating class of my major. I've been playing piano and singing for 13 years, and over four years at JPCatholic I've grown as a songwriter, a producer, and a sound artist, learning to translate personal experience into something others can inhabit. Crossroads is my senior thesis record, the culmination of everything I've learned, and the most honest creative work I've ever attempted.

Why I'm Fundraising

Making this record the right way takes resources that are beyond what I have immediately available as a student. Your support will go directly toward bringing this project to life:

Professional mastering — the final step that makes a record sound polished and release-ready

Session musicians — hiring string players and other instrumentalists to perform on the record

Additional equipment — microphones, cables, and other gear needed for recording

Physical distribution — manufacturing vinyl and CD copies of the finished album

My goal is $2,500. Every dollar goes directly into the record. As a member of the first graduating class of my major, there's no roadmap for what we're building, which, honestly, feels exactly right for an album about finding your way. Thank you for being part of this.

The play Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan Macmillan, is about a boy who creates a list of everything that he finds brilliant to give to his mother who suffers from depression.

I chose this play because I love finding the beauty of the little things. I love the way that this play showcases the importance of finding the brilliance of everything. It also is heavily around depression and suicide which are big issues, and this play does a great job of spreading a sense of hope.

Hello, I am Marisol Juarez, a Mexican-American actress passionate about telling honest, human stories which means being messy, imperfect, but still worthy of love and redemption. My journey in acting has felt less like performing and more like entering into the lives of others, trying to understand their struggles and their desires to be seen, known, and loved.

When I chose to do Bad Moms, it was for its humor and honesty, mothers breaking free from unrealistic expectations. However underneath that, it's a story about identity, pressure, and the longing to be enough. These are themes that resonate with all of us, especially in a culture that constantly tells us we must earn our worth.

The film shows characters who fall short, make mistakes, and struggle with comparison, yet still desire connection and freedom.  

By supporting this project, you are helping bring this to life, while reminding us that behind it all, we’re human and sometimes we just need to laugh.

Hello, my name is Gabriel Ahlquist, a student at John Paul the Great Catholic University. Ever since I was in high school, I have had many instances of my manhood being questioned and tested. I never knew what I was fighting for or who I was fighting for. In the last year, I have been asking myself the question, "Why can't I ever admit when I'm not okay to the people I love?" What comforted me, yet also concerned me, was that I am not the only man who has this problem. In my life, I have had many of my friends deal with questioning their purpose through trauma and deep baggage that has stuck with them for all their lives, and there's nothing I've wanted more than to help them. The main thing I want for them is that they are not alone. "Wedding Ring" is about a man being paid to throw fights in an underground boxing arena so that he can pay for his girlfriend's engagement ring. This story poses the same question that has been on my mind for years, and I hope that for all the men who share this concern, they can find comfort in knowing that there is an answer to this problem.

Surrounded by grief and the feeling of guilt, a teenage girl is faced with a decision: fighting for her family, or the freedom she so badly longs for. Support student filmmakers in their senior thesis project as they explore the question… how much of who we are is because of circumstance and how much is our own choice?

Please help us bring this impactful story to life and ensure it reaches the widest audience possible! All donations are tax-deductible and everything helps! If you are currently unable to contribute financially, please consider sharing this with friends and family, and of course, prayers are always appreciated.

Senior Project - Winter Pilot Episode

The Story: During the 30 Years war, a friar's capacity for mercy is tested after he is captured by looters.

I am Joseph Gruber, a directing and screenwriting student at JPCatholic, and this is my senior thesis film “1638”, a historical drama short film dealing with the theme of mercy.

My hope in directing this film is twofold: to do a historical film while at school and makea reflection on mercy and ultimately my own failures to be loving, inspired by this verse from the book of Sirach in the Bible:

“Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself,

can he seek pardon for his own sins?

If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,

who will forgive his sins?

Remember your last days, set enmity aside.”

In this attempt at story telling, I intend above all to show truth, ugly or not. I knew I wanted to do a period piece for my senior thesis film very early on, with my goal to capture and give an impression of the historical time period - in this case a few days in the year 1638 during 30 Years War - to the audience, in a way that not only introduces a somewhat unknown time to them but also impacts them.

Now, why the 30 Years War? As a historical setting it is not popular. Yet it is relevant to our modern time because the war shaped the face of Christianity in the western world more than any other. But for me, there is an account of a mercenary that has fascinated me since I heard it. He went back to burn down the same farm multiple years in a row, yet was

strangely friendly with the farmer, treating it s a job to do and not as the reality:

destroying someone’s life. That apathy or compartmentalization struck me then and has stayed with me since I heard it. I wanted to know how something like that could happen, how people could act that way. Ultimately, my desire to explore this played a part in me writing and directing this film.

By donating to this project, it will help pay for costuming, props, equipment, crew meals, and all the other production costs for a short film.

The South Jefferson County All-Out Battle Tournament is a short film focusing on an old woman’s comedic adventure to the South Jefferson County Convention, where she hopes to achieve her dream: getting the autograph of her favorite actor.

My name is John Franics Hall, and I am the writer and co-director of The South Jefferson County All-Out Battle Tournament. One of the greatest gifts movies gives us is the chance to laugh together with our friends, family, and even complete strangers. This story, from when I first had the idea, to writing the script, to production, is one that has made me laugh from beginning to end, and I hope it will make you laugh as well.

More than this, The South Jefferson County All-Out Battle Tournament is a story of a woman determined to pursue her passion by any

means, no matter how many people call her a silly old lady for doing so. This is a movie that challenges what we find most important in life and asks whether or not we're all just wasting our time.

Your donations will go towards making this movie the best it can possibly be. Because of you, we will be able to pay our talented actors, feed our hard-working crew, obtain equipment, rent locations, and cover the many other expenses that come with making a short film. Thank you so much for your support.

- John Francis