{"id":1459,"date":"2020-04-22T20:42:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2025-02-07T15:56:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T20:56:57","slug":"franca-del-signore-between-wilmu-and-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/22\/franca-del-signore-between-wilmu-and-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Franca Del Signore: Between WilmU and the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1459_1d5177-08 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1459_16ceca-cd\">Like most graduate students, Franca Del Signore occasionally wondered where she\u2019d find the time to earn her degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike most graduate students, the career that competed for attention with her coursework involved living overseas for months at a time. Plus, she didn\u2019t much care for online learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, somewhere between Delaware, Italy and South Africa, she was able to accomplish her educational goal. She even rearranged her schedule to attend WilmU\u2019s commencement ceremonies in January and receive her Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was really surprised how accommodating Wilmington University was when I met with the program chair and the dean back at the beginning,\u201d says Dr. Del Signore. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect them to say that they would work with me so much to accommodate my travels, and I was really happy, because I prefer face-to-face courses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/picturetheworldunited.org\">Picture the World<\/a>, a humanitarian consulting firm, the Delaware native collaborates with nonprofit public health, business development, and environmental organizations in Rome and Cape Town. Since 2013, her group\u2019s efforts have improved the quality of life for underserved individuals and their communities, while building efficiency and innovation at the aid organizations themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI started Picture the World to help people get jobs, to reach success, to gain autonomy,\u201d says Dr. Del Signore. \u201cBut it has the dual aims of empowering people and also those who help them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She decided that adding the latest thinking in business to her wide-ranging credentials \u2014 she\u2019d previously earned a bachelor\u2019s in Chemistry and master\u2019s degrees in Forensic Science and Public Health, and her interest in photography gave her group its name \u2014 would help her provide resources and support to aid organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WilmU\u2019s Doctor of Business Administration program offered a multi-faceted curriculum, from finance and marketing to leadership and organizational behavior, if she could fit it into her schedule. \u201cI was interested in the face-to-face cohort, but because I travel so much for work, I wasn\u2019t sure if that was possible,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the encouragement of Dr. Robert Rescigno, then the dean of the College of Business, and Dr. Kathy Kennedy-Ratajack, who chaired the DBA program, she enrolled. Through coordination with the program\u2019s faculty, who strategically rescheduled courses and assigned independent study projects, she managed the seven-week blocks when she could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI feel so grateful to the faculty, how they accommodated me,\u201d she says, recalling the completion of a spring semester\u2019s coursework in December, two weeks before a planned six-month stay in Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it turns out, she only had to take three courses online, which presented their own unique challenges. Who, after all, wants to pack textbooks for a flight to Rome? Or stay up until 11:30 p.m. for a class that\u2019s being livestreamed from 5:30 p.m. Delaware time? \u201cThose days were really long, and I was really tired,\u201d says Dr. Del Signore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results, however, have been worth it to her work. \u201cMy whole dissertation was about helping people to solve the problems they face, to develop strategies and processes, to build bridges between nonprofits and for-profits. My dissertation brought it all together,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s probably why it ended up being almost 350 pages long.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like most graduate students, Franca Del Signore occasionally wondered where she\u2019d find the time to earn her degree. Unlike most graduate students, the career that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[632],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-magazine-spring-2020"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":632,"label":"Magazine Spring 2020"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/20190805-MAG-Franca-043-740x480.jpg",740,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":632,"name":"Magazine Spring 2020","slug":"magazine-spring-2020","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1189,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15243,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions\/15243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}