Thomas Aquinas College Awarded $200,000 Grant by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

September 13, 2011
10,000 Ojai Road
Santa Paula CA 93060
Contact: Anne Forsyth, Director of College Relations
(805) 525-4417      
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Thomas Aquinas College Awarded $200,000 Grant
by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SANTA PAULA, CA—December 9, 2011— For more than two decades, The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has been a loyal benefactor to the students of Thomas Aquinas College, and this year is no exception.

The Los Angeles- and Reno-based philanthropy, which has among its priorities the nurturing of Catholic schools, has announced that it is awarding a $200,000 grant to support the more than 70 percent of Thomas Aquinas College students who receive financial aid. The grant marks the Foundation’s single largest gift to the College, doubling the previous largest contribution, and bringing the Foundation’s total giving to the College to nearly $1 million.

“Once again, we find ourselves owing a great debt of gratitude to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation,” says Thomas Aquinas College President Michael F. McLean.

Since its founding, the College has welcomed all students who are willing and able to complete its academic program, regardless of their financial means. As a result, The Princeton Review includes Thomas Aquinas College on its Financial Aid Honor Roll of only 10 schools in the United States. U.S. News & World Report features the College on its Top 40 list of “Great Schools, Great Prices.” Kiplinger, the business and personal-finance publisher, ranks the College among Top 20 nationwide for lowest average debt at graduation.

“We are committed to making the unique education we provide here available to anyone who is prepared to undertake it,” says President McLean. “It is generosity such as the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s that makes this commitment possible. On behalf of everyone at the College – and most especially the worthy students who stand to benefit the most – we thank the Foundation for its long history of friendship and support.”
 

About Thomas Aquinas College

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year, Catholic liberal arts college with a fully-integrated curriculum composed of the Great Books, the seminal works in the major disciplines by the great thinkers who have helped shape Western civilization.  There are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives.  Instead, under the guidance of faculty members and using only the Discussion Method in classes of no more than 20, students read and discuss the original works of authors such as Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, the American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, and of course, St. Thomas Aquinas.  Graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves serving as lawyers, doctors, business owners, priests, military service men and women, educators, journalists and college presidents. 

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