California

With thesis defenses behind them, the Class of 2023 came together to host the last dance of the semester, the Chez Martin: a fundraiser for the senior gift, a final hurrah, and a fun night for all.

Every class of students at Thomas Aquinas College is divided into “sections,” groups of 17 to 18 students who take their weekday classes together. Actively working their way through the Great Books by way of the Discussion Method, section mates grow in together in wisdom and friendship. This past weekend, however, the five sections of California’s Junior Class met to grow in friendship in more rambunctious fashion: the “Section Games.”

While their counterparts in New England  were wandering a magical forest last Friday night, the students of Thomas Aquinas College, California, were courting by the seaside in a remarkable production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.

The 2023 High School Summer Great Books Programs are less than three months away, and Thomas Aquinas College is pleased to introduce the leaders who will spearhead this year’s team of prefects in California. (We will be announcing New England’s head prefects next week!)

To help raise money for their class gift to the College, California seniors hosted a charitable poker tournament last Saturday in St. Cecilia Hall.

Participating students gathered in the Fritz B. Burns Auditorium in the early evening, looking their best, with the gentlemen arriving in ties, vests, and suits, and the ladies donning fine dresses and jewelry. To general delight, even Dr. Travis Cooper, the campus’s assistant dean for student affairs, joined in the fun.

Below, see photos from this year’s Eucharistic procession in honor of Divine Mercy Sunday on the California campus. Jesus, we trust in You!

The co-founder of Virtual Service Operations (VSO), John Birch (’92) recently returned to Thomas Aquinas College’s California campus to offer students advice about careers in IT — and how to leverage their Catholic liberal education in that pursuit.