Audio:

“Friendship of Man and Woman According to
Aristotle and St. Thomas”

On Saturday, members of the Thomas Aquinas College community gathered in St. Joseph Commons for the annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Decked out in green, students, tutors, and their families enjoyed Irish food and drink, plus Celtic music and dance performed by students and local children:

Inspired by a classic scene from Chariots of Fire — in which Harold Abrahams successfully completes Cambridge University’s Trinity Great Court Run before the King’s Gate Clock strikes 12 — the students of Thomas Aquinas College staged their own quad run this past weekend, the second of the academic year.

Eleven women and 23 men took turns, during which they sprinted, in pairs, a clockwise course around the academic quadrangle, beginning and ending by St. Bernardine of Siena Library.

Marking the midpoint of the semester, not long after the completion of Don Rags, members of the Class of 2017 took to the Ventura beach on Saturday for an event they dubbed “Rejuniorate.” Organizers defined the term, originally coined by the Class of 2014, as “a renewal of spirits that are wearied due to two weekly seminars and an overload of Newton” and “a time to relax and reminisce with one’s classmates of the last 2½ years.” The event included a sunset barbeque, sports, and seaside fellowship.

Each year, starting in the fall and continuing well into the spring, the seniors of Thomas Aquinas College labor to create what will be the culmination of their four years of academic effort — the Senior Thesis. Based on a subject of each student’s own choosing, and drawing from the College’s classical curriculum, the thesis represents its author’s effort to apply his or her education to a matter of scholarly and personal importance.

The force was strong in St. Joseph Commons on Tuesday, as students took a break from their studies for a Star Wars trivia night, hosted by freshman Joe Daly. Some 20 teams participated in what spectators described as a “fierce” competition. The winning squad, featured in the final image in the above slideshow, took the Attack of the Clones-inspired name “Go Home and Rethink Your Life.”

Members of the Thomas Aquinas College community have responded with joy to today’s news that His Holiness Pope Francis will canonize Bl. Mother Teresa on September 4.

Students gathered last week for this annual, informal showcase of musical talents:

Last Friday evening a group of Thomas Aquinas College students sung the National Anthem for some 300 boys and their families at the opening ceremony for the Santa Paula Little League.