Parents

On Saturday evening, Resident Assistant Sarah Dufresne led a group of students to historic Grant Park Cross in Ventura for “Sunset at the Cross.” The purpose of the event, as Miss Dufresne put it, was “to simply find glory in God’s creation.” Students relaxed, socialized, and said evening prayer while watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

Over the Columbus Day weekend, Admissions Director Jon Daly, Director of Alumni Relations Mark Kretschmer, and Chaplain Rev. Paul Raftery, O.P., led a men’s campout/retreat for some 25 Thomas Aquinas College students.

On the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Chaplain Paul Raftery, O.P., led students in a Rosary procession around the campus. The group began outside St. Joseph Commons, continued on to the Lourdes Grotto, and concluded with adoration in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel.

Following its recent campus Career Forum, the College’s Office of Career Advisement sponsored a talk and Q&A last weekend for students who are considering a career in nursing. Charlene Niemi, RN, MSN — the College’s nurse and a member of the nursing faculty at California State University, Channel Islands — spoke to a roomful of students eager for her expertise and counsel.

“We think it’s terrible how much students have to borrow at many other schools,” says Greg Becher, director of financial aid, in The Catholic Times. “So we have two things we’re doing here at Thomas Aquinas College.”

Thomas Aquinas College is one of only 20 colleges and universities nationwide recommended by The Cardinal Newman Society in its latest edition of The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College, which was published on October 7.

In an effort to better know the College’s students and to foster friendships among them, Resident Assistant Sarah Dufresne (’14) hosted a pancake breakfast this past Saturday morning:

One Friday evening each semester, groups of about 20 Thomas Aquinas College students from all classes — seniors and freshmen, sophomores and juniors — gather in classrooms across the campus for the semi-annual All-College Seminar. Although separate, these groups engage in a single, common activity, namely, reading, analyzing, and discussing the same text, one that is not part of the College’s ordinary curriculum. Two members of the teaching faculty lead each of the discussions.

On October 1, the Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the women of St. Thérèse Residence Hall raised their voices in honor of their patroness, singing the parts of the liturgy and several hymns at that night’s Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. “We pray to Thérèse in a special way tonight,” said Chaplain Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J., in his homily, “to show up the way, the little way to the Lord, to respond to Him, each of us individually, as He calls us in the Gospel.”

“You have the gift of being able to look at the world a little bit differently,” said Tim Ristoff, founder and CEO of TriVista Business Group, to an audience of Thomas Aquinas College students at a Career Forum this past Sunday in St. Bernardine of Siena Library. “That’s going to make you unbelievably successful, should you elect to go into the business world.”