Why We Study Papal Encyclicals

Note: The following remarks are adapted from Dean Brian T. Kelly’s report to the Board of Governors at its May 10, 2013, meeting. They are part of an ongoing series of talks in which Dr. Kelly explains why the College includes certain authors in its curriculum.

Kudos Include: “Best Value,”
“Best Classroom Experience”
& “Happiest Students”

Andrew “Kent” Moore (’14) was a Thomas Aquinas College student killed by a passing vehicle last summer while participating in the Crossroads Walk for Life Across America. The anniversary of Kent’s death took place last week, during which his family attended a memorial Mass near the site of his death in Indiana.

When the Class of 2013 met to choose a class quotation, its members selected the following observation from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort. We were created for greatness.”

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 efforts — 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 slideshow below features photographs of the members of the Class of 2013 and the titles of their Senior Theses:

Dr. Thomas Kaiser (’75) is the first tutor to have taught every class in Thomas Aquinas College’s classical curriculum. He delivered the following talk at the College’s Alumni Association Dinner on June 1, 2013:

For more than 40 years, Thomas Aquinas College has drawn students from and sent graduates to communities throughout the United States. It has also formed a nationwide group of friends and benefactors. As a result, the College now boasts a substantial, thriving “diaspora” of alumni and other champions who bear witness to the virtues of Catholic liberal education in homes, schools, workplaces, and churches across the country.

Today’s edition of the Arizona Daily Sun features a profile of Rachel Beck, a member of the incoming Class of 2017. The story describes why Miss Beck chose Thomas Aquinas College:

The senior at Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy is going on to college, but her goal is not to prepare herself for a career. Her goal is to pursue learning.

“I want to get an education for the whole person and not just a degree,” Rachel said. “I will figure out what I want to do afterwards.”

Early in the morning of May 23, 2013, a truck towed away the last modular building on the academic quadrangle of Thomas Aquinas College — St. Patrick Hall — thereby making room for the College’s new classroom building, St. Gladys Hall.

There is no such thing as a typical day on the job for Caroline Johnson, M.D. (’97). As an internist, she is likely to confront any number of illnesses and maladies, and as a traveling physician, she is likely to do so just about anywhere.