Interested students who have completed their junior year in high school are encouraged to sign up early for Thomas Aquinas College’s 7th annual Summer Great Books Program for High School Students, which will run from July 25 through August 6. Enrollment for the unique program has jumped 79% since 2000 — from 48 students in 2000 to 86 students last year. There are plans to expand even further in the summer of 2004.
“We plan to accept 102 upcoming high school seniors this summer,” explains Tom Susanka, admissions director. “Students come from all over the country — typically, more than half from outside of California. It’s very exciting to watch these high school students from different states and different backgrounds come together for two weeks to study some of the great writings and ideas that helped shape Western Civilization. They discuss great issues, make new friends and enjoy fun activities. They also discover a real hunger to know more about their faith and the world around them. Many students and parents have told us it’s been a life-changing experience.”
In the great Catholic tradition of faith seeking understanding, participants join with the thoughtful men and women who through the centuries have sought the truth that can be found in the Great Books. For these two weeks, their teachers include Plato, Sophocles, Euclid, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Shakespeare, St. Thomas Aquinas and C.S. Lewis.
Seasoned Thomas Aquinas College tutors (professors) guide class discussions on the readings in small seminars of 17 students each. Mass is offered daily in the College chapel, and a chaplain is on campus at all times.
Recreational activities to refresh the mind and the spirit include basketball, ultimate frisbee, swimming in spring-fed ponds on campus, hiking into the Los Angeles National Forest that borders the College, and visiting a Pacific Ocean beach and beautiful downtown Santa Barbara. Participants also benefit from the rich cultural life in southern California such as a concert under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl or an afternoon at the J. Paul Getty Museum of Fine Art.
Over the course of two weeks, participants grow intellectually and spiritually, taking with them lasting friendships and enduring memories.
For more information, call Thomas Aquinas College at 800/634-9797, ext 362, or apply online at www.thomasaquinas.edu.
About Thomas Aquinas College: Thomas Aquinas College offers a four-year program of Catholic liberal arts education exclusively devoted to the study of the Great Books, using only the Socratic method of dialogue in all of its classes. There are no textbooks, no lectures and no electives. Instead, the College offers an entirely integrated curriculum using only the original texts of the greatest thinkers who have helped shape Western Civilization. These authors include St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, our American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton, to name a few.
Thomas Aquinas College graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions where they have pursued graduate degrees in such professions as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves in these fields serving as headmasters, business owners, lawyers, priests, doctors, military servicemen and women, educators and college presidents.
