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THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE E-LETTER
SEPTEMBER 2019
 
 
 
 
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CAMPUS LIFE 
MULTIMEDIA
 
   
New England Opening Lecture, Dr. Thomas J. Kaiser New England Opening Lecture: Dr. Thomas Kaiser  
     
California Opening Lecture, Dr. Joseph Hattrup California Opening Lecture: Dr. Joseph Hattrup  
     
President Michael F. McLean Appears on Archangel Radio President McLean Appears on Archangel Radio  
     
Photos: California Orientation 2019 Photos: California Orientation 2019  
     
Video Highlights from New England Convocation! Video Highlights From New England Convocation  
     
Bishop Rozanski’s New England Convocation Homily Bishop Rozanski's New England Homily  
     
President McLean’s 2019 New England Matriculation Address: “The Beginning of a New Chapter in the History of TAC” President McLean's NE Matriculation Address  
     
Photos: New England Convocation Mass Photos: New England Convocation Mass  
     
Photos: New England Flag-Raising Photos: New England Flag-Raising  
     
Photos: New England Matriculation Photos: New England Matriculation  
     
Bishop Rozanski’s Remarks at New England Matriculation 2019: “Thank You for Being Pioneers” Bishop Rozanski's Remarks at NE Matriculation  
     
Fr. Illo’s California Convocation 2019 Homily: “The Almighty has Called Us” Fr. Illo's California Convocation Homily  
     
President McLean’s 2019 California Matriculation Address: “We Have Only one Foot in the Earthly City” President McLean's CA Matriculation Address  
     
Photos: California Convocation Mass Photos: California Convocation Mass  
     
Photos: California Matriculation Photos: California Matriculation  
     
Photos from California’s 2019 Freshman Social Photos from California's 2019 Freshman Social  
     
Slideshow: First Social on the New England Campus Slideshow: First Social on the New England Campus  
     
President's Day Novena ad  
   
  UPCOMING EVENTS  
   
California Fall Concert
Paul Galbraith, classical guitarist
September 13
 
   
New England Lecture:
Dr. David M. Whalen

Provost and Professor of English
Hillsdale College
September 20
 
   
California Lecture:
Daniel Lendman (’06)

Adjunct Professor
Ave Maria University
September 27
 
   
Fall All-College Seminar
October 4
 
   
New England Open House
October 6
 
   
Alumni & Parent Day 
October 12
 
   
California Open House 
October 13
 
   
Columbus Day 
No classes / office holiday
October 14
 
   
Anniversary of the Death of Founding President Ronald P. McArthur
October 17
 
   
California Lecture: Dr. Bruce Marshall
Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine
Southern Methodist University
October 18
 
   
New England Don Rags
October 22-23
 
   
California Don Rags 
October 22-24
 
   
New England Lecture: 
Rev. David Vincent Meconi, S.J.

Associate Professor of Patristics, Theological Studies
Director, Catholic Studies
Saint Louis University
October 25
 
   
California Tutor Talk: Dr. Glen Coughlin
“Two Thomisms”
October 30
 
   
Feast of All Saints
No classes / office holiday
November 1
 
   
Anniversary of the Death of College Founder Marcus R. Berquist
November 2
 
   
California Lecture: Dr. Michael Mack
Associate Professor
Department of English
The Catholic University of America
November 8
 
   
New England Lecture: 
Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94)

November 8
 
   
California Tutor Talk: Dr. John F. Nieto
November 13
 
   
California Thanksgiving Concert
November 22
 
   
Thanksgiving Recess
November 27-December 2
 
   
First Semester Examinations
December 14-20
 
   
Residence Halls Close
December 21
 
   
Christmas Vacation
December 21-January 12
 
   
 IMEMORIAM  
   
Sandra Simia
August 24
Mother of Stephanie (O’Keefe ’12), Elizabeth (’21), and Katharine (’22)

Joseph Monnereau
August 27, 2019
Brother of Jonathan (’05)

Leonor Sauder
September 2, 2019
Mother of Carl (’77) and John (’83); grandmother of Adrienne (Rivera ’02), Margaret (Grimm ’03), Bridget (Zepeda ’08), Anne (Potts ’09), John (’14), Joseph (’17), and Therese (’22)

Diane Wernet
September 4, 2019
Mother of Paul (’91) and Matt (’93)

 
   
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First year in new england 
College, Bishop Rozanski Welcome First Students to East Coast Campus

On the morning of August 24, Thomas Aquinas College, New England, held its inaugural Convocation exercises, welcoming 28 freshmen and 30 sophomores from some 20 states and 5 countries — the very first students on the Northfield, Massachusetts, campus.

The morning began with a Mass of the Holy Spirit in the newly renamed Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel, with the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of Springfield, serving as the principal celebrant and homilist. “We gather here in great solemnity, giving thanks to Almighty God for the opening of Thomas Aquinas College on the East Coast of the United States,” His Excellency said in his homily. “The witness of the Thomas Aquinas College community is needed here in Northfield and well beyond. Well versed in our Catholic faith, you will be called to be the prophets of our own age, an age that is currently in despair, seeking the good news that brings true freedom of life in Christ and His church.”

The group of roughly 400 students, faculty, governors, and friends of Thomas Aquinas College then gathered for a flag-raising on the quadrangle, which was followed by the Matriculation Ceremony in the Moody Auditorium. There, as Director of Admissions Jon Daly called each student by name, the freshmen and sophomores came forward, one at a time, to greet President Michael F. McLean and Bishop Rozanski. They then signed their names in the campus registry, thus beginning their tenure as students at Thomas Aquinas College, New England.

In his Matriculation Address, Dr. McLean announced “a new chapter in the history of Thomas Aquinas College” and pledged to work with the College’s friends and neighbors in the region. “We are, in our own way, giving new life to the educational vision that animated this campus in the beginning,” he said,. “In so doing, we hope to continue to forge friendships with the citizens, and with the Catholic communities, of Northfield, the Pioneer Valley, and all of New England.”

►Full story and slideshows
►Video highlights
 
 

Bishop Rozanski blesses the chapel

President McLean welcomes a student.

A student signs the campus register with Assistant Dean Patrick Gardner.

The US and TAC flags fly over Northfield, Massachusetts.
 

AND 49TH IN CALIFORNIA!
College Marks Start of 2019-20 Year on
West Coast


“None of us here today have come of our own initiative,” Rev. Joseph Illo told the 104 freshmen gathered on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College, California, for its 49th Convocation exercises, the official start of the 2019-20 academic year. “Higher education is the response to a voice, the vox Dei, a vocation.” The pastor of San Francisco’s Star of the Sea Church, Fr. Illo urged the members of the Class of 2023 to be mindful of this divine command. “It is Almighty God Who calls His servants,” he continued. “This college is His college. It is His initiative.”

Coming just two days after the first-ever Convocation on the College’s New England campus, the day began with a Mass of the Holy Spirit in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel, with Fr. Illo serving as the principal celebrant and homilist. “Thomas Aquinas College’s 49th academic year is historic,” the College’s former head chaplain said in his homily. “We have gone beyond California, from the missions of St. Junipero Serra, even to the other end of our immense American continent. Three centuries after Spanish Franciscans came west, missionaries have now been sent east.”

At the following Matriculation ceremony, President Michael F. McLean advised the new students that, even though their education will prepare them well for citizenship in its fullest sense, they should not become too concerned with worldly or political concerns over these next four years. “The most important work of Catholic liberal education, and of Thomas Aquinas College, is that carried out in its philosophy and theology tutorials and in its chapel and other places of prayer,” said Dr. McLean. “This work helps to perfect our highest faculty and enables us to grow in wisdom and in faith, hope, and charity.” 

The culmination of the day then came when Dr. McLean proclaimed the start of the academic year on the California campus — to which the students responded with loud and sustained applause.

Full story and slideshows

 

Fr. Illo raises the chalice.

President McLean welcomes a student.

A student signs the campus register with Registrar Phillip Wodzinski.

Students applaud the start of the new year.

 
 

TOP OF THE CLASS
U.S. News, Washington Monthly, Praise College for Academics & Aid 

• Thomas Aquinas College has climbed 8 spots in the annual U.S. News and World Report college rankings, from No. 43 to No. 35 among the country’s national liberal arts colleges. The College is one of only two Catholic institutions in the United States to make the top 50. The newly released 2020 edition of the magazine’s Best Colleges guide also lists the College at No. 31 out of the magazine’s 103 “Best Value” liberal arts schools and No. 14 on its list of “Top Performers on Social Mobility” — schools that are “more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students.”

• Whereas most college guides rely on “crude and easily manipulated measures of wealth, exclusivity, and prestige,” the editors  of Washington Monthly argue that theirs aims for a more noble measure: “contribution to the public good.” By that standard, they find, Thomas Aquinas College ranks among the top 100 liberal arts colleges, at no. 61 — 8 spots up from 2018. The College also ranks within the magazine’s Top 100 “Affordable Elite” and the Top 50 of schools that offer the “Best Bang for the Buck” in the Western United States.

 

US News & World Report

The London Oratory Schola
 

FAITH IN ACTION
Highlights from the College’s Alumni Blog

• Twice in the last month the College received the blessed news that two recent graduates would together be joining the same religious order. On August 29, Br. Kevin Peter Cantu (’15) and Br. Michael Thomas Cain (’18) entered the novitiate for the Dominican Friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. And on August 6, Br. Sean Paul Wood (’13) and Br. Faustino (Sebastian ’14) Lemmon made their first vows with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in the Bronx, N.Y. “Br. Faustino Lemmon and Br. Sean Paul Wood are our first Thomas Aquinas College grads to make vows with us,” observed the Franciscan Friars in an Instagram post. “Thanks, Thomas Aquinas College, for preparing them well!”

• Five years ago, alumna journalist Katrina Trinko (’09) was named the managing editor of a new online publication of The Heritage Foundation. Five years later, The Daily Signal now attracts 26.8 million site visits per year and boasts 400,000 subscribers to its “Morning Bell” daily email blast — and Miss Trinko has been named its editor-in-chief. “One of our first decisions was to hire Kate,” says Rob Bluey, Heritage’s vice president for communications. “It’s because of her leadership and commitment to outstanding journalism that The Daily Signal is a must-read source of news and commentary. I congratulate her on this promotion and look forward to working with her to continue growing our reach and influence.”

• For the seventh consecutive year, Chambers USA has included Edward Froelich (’88) in its annual guide to the nation’s “top lawyers,” which it defines as those who “demonstrate sustained excellence.” The guide reports that Mr. Froelich’s peers say, “He is smart and works harder than anybody else.” An attorney at the Washington, D.C., office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, Mr. Froelich specializes in federal tax litigation and administrative dispute resolution. He earned his law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law and a master’s of law in taxation at the Georgetown University Law Center. In addition to his annual accolades from Chambers USA, he has also been featured by the The Legal 500 US in its “recommended” category.
 

Newly professed Franciscan Friars of the RenewalNewly professed
Franciscan Friars of the Renewal


Newly professed

Dominican Friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus

Katrina Trinko (’09)
Katrina Trinko (’09)

Edward Froelich (’88)
Edward Froelich (’88)
 

OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP
College Transforms New England Chapel for Catholic Worship

At the inaugural Convocation of Thomas Aquinas College, New England, the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, Bishop of Springfield, blessed the campus’ century-old chapel, marking the culmination of months of work to prepare the building for Catholic worship.  

Among those leading these efforts has been alumnus George Krestyn (’03), who oversaw the reconfiguration of the chapel’s pews and the restoration of its flooring to create a central aisle for processions. The woodworker and his crew, including two of his uncles, worked on the project since May, finishing in time for the kneelers to be installed just prior to the August 24 Mass of the Holy Spirit.

Only days later, Michael Ferreira, a mosaic artist from Cape Cod, and his fiancée, Jess Bevis, installed in the chapel’s façade an image of its new patroness, Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Based on a Byzantine icon enshrined in Rome’s Church of Saint Alphonsus, the mosaic appears just above the chapel’s main entryway, ensconced in the building’s masonry. The original icon, which dates back to at least 1499, has been associated with numerous miracles, as have many of its replicas.

More projects, of course, still lie ahead, including the installation of a permanent altar, a Communion rail, and two confessionals. Once all the renovations are complete, His Excellency will be invited back to campus for the chapel’s consecration. Until then, however, Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel has already become the spiritual heart of the campus.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

 

Mosaic of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

George Krestyn (’03)
George Krestyn (’03)
     
 
 
 
 
  Thomas Aquinas College