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Students congregate on the volleyball court

 

Having safely arrived on campus, attendees on the California High School Summer Program spent Sunday coming to know each other, the community, and the place they will call home for the next two weeks. First up was a campus tour …

Photos: Campus Tour
  • Parents listen to the guide
  • The guide addresses the families
  • Fr. Walshe speaks in the Chapel
  • The audience in the pews
  • Long shot of Fr. Walshe speaking to the families
  • Another view of the same
  • The audience looks on
  • The families on the Chapel steps
  • Three walk along the quad path
  • The families visit a classroom
  • Two programmers on the tour
  • Families walk under the arcade
  • Two walk and chat
  • The families tour the library

… followed by an orientation for parents, led by TAC tutor and program director Brian Dragoo, in St. Cecilia Hall:

 

Brian Dragoo addresses the parents

 

Afterward, students and their families enjoyed each other’s company over a barbeque dinner of California tri-tip on the campus’s main lawn. The new arrivals acquainted themselves with one another and the program’s prefects in the cool California evening and a pleasant buzz of conversation and laughter.

Photos: BBQ dinner
  • Students are served
  • Students and families get food
  • A student receives food
  • Students eat at the table
  • Two chat
  • Students eat at the table
  • Families eat at long tables outdoors
  • Another view of the same
  • Fr. Walshe talks with a visitor
  • Students get food
  • Students get food
  • Another view of the same
  • Students eat
  • Long shot of the same
  • Two smile for the camera
  • Two chat
  • Two chat
  • Students at the tables
  • Five chat

When the time came, program attendees bid their families goodbye, then dispersed. Many played games on the athletic field, while others made their way to Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel for a travelers’ Mass.

 

Visitors attend Mass

 

As the sun set, the group returned to St. Cecilia’s for a warm welcome from Admissions Director Jon Daly . Reading off the attendance, Mr. Daly revealed the student tally reached an all-time high of 154 attendees! At that, the auditorium exploded into applause. Mr. Daly next introduced the students to the Summer Program staff — the Admissions counselors, program chaplain Rev. Sebastian Walshe (’94), and the prefect team, headed up by Dillon Raum (’21) and Anna van Wijk (’24).

 

The prefects introduce themselves

 

Over the next two weeks, this group will tend to the students’ every need, answer their questions, and make sure all goes well. Fr. Sebastian invited all the students to make the most of the spiritual offerings of the campus — even if they aren’t Catholic, that they share their own perspective while perhaps learning more about the College’s faith life.

The initial orientation complete and a gameplan for the next day laid out, prefects led everyone to their respective residence halls to discuss campus living and mingle before the night’s end. There, the prefects re-introduced themselves and shared some insights with the students on how to make the most of the next two weeks. The meeting adjourned, and the evening sauntered to its end with ice-cream socials to put a sweet bow on the program’s opening.

Photos: Women’s Ice Cream Social
  • Three pose while serving ice cream
  • Three eat ice cream
  • Six eat ice cream
  • Three chat
  • Three smile for the camera
  • Students look on...
  • ...as the prefects address them
  • Students laugh
  • Four laugh
  • Students look on
  • Students applaud
  • A prefect addresses the women

The program begins in earnest today, as programmers begin their exploration of the College’s intellectual life — for some, their first exposure to the Great Books — with Plato’s Euthyphro and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex after a final orientation and morning Mass. Check the Summer Program Blog later today to get the scoop!