Kathleen Sullivan (’06) Reflects on the High School Summer Program

A doctoral student at the Catholic University of America, Kathleen Sullivan (’06) has served as a prefect at the Thomas Aquinas College Great Books High School Summer Program for each of the past eight years. She has recently written a reflection about her experience in the program:

… [I]t took me a couple more classes before I gathered my courage to enter into my class conversation. Once I did, it was the light turning on again. This was how school should be! To be responsible for my learning, to develop my critical thinking skills, to learn how to effectively communicate, to read and discuss these texts without the filter of an editor was all in my grasp. I wanted to skip the rest of high school and enter Thomas Aquinas College right away. Yet I returned to high school with a new perspective on education, and found myself more frequently raising my hand to ask questions or propose comments. An education is not passive; it is active, alive, and all within reach at colleges such at Thomas Aquinas where to be liberally educated is to be truly free.

Be sure to read the whole essay, and please share it with any high school juniors who may be interested in attending the 2013 program!