New England
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September 21, 2023
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Students and faculty at Thomas Aquinas College, New England, pulled up chairs in Bl. Frassati Student Center on September 15 for the first concert in this year’s St. Vincent de Paul Lecture and Concert Series. The Madison String Quartet performed Mozart’s famous Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, as well as Schubert’s lesser known but deeply moving Death and the Maiden. The performance garnered a standing ovation, which goaded the quartet to encore with a piece by Miguel del Aquila that had the audience tapping its feet to the bluesy rhythm.

Concert Slideshow
  • The String quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • The String Quartet
  • A bow at the end of the performance
  • Students applaud the concert
  • All are enjoying themselves
  • The concert resumes
  • The String Quartet
  • The concert ends and all applaud
  • A last bow
  • The String Quartet thanks the students

After the concert came the annual game of Trivial Pursuit, which pits students against the faculty in an epic battle of random knowledge. With tutors dominating past games, students gave their all to turn the tide of recent history. Team captains Georgiana Egan (’24) and Thomas Rust (’24) collaborated with their peers to answer questions ranging from Taylor Swift albums and swimming flippers to obscure science-fiction novels.

Trivia Slideshow
  • Paul Habsburg stares down the camera
  • The excitement is palpable
  • The life of the party
  • RD Sophie Cummings as the go-between for students and tutors
  • The freshmen get in on the fun
  • Some of the tutor judges
  • A team submits their guess
  • A whole team of women
  • The sophomore guys and the Quackenbush girls
  • Celebrating a correct answer
  • RD Kevin Heffernan reads out a question
  • Sophomore men
  • Some of the tutors talk
  • Victory for the tutors!
  • Tension as the students take one last crack at winning
  • One last question for the win
  • Kevin asks the last question
  • All await the answer
  • Men implore for a different answer
  • waiting
  • waiting

The tutors were predictably formidable, pulling ahead quickly at the start of the game, but the students proved no less competitive. Before long, the teams were neck and neck. After an hour, the resident directors announced a sudden-death round: The first group to answer a question incorrectly would lose. 

Competition was stiff: Teams groaned at some questions and bit their nails at others. Finally, though, the students came out on top. There was cheering all around as they congratulated each other on this year’s win!