Freshman Profile: Rose Grimm (CA’26)

After 50 years of pursuing its educational mission, Thomas Aquinas College is beginning to show its age in the best way: It has begun welcoming third-generation students, as the grandchildren of its earliest alumni reach college age. Matriculating on the California campus this year was one of the first five known legacy grandchildren to date, Rose Grimm (CA’26) of Peoria, Arizona, who is honored to carry on her family’s legacy.

Rose’s grandparents on both sides attended the College in the late 1970s. As students, Rosalind (Teichert) and Daniel Grimm (both ’76) were friends with Kathleen (Kraychy ’78) and Carl Sauder (’77). Little could the two couples have known, though, that some 20 years later they would be even more closely united, by marriage. Their children Bill Grimm (’02) and Margaret Sauder (’03) wed not long after their TAC graduations and soon welcomed their first child — Rose.

Since the College “runs in the family,” it would be easy to imagine Rose rebelliously forging her own path elsewhere, but she is thrilled to be following in her parents’ and grandparents’ footsteps. In 2020 she attended the High School Summer Program to experience firsthand the life and place that has enchanted her family for decades. Almost immediately, she was at ease with the College’s curriculum and pedagogy.

“I’m a big talker, so being silent for long stretches of time doesn’t agree with me,” she laughs. Accordingly, Rose found the Discussion Method an optimal fit. “When you talk about the things that you’re learning, it clicks in your head. You understand why something is so, instead of just being told.”

Although only a few months have elapsed, Rose has already found her freshman year at the College transformative. She has fallen in love with mathematics, for instance, which in high school had seemed impossible. “Euclid is logical,” she says. “Instead of just memorizing theorems, you get to see why it works; you get a feeling of power from demonstrating a prop and knowing you did it well.” This changed attitude is only one sign of the manifold growth of mind and spirit watered by each day’s studies. “I used to look forward to the weekend,” Rose reflects. “But now, I can’t wait to have class again! That’s a new thing for me.”

It is new for Rose, just as it was new for her parents in their time, and her grandparents in theirs: Truth is timeless, and its fruit always fresh.