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On Saturday, May 11, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo will serve as Commencement Speaker at Thomas Aquinas College’s annual graduation exercises. The archbishop of Galveston-Houston will also receive the school’s highest award, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion, in recognition of his lifelong fidelity and service to the Catholic Church.

“Cardinal DiNardo has shown great fidelity to Christ in shepherding the faithful of his archdiocese and in his leadership among his brother bishops, particularly with regard to the sacredness of human life,” says President Michael F. McLean. “His presence at Commencement will be a great honor for the College and a special joy for our graduates.”

Cardinal DiNardo will address the largest graduating class in the College’s history — 91 men and women who hail from across the United States and abroad. Having successfully completed a rigorous, four-year curriculum that includes mathematics, natural science, Latin, literature, philosophy, and theology, each graduate will receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal arts. These new alumni will go on to a wide variety of pursuits including law, medicine, business, military service, education, and the priesthood and religious life.

Graduates of Thomas Aquinas College are noted by employers as well as professional and graduate school professors for the strong intellectual and interpersonal skills they attain through the college’s unique great books program. Says Brian Kelly, Dean of the College, “Our focus on the original texts of the greatest thinkers — authors like Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas — really hones the mind and accustoms it to think in terms of principles; and our small, discussion-based classes ensure that students are actively engaged in their own education, working together with their peers in a constructive and respectful way. As a result, not only do they make a good beginning in a lifelong pursuit of wisdom, they also acquire remarkably strong analytic skills and a distinctive ability to collaborate with colleagues.”

Cardinal DiNardo will preside at the 9:00 a.m. Baccalaureate Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. Commencement will follow at 11:30 a.m. on the academic quadrangle. During the commencement program, the college will also award the Saint Thomas Aquinas Medallion to its head chaplain, Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J., in recognition of a lifetime of faithful service to young people on Catholic campuses in California and Washington.