Introducing Your 2024 New England High School Summer Program Prefects (Part 2)

Having already introduced you to the first half of the prefect team for this summer’s Great Books High School Program in New England, we now introduce you to the rest the 2024 prefects!

A freshman, Paloma Gallivan (’27) is ready to take on the challenge of being a Summer Program prefect. As a Santa Anna, California, native, she visited TAC-California with her brother in high school. “I didn’t like it at first,” she admits. But, after attending the Summer Program in 2022, she changed her mind. “I really liked the curriculum, and the people I met there. There’s a unique sense of community you can find at TAC that I didn’t see elsewhere.” Should you ever need to find Paloma, she loves to swim in the pool and play spikeball in front of Gould Hall.

Thomas Fallon (’26) hails from Utica, New York, and will be prefecting this summer for the first time. A surefire participant in every TAC sports season, Thomas loves playing soccer, football, ultimate frisbee, and basketball — really any team sport! He discovered the College through the Newman Guide and a recommendation from a friend. “I had a friend who had already attended TAC and decided to check it out,” he says. “The curriculum was very attractive, and I was drawn to the culture and people I met here.” As a prefect during the regular school year, Thomas has a vibrant personality and can often be found playing games in Bl. Frassati Student Center with his friends.

Adelina Margand (’26) is one of seven children from Yonkers, New York. She attended the Summer Program and was enamored with the Discussion Method. “I distinctly remember my perception of the world getting altered significantly through analyzing those works, discussing the contents, and further considering their implications,” she said. During a gap year overseas, she realized how important was the intellectual and spiritual formation she found at the College. “Rather than the ‘truth’ being a subjective amalgam of individual beliefs, TAC showed that it was really elevated to something that is objective, ordered, and universal, culminating in a deeper understanding of the highest Truth.” When not immersed in the Great Books, Adelina loves to explore the great outdoors, especially by hiking and skiing.

While in high school in Geneva, New York, Matthew Bohrer (’26) learned about the TAC High School Summer Program when an admissions officer visited his school. After attending, he was fully on board. This will be Matthew’s second time as a prefect for the Summer Program, and he hopes to share his TAC experience with this year’s attendees. “The Summer Program is such a good time, and it’s a great place to meet people,” he says. “TAC is proof that you can have an amazing education, spiritual life, and social life, all at the same time. You don’t have to sacrifice any one to have a great experience here.”

Although initially hesitant about Thomas Aquinas College, Daniela Van Wyk (’26) of Goleta, California, changed her mind while attending her own High School Summer Program. While she originally intended to attend a much larger school, she was intrigued by the threefold unity of faith, friendship, and classical education that TAC offered. “It was the curriculum that really got me and continues to keep me here,” she said. “The books we read and the questions we begin to ask have been some of the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done.” With two years of rigorous Catholic liberal education behind her, Daniela hopes to share what she’s learned with this year’s attendees. “I hope the program allows them to get a glimpse of what we study here. As I’ve experienced myself, once you see the beauty of this education, you will naturally desire it.”