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About
Fidelity & ExcellenceThomas Aquinas College is unique among American colleges and universities, offering a faithfully Catholic education comprised entirely of the Great Books and classroom discussions.
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A Liberating Education
Truth MattersTruth, and nothing less, sets men free; and because truth is both natural and supernatural, the College’s curriculum aims at both natural and divine wisdom.
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A Catholic Life
Under the Light of FaithThe intellectual tradition and moral teachings of the Catholic Church infuse the whole life of Thomas Aquinas College, illuminating the curriculum and the community alike.
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Admission & Aid
Is TAC Right for You?Do you enjoy grappling with complex questions? Are you willing to engage in discussions about difficult concepts, with the truth as your ultimate goal?
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Students & Parents
Mind, Body & SpiritThere is always something to do at TAC — something worthwhile, something fulfilling, and something geared toward ever-greater spiritual and intellectual growth.
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Alumni & Careers
What Can You Do with a Liberal Education?Nothing speaks more to the versatility of the College’s academic program than the good that our alumni are doing throughout the Church and the world.
A mudslide has shut down both lanes on Highway 150 between the College’s California campus and Santa Paula. Although the California Department of Transportation has begun preparations for clearing the roadway, officials do not expect to finish the work before sometime this summer. Therefore, if you will be traveling to campus from points south, please be sure to give yourself enough time to navigate the detour route, which will take you along Highways 126, 101, and 33. Directions to campus
A mudslide has shut down both lanes on Highway 150 between the College’s California campus and Santa Paula. Although the California Department of Transportation has begun preparations for clearing the roadway, officials do not expect to finish the work before sometime this summer. Therefore, if you will be traveling to campus from points south, please be sure to give yourself enough time to navigate the detour route, which will take you along Highways 126, 101, and 33. Directions to campus
Meet the Summer Program Prefects: Claire Thomas (’24)
Preparations continue for the 2022 California Summer Program! Today we meet the next of the prefects, sophomore Claire Thomas.
Claire comes to us from the splendid city of Corpus Christi, in the Lone Star state. “My family has lived in South Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico, for generations. Growing up, I could see the Gulf every day and spent many summers at the beach,” she says with a smile. “So it’s nice to go to school near the Pacific Ocean, with easy access to the beach.”
Claire’s journey from Gulf to Golden Coast, however, was something of a surprise to her. “I wasn’t planning on coming to TAC,” she explains. “In high school, my favorite classes were calculus and chemistry, so I wanted to go to a college where I could major in math or science.” Yet she remained at least open to TAC and decided to attend the Summer Program in 2019.
The result? “I loved it! During those two weeks, I was able to make friends with people from across the country, strengthen my spiritual life through the Sacraments, and read and discuss the Great Books in the classes.”
Given her interests in high school, Claire was especially attentive to what the Summer Program revealed about the College’s approach to mathematics. “My high school classes taught me to memorize rules and laws without explaining why they are true. I never thought I would be able to use my own reasoning to arrive at those rules myself,” she says. But through her study of Book I of Euclid’s Elements during the Summer Program, she did just that — and that made all the difference.
Proposition after proposition, she followed Euclid’s steady logic as it lifted the rules of geometry from the dense obscurity of high school math into the shimmering light of intelligible certainty. She was stunned: “I wanted to experience that certainty about all of the mathematics that I was taught!”
More broadly, Claire’s experience on the Summer Program also revealed a new context in which to situate her cherished interests in math and science: the College’s integrated curriculum. Math and science are already distinct, yet integrally related, disciplines. TAC’s curriculum expands that network of interdependence to embrace all branches of knowledge. The result is an edifice of mutually enriching truths, which deeply impressed Claire. Accordingly, she returned to TAC as a freshman in the fall of 2020. “Although I was drawn to TAC by the math and science curriculum,” she says, “I love that I am able to study them along with philosophy and theology!”
For obvious reasons, therefore, Claire is honored to be working as a prefect for the 2022 Summer Program. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the Summer Program students, and talking to them about the curriculum!” In addition to her mathematical inclinations, Claire is a formidable basketball player, and especially looks forward to the Prefect-Student basketball game. She is always up for great conversation or competition, and she will certainly have ample opportunity for both at the Summer Program.