Summer Program Blog

“I challenge someone to beat me in a race!”

If attendees hear one of the prefects on the 2022 New England High School Summer Program speaking Portuguese, that would be rising sophomore Pedro Kair Medeiros da Silva, who comes to Thomas Aquinas College all the way from Florianopolis, in southern Brazil.

Anna’s was the inaugural Summer Program on the New England campus in 2019. Although she greatly enjoyed kayaking on the Connecticut River and exploring Boston, she was captivated most of all by the glimpse into the College’s intellectual life. 

When he was in high school, Jack Gardner never imagined he would study theology and philosophy at Thomas Aquinas College, let alone work as one of the prefects for the 2022 High School Summer Program. Now a rising junior on the California campus, though, that’s just how the years are unfolding. 

“I would get so discouraged in high school, being given just formulas with no explanation,” recalls Jo Dragoo, echoing a frustration that high school students often have with mathematics, as conventionally taught. 

“I greatly enjoyed all the reading and discussions, especially of Antigone, Fear and Trembling, and The Consolation of Philosophy; and, of course, I loved the community life.”

“They got me. I fell in love.”