President’s Message

Dear Friends,

We have so much for which to be grateful. Since the founding of Aquinas College in 1961, Aquinas College has maintained the same central focus: a desire to serve the Church by forming individuals prepared to be witnesses to Truth and Charity. May the Lord continue to work in and through Aquinas for many years to come!

One of our great blessings is the clarity of mission and vision with which we have been entrusted here at Aquinas. The Holy Spirit is truly at work, guiding and directing the work of our College. Our vision, as set forth in our strategic plan “Sent to Witness,” is to be a leader in the formation of educators who are sent forth to teach, preach, and witness to Truth and Charity for the salvation of souls and the transformation of culture. This is who we are, and this is what we are called to do. We focus all of our resources on this mission. We are called to evangelize the world through the formation of Catholic educators, through the Dominican charism of teaching, preaching, and sending witnesses out into the world. We continue to enter into this vision ever more deeply and fully.

As we continue this time of National Eucharistic Revival, I am pleased to announce that Aquinas College will offer a Eucharistic Lecture Series this year. We will have one evening lecture per quarter, with each 45-minute lecture followed by a 45-minute time of Eucharistic Adoration. We hope that this will provide the faithful in our Nashville community with an opportunity to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Although our College is small in size, we maintain a rather remarkable outreach that extends throughout our own diocese and to many other dioceses around the country and abroad. The outreach offered through our Center for Catholic Education continues to bear much fruit as it reaches educators around the country. The WISE conference this past summer was the largest yet, with participants representing ten different dioceses. Our School of Education also offered professional development opportunities to the teachers in our diocese over the summer. In collaboration with Franciscan University, we had a very successful inaugural Pilgrimage for Educators to Italy this past summer. We continue to offer Virtues in Practice presentations and our online Catechist Formation Program. We are looking into how we might be able to make the best use of our atria at the Aquinas Center through potential Catechesis of the Good Shepherd outreach opportunities. And Siena Hall Conference Center continues to grow in reputation as non-profit organizations in line with our mission discover this beautiful venue for their conferences, workshops, and retreats.

Aquinas College is truly a gift, to our own community and beyond. In its unique and beautiful mission, Aquinas College finds its place in the heart of the Church and in the heart of Catholic education. We prepare teachers with a deep intellectual formation in the liberal arts and a solid professional formation in teaching, which together prepares them to teach and evangelize in our Catholic schools, affecting countless souls each and every day.

I invite you to explore our website further and learn more about our College. It is my hope that this site can convey some small sense of the joyfulness, fidelity, and dedication to Catholic education upon which Aquinas College is founded.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Sincerely in Christ,
Sister Cecilia Anne Wanner, O.P.
President