SANTA PAULA : 41 Students Graduate From Aquinas College

Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino faced the graduates and families, crowded under the sheltering canopies of two strong, old trees.

Their Catholic faith and the knowledge they had gained at Thomas Aquinas College, he told the graduates, would protect and sustain them throughout their lives.

Then Martino, a Vatican representative at the United Nations, said they must now put their faith and learning to the service of others.

“The Scriptures remind us: The gift you have received, you must now give as a gift,” he said. “Your faith has a crucial role to play in the shaping of the world.”

Forty-one students graduated Saturday from the college, a four-year Catholic school centered on teaching the classic works of western thought. Thomas Aquinas students take no electives: all study the same works, by such thinkers as Plato and Aristotle, and all receive the same degree, bachelor of arts in liberal arts.

The program is meant to ground students in the intellectual traditions of both the West and the Catholic Church, traditions woven throughout Saturday’s ceremony. With the bright Santa Paula Ridge as a backdrop, graduates mounted a stage, let faculty members drape a black, gold and white hood around their necks and knelt to kiss Martino’s ring.

They then faced the crowd, and to cheers and whistles, flipped their mortarboard tassels from right to left.

Afterward, the graduates started to file off the field. But they soon broke ranks as younger students and family members piled on congratulations and pressed for photos. Some graduates seemed overwhelmed by their sudden release from academia.

“I feel it’s a great accomplishment,” said Karyn Sus of Racine, Wis.

Sus had attended three other schools, each without graduating. “I just discovered I was looking for something more,” she said. “I wanted to know the thoughts men had thought through the centuries. And I felt this was the only and best place to do this.”

Unlike other students, Sus won’t leave the school just yet. She’ll stay on as an assistant to the director of admissions. “That makes graduating not so difficult,” she said.

Matthew Kelsey of Freehold, N.J., hopes to get a job at an Oregon winery. The job wouldn’t be much--grape picking and crushing--but it could be a first step toward owning his own vineyard and making his own wine.

Kelsey said his liberal arts education might not apply directly to his chosen field, but it would give him a broader background than people who pursued a more specialized degree.

“You’ll read about more things than about your job,” he said. “You’ll think about more things than just your work.”

Leon Grimm of Pasadena is thinking of teaching high school. Thomas Aquinas, he said, had given him the intellectual and religious tools to help people.

Surveying the crowd of fellow graduates, Grimm smiled. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything,” he said.