Aquinas Student Fellowships

2007 - 2008 Aquinas Fellows

Spring 2008 Information

Faculty/Staff Nomination Deadline:
March 14, 2008 

Student Application with essay, and
 Faculty Letter of Recommendation
Deadline:
April 18, 2008

All current sophomore and junior students are eligible for the 2008-09 academic year.  Once a faculty/staff member sends us the name of a nominee, we will contact the student to see whether he or she wishes to apply.  If so, we will then ask the faculty/staff member to write a letter of recommendation to support the application. Decisions will be made in early May.

Faculty/Staff: Student nominations are due March 14th to Dr. Mary Reichardt, Faculty Director, Beyond Career to Calling, or to Ms. Laura Stierman, Assistant Coordinator.

Your student Letter of Recommendations are due by April 18th. For further information concerning your Letter of Recommendation, click on Aquinas Fellows Recommendation Guidelines.

Students: For further information regarding your Aquinas Fellows application and essay, click on the Aquinas Fellows Application.

Part of Beyond Career to Calling, the Aquinas Fellows Program awards tuition fellowships to junior and senior undergraduates who have demonstrated a commitment to the ideal of vocation in their lives.  While these students may be exploring a variety of future plans--priesthood or religious life, work in the Church, a professional career--each understands the importance of on-going discernment of God's call to a particular way of life.  These students possess a lively sense of what the Second Vatican Council described as "the universal call to holiness," and they have directed and continue to direct their academic work and their spiritual, social, and service activities toward that goal. 

Aquinas Fellows students serve as models to the wider University community of what it means to integrate faith and professional life, a goal St. Thomas seeks to encourage.  They understand the need to seek wholeness of being rather than the "careerism" that so often results in fragmentation.  Aquinas Fellows accept the responsibility of becoming "vocations leaders" on campus, helping others discern God's call.  To support them in their endeavors, the Aquinas Fellows Program sponsors several events during the academic year, including a formal induction banquet attended by Fellows, parents, and sponsors, a retreat, and other opportunities for fellowship and spiritual growth.

Approximately 15 Aquinas Fellowships are awarded per year.  In order to apply for a fellowship, students must first be nominated by a faculty or staff member who knows the student well and who agrees to provide a written recommendation.  Nominations are called for once per year during spring semester.  Nominated students are then contacted by the Beyond Career to Calling office and, if they choose to apply for the grant, are directed to submit application materials.  A faculty committee screens this material and makes awards.  Selection criteria also includes financial need.