Dear Aquinas Community, As the 2022-2023 school year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on all of the joyous opportunities we’ve had to truly experience the full impact of our Aquinas community. We have all been together to celebrate many school masses this year and look forward to celebrating one more with our seniors before they graduate, we had a great Homecoming Spirit Week and pep rally, celebrated community together weekly in our Kumbaya gatherings, and celebrated once more with another successful Shamrock Week. The school is alive and buzzing with activity as is our tradition. Through it all, our students continued to excel. The Class of 2022 earned a combined total of over $13,000,000 in college scholarships ($105,000/student) and did almost 10,000 hours of service. As a class there were acceptances to some of the best colleges in the country including several ranked in the US News Top 50 National Universities. This fall, over 65 colleges and universities visited students on campus and Aquinas hosted a college fair of area colleges. We are continually working to provide great opportunities for students to be successful beyond our walls. You may recall that last spring Aquinas kicked off a comprehensive strategic planning process. In September, over 70 alumni, current parents, faculty, staff, and administration came to campus for a retreat day to draft objectives for this plan based on feedback gathered in the spring and summer from all of our stakeholders. The Strategic Plan; A Plan for Growth and Sustained Excellence will address needs and opportunities for growth in the areas of academics, advancement, Catholic identity, enrollment, facilities, finance, governance, and student life. On January 30, the Aquinas Board of Trustees formally adopted the plan. We are looking forward to using the goals in this plan to drive us into the future. I am grateful for the work that Dr. Anthony Cook ’99 did here in his time as president, including getting the Strategic Plan launched. I have also been fortunate to have had Mr. Raymond Shea ’66 as an interim president through the summer and the fall. You may recall a letter from our board chair, Nick Dobbertin ’01, regarding the transition plan to the new president as Ray returned to his retirement and his role as a trustee. Ray has been instrumental in seeing the bulk of the strategic planning process realized and has brought a wealth of experience and leadership to Aquinas. On March 2nd we shared some exciting news with our Aquinas community. After an extensive and thoughtful search process, The Aquinas Board of Trustees Presidential Search Committee selected Mr. David Eustis as the fourth president of The Aquinas Institute. As we begin this new chapter, I am honored to welcome Mr. Eustis and look forward to working together to achieve our mission of teaching all students Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge. He will officially begin his role as president of Aquinas on June 19, 2023. I hope you enjoy this issue of The Landmark. There is so much to celebrate and so many things to be proud of as an alum, as a parent, and as a friend of AQ. The Landmark is just a small window into the excellent and exciting things happening at our alma mater. Aquinas evermore, Theodore Mancini ’88 Principal President’s Letter 3
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