What is really going on at Saint Thomas Aquinas?

Sixteen Saint Thomas Aquinas students entered the Catholic Church this past April at the Easter Vigil. Alongside them, two Aquinas families made the same journey of faith, walking beside their children. Over the past two years, a total of 29 Saint Thomas Aquinas students have joined the Catholic Church. However, these events are not just isolated moments. Rather they are a sign of something deeper that has been taking shape within the life of the school for a while now.

The mission guiding the Saints community, is our belief that every person is called to sainthood. More than an abstract idea, this belief is reflected in our daily interactions, in the conversations we engage to the choices we make on a daily basis. As a result, two guiding questions began to take shape, providing structure to our actions.

What do saints truly possess? And how do we help our students grow into the saints God is calling them to be? 

The answers to these questions wasn't to add more campus ministry programs. It was found in our daily practice of the four cardinal virtues - Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance - and their daughter virtues.

Practicing virtue has become a focus in our community. Virtue isn’t just something students memorize and learn about in theology classes - it is lived out in relationships. Through the vision of Campus Ministry and President Brian Schenck, this approach took root in a way that was both intentional and real. Teachers embraced it in their classrooms, coaches carried it onto the fields, and over time, students began to recognize virtue not as something being taught to them, but something being modeled in front of them - more than an act, it is a way of living that is both attainable and real. A habit that can be cultivated with practice and the desire to live a moral life.

For the past two years, at the end of our monthly all-school Mass, one student and one teacher are recognized by their peers as examples of living out a particular virtue. Our community looks forward to this part of our celebration as it brings to life a moral good. It reveals to us that living heroic virtue is real and that virtuous people are right here in our midst, sitting in the seat next to ours and standing at the front of the classroom. 

Virtue is not defined by a stereotype or bestowed on a select group of persons, it is at once both action and actionable. It is found in the daily rhythm of relationships.

Virtue appears in the actions of a teacher who shows up with patience and care, in a coach who leads with integrity, in conversations that begin casually but leave a lasting impression. Over time, these moments begin to shape how students see the world, and perhaps more importantly, how they begin to understand themselves within it. For many, living out the virtues leads them somewhere unexpected. And they find themselves running towards something greater than themselves.

Alayna Vaeth, Class of 2026, did not intended to enter the Catholic Church when she set foot inside the halls of Aquinas as a freshman. Her journey unfolded gradually, shaped less by instruction and more by what she witnessed over the course of her four years as a Saint. 

When asked about her conversion, Alayna replied, "Coach Ikenberry lived her faith in a way that felt real to me. It wasn’t something she talked about all the time, it was just who she was in every situation. There was a calmness and a confidence in her that made me start asking questions I hadn’t really thought about before. Over the years, watching her, being around that kind of example, it stayed with me. When I finally made the decision, it didn’t feel sudden. It felt like something that had been growing for a long time."

James Forgy, also from the Class of 2026, came to Saint Thomas Aquinas for reasons familiar to many drawn by opportunity, especially in athletics. What he encountered, however, reached beyond anything he expected. 

"Señora Fuentes cared about people in a way that stood out. It wasn’t just being nice, it felt deeper than that. She paid attention, she listened, and she treated everyone with respect. After a while, I started to wonder where that came from. That’s what led me to start asking more questions, and those questions eventually led me to the Catholic faith."

What is going on at Aquinas is not a result of a single program, a single class, or a single moment. Rather what’s happening is deeper and organic. Conversion stories like Alayna's and Jack's are becoming more familiar within the Aquinas community. Not because they are being sought out, but because they are naturally emerging. We believe it is a result of practicing heroic virtue which our students are living consistently - daily, yearly.

Yes, we’ve had an overwhelming number of students in the past two years choose to enter the Catholic Church. There is no "campaign" asking students to change their lives. There is no "overarching message" trying to persuade or convince them to join the Church. We are a community striving, however imperfectly, to live virtuously and with intention, to embody what we believe, and to walk alongside one another in that pursuit. That is what makes what is happening here so remarkable.

And in our school environment, something has begun to take hold. It is not loud. It does not call attention to itself. But like a light placed where it can be seen, practicing virtue has a way of drawing people in. It's not a strategy, but a way of life.

And over time, living heroic virtue becomes more than a means to an end, it becomes a life worth living. At Saint Thomas Aquinas, students are not being shaped into the same story or the same saint. Each journey is personal, each relationship with Christ uniquely their own. But together, this community continues striving toward the same call to live authentically, to lead through actions, and to become the saints God has created us to be.