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Today marked the last day of classes for students on the One-Week California Great Books Program. The day began as usual, with many students attending the 7:15 a.m. Mass before enjoying some beloved pre-class study and social time in the coffee shop. Students sat on the patio tables, soaking in the early morning sun, sipping on iced strawberry matchas and vanilla cold brews with cold foam. It was a relaxing, slow start to the morning before it was time to attend the final Euclid class of the program!

Students met in St. Gladys Hall, ready to bid farewell to Euclid. Today’s demonstrations were from Elements, Book 1, propositions , , and . These props build on the core theorems of the previous ones, relating lines and angles to triangle construction, finally proving that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is always 180°.

After class, students relaxed in the sun, attended midmorning Mass, or did some last-minute catching up on the reading for this afternoon’s final class. At lunch (shrimp fajitas and nachos), all celebrated Michael F.’s birthday! The prefects presented him with a cake and candles, and the entire Commons serenaded him loudly! 

Refueled, students walked to St. Gladys Hall for the last time. Many gathered in front of the building to sing together — a beloved TAC tradition performed before the last final of each semester. In class, they took up readings from Jean-Henri Fabre and St. Thomas Aquinas.

For their first taste of St. Thomas, students examined the Summa Theologiae, Question 2, Article 3. In this article, Aquinas presents rational proofs of God’s existence, disagreeing with Pascal’s view that one cannot know God by human reason alone. St. Thomas argues from the intelligible order of Creation, noting that even irrational beings act toward an end in a seemingly rational manner. 

This insight flows directly into Jean-Henri Fabre’s The Bees, which shows how even tiny insects such as bees, lacking reason, work intelligently to construct their hives. Students discussed Aquinas’s proof for God in light of Fabre’s observations — and whether an intelligent creator really can be known from human reason alone. 

When students exited St. Gladys Hall, many expressed their disappointment at leaving the classroom behind, but consolations awaited! Out on the academic quadrangle, the programmers received One Week California Summer Program 2026 certificates of completion, as well as a slew of Summer Program goodies, including a copy of C.S Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, a framed group photo, a t-shirt, and a TAC tote bag. 

Students shared about their time in the classroom this week and, for many, it was their first experience of the Discussion Method and TAC’s unique program of Catholic liberal education. 

“I feel like I have always been in the top range of my class at my high school,” Lucy A. reflected.  “But when I came here, it was a humbling experience. I got to see people who genuinely cared about what they were talking about, and genuinely wanted to find the truth, and weren't just there because they had to be there.”

Despite the end of classes, the Summer Program is far from over! Students’ penultimate day at TAC is going to be packed with activities. The Summer Program Blog will have all of the details of this evening’s fun — choral concert and soccer championship included — on Saturday morning!

More photos from the High School Summer Program

Tap on the right center edge of the image to scroll through the album.