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When are you
most happy or
proud to be a
Johnnie?
When everyone is out on
the quad on a Friday
afternoon in April or May.
It’s warm, classes are
done for the week, and
annual essays are in.
The quad is packed with
people talking about
their readings or whatever
is going on. You’ll hear
a heated discussion of
Hume v. Kant, or Leibniz
v. Newton, or whether
Neo-Platonism is really a
thoughtful thing. Around
four, someone will bring
out a stereo. They’ll play
croquet on the field
and bocce on the quad.
People will start playing
four square. We all file
into lecture at 8:15. After
the lecture, everyone is
outside again, discussing
what was said. Later,
someone will start
singing songs from
freshman and sophomore
year, everyone joining
in, regardless of class or
singing ability, while
people use sidewalk chalk
to demonstrate math-
ematical propositions on
the ground. You can look
at that and find the end
of the road to intellectual-
ism that brought you
here in the first place.
What would you
most want a high
school student
to know about
St. John’s?
St. John’s isn’t like any
other college, and
although that’s been said
many times, the fact is
that it’s true. St. John’s is
for those who want to
learn for the sake of
getting more knowledge.
Nobody is going to
spoon-feed you informa-
tion or tell you what you
need to know only to
have you regurgitate it
sometime later. Every-
thing you learn here, you
learn yourself firsthand.
Ms. Vivian Garcia ’13
Los Angeles, California
Extracurriculars: Blues and swing dance, the Eldritch
Fellowship of the Icosahedron (role-playing guild),
Chrysostomos (theater group), photography
Future plans: Attending law school
Mr. David Maher ’11
Falls Church, Virginia
Extracurriculars: Student Polity and Delegate Council
president, intramural sports, Reality, theater lighting
technician, Comedy Club, Tuesday Night Fights
Future plans: Attending law school, specializing in either
constitutional law or environmental law
If you’ve ever wondered
“
why?” when something
was taught to you,
St. John’s is the place
where you can figure it
out. At St. John’s you
aren’t just another face in
a lecture hall with 300 or
more students; here,
the tutors actually care
about your performance.
When you’re in a class
with only 10 other people,
your actions really matter.
How much you participate
in class is important not
only for your grades but
for how much you get
out of the discussion.
What you get out of the
program depends directly
on how much you put
into the program.