Each year, a few weeks into the Spring Semester, the Wyoming Catholic College community celebrates Senior Orations Week. President Kyle Washut describes this week as “the culminating effort of [our] seniors’ training,” as well as “a foreshadowing of the way our seniors will share the common goods of Truth and Beauty in which they have immersed themselves these last four years with the world at large.”

During the week, regular classes are suspended as the seniors present their orations to faculty, fellow students, board members, staff, family members, and guests of the College. The classrooms are often packed to overflowing for these presentations, which are frequently delivered entirely from memory (though a few notes are permitted). Afterwards, the seniors field questions on the topic for another half hour (or so).

The oration itself is based upon the senior thesis, which each senior completed at the close of the Fall semester. The oration is rarely a mere exposition of the thesis, but often draws upon the work done during the thesis-writing process. This year’s list includes topics as wide-ranging as “Is Chivalry Dead?” or “How to Use the World’s Goodness: Resolving the Paradox of Detachment in Christian Life;” “The Just Man Justices and the Lover Sings: Musings on Music as the Act Proper for the Lover” or “Do You Believe in Magic: Lewis’s Re-enchantment of Reality;” “Our Hearts Are Restless until They Rest in Thee: The Role of Silence and of Contemplation for the Happiness of Man,” “Christian Faith and Pagan Reason: Whether Christians Should Study Eastern Philosophy,” “Cato and the Role of Suicide in Dante’s Commedia,” and “Israel’s Inheritance and the Comedy of Ruth.”

The presentations will be live-streamed, and a schedule with links is posted below. (The YouTube Live playlist for the entire week can be found HERE.)