Wyoming Catholic College Admissions Newsletter Real Resolve: An Uncomfortable Education at Wyoming Catholic College For many, January is a month of failed resolutions. No matter how strong our will might be on January 1st, a few weeks pass and we begin nibbling the chocolate in the pantry or sneaking in a cup of coffee every other morning. Come March, many resolutions are mere relics––flashes of momentary temperance and determination. We return to our normal, comfortable way of life as soon as the “new” year becomes normal and comfortable.  In themselves, these failed resolutions are often harmless. They are considered “part of life” in the cycle of modern society. But in another sense, this consistent display of failed resolve belies a deeper ailment in the human spirit. We are intoxicated and bloated by the comfort of our modern world. The exponential development of technology in the last two centuries, while benefiting mankind tremendously, has also fundamentally transformed our way of life. We are constantly surrounded by devices and programs that are meticulously designed to provide maximal comfort and pleasure. Distasteful tasks are pushed further and further from everyday experience, and the mere touch of a button or swipe of a screen wields ever-increasing power over our environment. The result of this modern obsession with comfort is precisely what we witness every January: failure in resolve and aversion to suffering. Today’s world presents man with a marvelous wonderland of pleasures and entertainment, immediately available at the flip of a switch. Yet simultaneously, this modern vision obscures and undermines what is most meaningful in human life: those goods that require genuine sacrifice and self-gift. The core values of faith, family, and country––because they impose deep demands upon our souls––become inimical to the modern man of comfort. One cannot press a button to raise a good family. One cannot practice true religion or patriotism from the comfort of a gaming room. Thus, these central human goods fall under attack, being labeled as “old-fashioned” or “superstitious,” with those who promote them even being characterized as “bigots.” What is to be done about this crisis of the human spirit? How can one be reawakened to the “uncomfortable” goods of human life?  Try hiking for 21-days in the wilderness with a 50lb pack on your back. Try spending hours in the saddle every week learning horsemanship. Try studying for hours every day the greatest works of human philosophy, literature, and art. Try celebrating the Great Fast during Lent in the Byzantine Rite. All these experiences are familiar to the Wyoming Catholic College student. Again and again throughout their four years, WCC students endure experiences that are intentionally uncomfortable. Why? Because it is only through deep trial and sacrifice that the human soul achieves the highest goods. At Wyoming Catholic College, these highest goods––the treasures of our Faith and heritage––serve as the center of our communal life. January is no exception. While the rest of the world is tiring of their resolutions, our freshmen are currently preparing to venture into Grand Teton National Park for their required Winter Trip. They will spend several days cross country skiing, building their own quinzee snow shelters and sleeping in them for two nights, often in negative temperatures. Along with their upperclassmen leaders, they will carve chapels in the snow (often including a high altar!) for our chaplain to celebrate Mass in the wilderness. Then, all students will return to Lander to resume their academic studies, facing a curriculum with no electives and no option to “drop classes.” Their courses will avoid using textbooks where information is “neatly packaged” for consumption. Instead, they will grapple with the source texts, learning calculus by reading Kepler and Newton and metaphysics through studying Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, and Kant. In the end, they will experience a curriculum that deeply reorders their entire being––a program that bravely charges against the currents of modern secularism. The Wyoming Catholic College graduate will be reawakened to the meaningfulness of human experience––and will strive to answer the “uncomfortable,” sacrificial call of God’s love that beckons us all. Will you become a WCC graduate?   Apply Today!

Full-Tuition Scholarship! Our Founders’ Scholarship Competition is just around the corner! For this event, accepted students will join us in Wyoming to compete for a full-tuition award, engaging in various activities on campus. Competitors will audit live classes with our students, have discussions of their own with our faculty, and write a timed essay. They will also be immersed in our rich community life, venturing into the outdoors with our students and joyfully celebrating at the Dean’s Banquet. Time is running out to seize this wonderful opportunity! If you haven’t completed your application to WCC, do so today! If you’ve already been accepted, now is the time to register for Founders’! Learn More About Founders’! Financial Aid  The Founders’ Scholarship Competition is only one component of our financial aid offerings. Beyond the full-tuition award, we offer generous merit scholarships that drastically reduce the cost of attendance for many of our students. Need-based financial aid can make the cost even lower, coming in the form of work-study positions and donor-sponsored grants. Now is the time to take advantage of our financial aid offerings! We encourage all accepted students and applicants to begin the aid process. Explore Financial Aid at WCC! Student Spotlight!  With the counselor travel schedule winding down, now is the perfect time to introduce some of our students! Over the next few months, expect to see several students in the spotlight to share their experience of Wyoming Catholic College! First up:  Bren Walsh (Class of 2025)  Bren grew up in Noblesville, Indiana in a household of 9 children. She loves hiking and exploring and has probably read way too much St. Augustine. She is currently a Senior at WCC and is preparing to give her Oration in February, sharing her thesis about the true nature of human enlightenment.  Q. Looking back to freshman year of high school, were you planning to attend Wyoming Catholic College?  No, I wanted to be a journalist. I was interested in being a war correspondent and doing work overseas. And at the time, I believed that going to an Ivy League institution would be the best guarantee of success for that profession.  Q. What brought you to (and kept you at) WCC?  I was initially drawn to the community and the classical education, integrated with experiential outdoor leadership education. But what ultimately kept me at the college was being in a community striving together for excellence in virtue and pursuing the truth together as a genuinely Catholic community––and the kinds of friendships that can only thrive in that environment.  Q. What has been your favorite class at WCC, and why?  Comedy and Tragedy with Dr. Cooper (Junior Year, 1st Semester), because it’s interesting learning about comic and tragic form, and how these literary forms express a true and meaningful and nuanced aspect of human life. Shakespeare is always worth studying. Chaucer is always worth studying. They are not “outdated” storytellers. But the thing that makes them timeless is not necessarily the content of their writing but the fact that they are––like all good literature––tapping into something deeper about human experience…things that we can’t explain except through literature.  Q. What’s one thing you would tell high school students right now who are considering their college options?   As someone who was attracted to the idea of an institution shrouded in “prestige,” like an Ivy League school or one with a large student population, it has been a very interesting lesson in humility for me to discover that the small liberal arts school that I go to, that isn’t necessarily “on the map” for most people, could truly change my life in such a meaningful way. And I have come to believe that being so invested in a small community like this––a small community pursuing truth together like the real meaning of a “college”––is conducive to charity and happiness in a way that I have never experienced before. So I would just encourage them not to be afraid of that.

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