A few weeks into the Spring Semester each year, the Wyoming Catholic Community gathers for 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, 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 “Spies Can Lie: Reconciling Scholastic Thought with Political Reality” or “By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them: How External Forms of Decorum Can Lead to Moderation and Virtue in the Soul;” “The Crisis of Postmodernity: A Rejection of the Transcendentals and of True Rhetoric” or “Quit Harvard, Go Sailing: Custom as the Gateway to Compassion in Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast;” “I Have Called You Friends: The Necessity of Vulnerability and Honesty in Prayer,” “Is Transgenderism the Perfection of Man? An Exploration into the Philosophy Behind Transgender Ideology,” and “From Selfies to Stewardship: Aldo Leopold, Farmers, and the Future of our National Parks.”

Each presentation will be live-streamed, and a schedule with links is posted below. The booklet, painstakingly assembled each year by Dr. Michael Bolin, is available HERE. And the YouTube Live playlist for the entire week can be found HERE.