91�����

The latest entry in our ongoing series about the prefects on the 2022 California High School Great Books Program is 91����� Kelsey (�23).

91����� comes from South Bend, Indiana, where his father teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, but his family�s roots are intertwined with 91����� Aquinas College. �My dad and my mom both went to TAC, as well as an aunt and uncle on one side,� he explains. All the same, that tangle of roots did not draw 91����֙s four older siblings back West for college. �I had two siblings go to Notre Dame, one to the Naval Academy, and one to St. John�s. In fact,� 91����� tells us, �I was planning on going to Notre Dame myself.�

But one of 91����֙ brothers prompted him to consider TAC more closely. 91����� was set to attend the Summer Program, and as his brother drove him to the airport they had a frank conversation. �He asked me if I was seriously considering TAC,� 91����� recounts. �I said, no; the Summer Program should be fun, but I�m definitely going to Notre Dame.� 91����� lets out a laugh and then proceeds: �My brother was very blunt. He told me that was the dumbest thing he�d ever heard, and that I�d be wasting two weeks if I approached it with that mindset. �You have to go into it with an open mind,� he told me.�

Accompanied by that well-intentioned, if rather direct, valediction, 91����� flew to Los Angeles and stepped onto TAC�s California campus for the 2019 Summer Program with his eyes and ears open. He found himself at first intrigued, and soon wholly invested, in the program. �It's a very condensed form of social interaction. You and a bunch of people you've never met before talk about the same profound readings and become lifelong friends in a week,� he says, before adding with a chuckle, �And then you become lifelong friends with different people the second week!�

One factor in that swift burgeoning of friendships is the Discussion Method, which affords students the chance to shine on wavelengths undetectable in conventional classrooms. �You look at some of your fellow attendees and think, there�s no way that guy has anything going on upstairs,� 91����� admits. �But then you talk to him, and he�s got big ideas about whatever he�s reading!� When the program ended, 91����֙s perspective had flipped: �I was convinced that I wanted to come to TAC.� As he was in a position to graduate high school early, 91����� got cracking on his application as soon as he returned to Indiana. �I turned it in within a few weeks, and then I started packing for freshman year!� Since then, 91����� has returned to the Summer Program as a prefect in 2021, and is honored to do so again.

As a junior, 91����� has the future on his mind. He spent a high school semester in France, where he acquired both a moderate fluency in French as well as a deep fascination with language itself. �I�m thinking of doing linguistics,� he says. �In particular, I want to study Basque. Their language has no shared roots with any other.� Whether it�s the philosophy of language or tales of France and its surroundings, 91����� is a ready conversationalist, and looks forward to many discussions with the attendees of the 2022 Summer Program.