On April 9, professor John Pinheiro, Ph.D., of the History department, took a group of Aquinas students on a field trip to one of Michigan’s best-known and most-respected hubs of philosophy and academics. The trip was an opportunity for students to engage the ideas they’ve been exposed to outside the classroom, to interact with scholars and intellectuals in person.

Nine students from two classes were a part of the trip: HY401, Senior Research Seminar in American Religious History, and HY212, Federal Union, 1783-1850. The two classes were merged and taken to the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in Mecosta, Michigan. The Kirk Center, a non-profit educational institute established following the death of the conservative philosopher and academic whose name it bears, hosted the Aquinas students, who saw lectures by Bruce P. Frohnen, Ph.D. (of the Ohio Northern University College of Law) and historian James Gaston, Ph.D.

Frohnen’s lecture focused on the work of French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville, whose work Democracy in America is required reading in HY212, a study of the early American republic. Student Jason Beurkens had positive things to say about the lecture: “I particularly enjoyed the discussion of Tocqueville’s idea of the involvement of the community in politics and how it has changed over the last 90 years. (...) Recently the role of the community has been dwindling in government and that loss could be devastating to politics.”

Gaston’s content focused on what Pinheiro describes as “the interplay between religion and politics in pre-Civil War America.” Between the two lectures, Aquinas students were treated to a lunch and opportunity to interact with these scholars and discuss topics of interest. Said AQ student Samuel Johnson, “The intimate setting and the opportunity to interact with fellow history students and historians in the shadow of what has been left to us by Michigan's most eminent historian proved to be an enlightening experience.”

Beurkens encourages other students to take similar field trips if given the opportunity: “I am a big fan of knowledge so I would always encourage other AQ students to go on any trip that enlightens students. I would especially encourage other history majors to go on trips like this one because it broadens your perspective on the role of history and its application to the present.”

Pinheiro feels the central theme of the field trip was extending his students’ reach beyond themselves and into an important learning experience: “I think the most important thing for them was to get away from Aquinas College for a day on a field trip… to have our students mix with prominent scholars and also be able to dig through Kirk’s vast library.”

Johnson is grateful to the learning experience Pinheiro afforded. “The willingness of Dr. Pinheiro to organize the trip, invite amazing speakers, and provide us with the opportunity to network and meet new people proved to be a fitting cap to my final semester as history student at Aquinas,” he said.

Johnson doesn’t feel that the work Pinheiro does is unique to his classes, but indicative of a wider openness to the learning process found at Aquinas College: “Intimate opportunities like these come around frequently at a place like Aquinas and have added great value to my education. Professors like Dr. Pinheiro go the extra step to involve students in their education through trips like this and that is what makes Aquinas such a great place to learn and live.”