Project Description

Aquinas College, Grand Rapids

Aquinas College is a small Catholic liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids in 1886, Aquinas provides a liberal arts education with a global perspective, emphasises career preparation focused on leadership and service to others, and fosters a commitment to lifelong learning dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the common good. The College has more than 2,100 students and offers 61 majors, awarding Bachelor’s degrees and Master’s degrees.

Since 1973, students and Professors of Aquinas College have come to Tullycross each year as part of a Study Abroad programme.

Over the past 52 years, the Aquinas College programme has become much more than  an educational programme with many relationships being formed, lifelong friendships being developed and wide-ranging personnel exchanges across the Atlantic. Aquinas College has so far probably brought more than a thousand students and faculty to Tullycross, not to mention the family and friends who also visit. These positive impacts brought forth Connemara West’s education-led local development strategy in the late 2000s. It seeks to make Tullycross and the Renvyle Peninsula the destination of choice for US colleges wishing to provide their students with high-impact education practices in an Irish rural environment, and, in turn, be an economic, social and cultural stimulus for the Renvyle community. In partnership with Aquinas College, the company began to discuss how other US colleges could be brought to Tullycross. In due course, these discussions led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two organisations. Creating a residential education centre for research, education and community engage in Tullycross was one goal of that agreement.