Meet an Incoming Cardinal Newman Fellow

Lauren Mitchell, alumna of Thomas Aquinas College ‘22, is an incoming student at CatholicTech this fall as a Cardinal Newman Fellow. 

I grew up in Alabama, but I went to Thomas Aquinas College in California, all the way on the other side of the country. At TAC, there are no defined majors; they offer a single liberal arts degree, which is roughly the equivalent of  a double major in philosophy and theology. While I was a student there, I enjoyed dancing a lot, hiking, and playing board games with friends. 

I first read about CatholicTech through a post on LinkedIn; I had been looking for something new and somewhere to further my education. One night, I asked God if there was anything else I needed to be doing, because I felt like I wasn’t doing enough after graduating college. I immediately remembered something I needed to do, and upon doing it the next day, I  stumbled across a LinkedIn post by CatholicTech; the first thing I saw on their page was the Cardinal Newman Fellowship. When I saw that this was a Catholic STEM school, I thought, “Why haven’t I heard about this sooner?” Then I realized it was because the school had not officially opened yet. Reading through the Fellowship description and what they were looking for in applicants, it seemed like every bullet point described me perfectly – I thought, “I have a feeling that this is what I have been waiting for!” I took the time to get everything together for my application, and it all went very easily compared to other things I was applying for and seeking out. 

At CatholicTech, I am planning on pursuing the mechanical engineering program. With this degree, I would love to go on to do research in astronomy or astrophysics. There is quite some overlap between engineering and  astrophysics. I have always loved outer space; growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut. I remember I would go outside to look at the stars, and just stare up and marvel. I have a love for physics, and I have read about astronomy for years. My education from Thomas Aquinas College will definitely help me in this program as well. We do a lot of math and physics, focusing on the conceptual grounding of the sciences, and this will give me a good background with which to begin my education at CatholicTech. We read many primary sources, including Newton and Galileo, and because of this I know and understand where the concepts of the sciences came from. The liberal arts teaches us how to think and to think logically, and  these are vital for doing mathematics and physics. 

At CatholicTech, I am looking forward to living in a beautiful villa, surrounded by natural beauty. There is so little of that in our lives today, and it is needed for showing the world how to pursue the true, the good, and the beautiful.