Student Shares Experience
Pursuing Catholic Liberal Arts
Brother
Sean Gribbon
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, brother knights
and worthy-sirs.
My name is Sir Knight Sean Gribbon, and I am a
member of the Knights of Columbus Bishop N.Z.
Lorrain Council and the Bishop Smith Assembly
of this area. I am trained and work as a Personal
Support Worker and I am currently a first-year
student at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy
(OLSWA).
It is a pleasure to be visiting my hometown and
to see many familiar faces. I feel honoured to share
with you my testimony about this wonderful
Catholic liberal arts school.
The first time I ever heard about the Academy
was when I was in grade 12. At the time, the school
seemed interesting and was a valiant endeavour that
was being orchestrated. However, I was not open
to pursuing Catholic liberal arts studies and did not
inquire into the school any further. In hindsight,
I regret not fostering an interest in the Academy
at that stage of my life. For now that I have had the
opportunity to undertake such studies at the
institution, I realize how incredible the Academy’s
curriculum is, and I appreciate the value of studying
the Catholic faith at the level of excellence offered
from that relatively small school in Barry’s Bay.
In a sense, my words are poor in stating to you how
much of a blessing it has been to me to study at
OLSWA. As a mature student who has studied at a
post-secondary institution prior to where I am now,
The amount of knowledge that my academic
I can say with confidence that
the Academy provides an education
that is fundamental in forming
men and women in the truth.
professors have instilled in me since my studies
began last September has been grand in its
quantity and liberating in its quality. My studies
to date include courses such as Christian Doctrine
(a year-long study of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church), Fundamentals of Philosophy,
Latin, Logic, History of Western Civilization,
Essay Writing, Chorus, private piano and voice
lessons, Ethics, Introduction to Biblical Literature,
and Introduction to Classical Literature. As you
can probably gather from this classes listed here,
the school certainly lives up to its title of “Academy”
as it provides an exhaustive study in the liberal arts.
It is challenging, but it is worth the effort—there can
be no crown without the cross in letting the truth
set you free.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS ONLINE BULLETIN
30
APRIL 2014