Beginning February 1st 2011 the College’s Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP) begins offering courses at the campus located at 681 Encinitas Blvd. Encinitas, CA. As a community benefit any adult or college student may audit these courses at no charge.

Click here to download the registration form.

The semester-long courses (15 weeks) award 3 semester unit credits toward a College degree. The first courses offered are:

Bi 7 The Biology of Aging

Human aging is associated with a wide range of physiological changes that not only make us more susceptible to death but also limit our normal functions and render us more susceptible to a number of diseases. We will examine the demographics of aging, biological theories of aging, aging of biological systems, and aging accelerators and decelerators. We will specifically focus on the mechanistic, molecular underpinnings of recent research on aging and discuss what is essential and unique to human aging. 3 semester units. No prerequisites. (Instructor: Papatheofanis; Thursdays, 5-8 PM; February 3-May 19, 2011).

Th 1a   Foundations of Orthodox Theology

This course is the first semester of a year-long survey introduction to Orthodox Theology.  It will provide a foundational understanding of the Orthodox Christian view of God and truth as pursued through contemplation, philosophy, history, and the arts and sciences.  Focus will be placed on the early Church and the apostolic and patristic witness to God and truth, especially considering the sources and method of Orthodox theology.  Key topics will include Orthodox Christian views of the knowability of God, scripture and revelation, the created universe, the Fall, salvation, the Church, liturgy and worship, the testimony of the Saints and the theology of the Holy Images, or Icons.  This course will also touch upon comparative views of these and other issues, to help the student situate Orthodox Christianity in its contemporary religious context.  A variety of learning methods will be employed including lectures, film and other visual presentations, readings in primary and secondary sources, church excursions, class discussion, papers and quizes.  Grading and assignments will follow two tracks:  one for Theology majors and one for non-Theology majors.  3 semester units.  No prerequisites.  (Instructor: Tibbs; Tuesdays, 5:30-8:30 PM from February 1 May 17, 2011.)  Click here for Expanded Course Description

To enroll contact our office at: 760.943.1107, or bring your registration form to the first class meeting.

Have you been homeschooled? There are many ways to receive a quality education and homeschooling is a viable alternative for many families.  Our classes give students direct access to outstanding faculty in small classroom sizes. There are plenty of opportunities for 1:1 learning and mentoring.
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During the past dozen years or so, I have developed a healthy taste for ambiguity.

One of the reasons I enjoy poetry, for instance, is how a good poem pretty much insists that the reader learn to savor the swoon of ambiguity.  The productive ambiguity of good poems obliges the reader actually to participate with the text, that she collaborate as a co-maker of meaning.

That is to say, a great poem—even a pretty good one—isn’t ever done saying what it has to say, so long as successive generations of alert and energetic readers continue to pick it up.

Ambiguity in any substantial literary text, then, indicates that the significance of the telling doesn’t end with a single reading, and delivers a compelling nudge to the reader that she assist in the telling and the re-telling, the continuing labor of meaning-making.

I also have come to think that this goes for ambiguity in general, ambiguity in life.

And might serve as well for all flavors of uncertainty.

And for perplexity, to boot.

And it occurs to me that perplexity is not such a bad disposition to cultivate, considering the complex circumstances of our lives.  Perplexity is, at the very least, preferable to an array of clear, comprehensible, and mistaken certainties.

Confessing our uncertainties in the face of complex circumstances may prove finally to be a very good thing, even something of a gift.  They bring us face to face with the limit where human understanding fails—as it inevitably must do.   Apprehending that limit serves to make a healthy dent in our pride and sense of self-sufficiency.

Moreover, our noticing that limit of knowledge—that line across which we can never proceed—can nudge us into suspecting how the actual, the True, is immeasurably immense, how it necessarily exceeds us.

I love how W.H. Auden begins his wonderful poem, “Archaeology”:

The archaeologist’s spade

delves into dwellings

vacancied long ago,

unearthing evidence

of life-ways no one

would dream of leading now—

concerning which he has not much

to say that he can prove:—

the lucky man!

Knowledge may have its purposes,

but guessing is always

more fun than knowing. …

I have a very keen sense that our Mr. Auden—prince among poets—also had developed a very healthy taste for ambiguity.

Whatever the Truth turns out to be, it is not a comprehensible body of knowledge, even if that Truth is made manifest—is revealed—in the apprehensible Body of Christ.  We do not—will not ever—comprehend the Truth; rather, the Truth, presumably, comprehends us.

Scott Cairns is Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in English at the University of Missouri.  His nine books include poetry collections, spiritual memoir, essays, and translations.  He serves as a reader/psalti at Saint Luke the Evangelist Greek Orthodox Church in Columbia, Missouri, and will serve as Visiting Professor of English at Saint Katherine College in spring, 2012.

With New Increase, Cal State Tuition to Be 60% Higher Than in 2008

November 10, 2010, 3:20 pm

California State University will raise its tuition by 15 percent by the 2011-12 academic year despite receiving a healthy increase in state support last month. The system’s Board of Trustees approved the increase today after officials said it would be necessary to raise enrollment and prepare for continuing state budget deficits in the future. With the move, tuition at Cal State will be 60 percent higher next year than it was just two years ago.

The higher education crisis in California continues to mount. Especially for transfer students, those with AA degrees or some college credits, this means fewer options for earning a BA/BS degree. This issue was recently highlighted in an article in The Southwestern College Sun, “It is getting hard to find a slot at SDSU and community colleges across the region are calling for a more trans­parent enrollment process at the state’s most impacted university. The university turned away a record 500 Southwestern College students and 2,500 transfer students from across the county. This year there were 61,800 applicants com­peting for 6,158 slots at SDSU.”

St Katherine College is committed to serving the educational needs of San Diego County, and we welcome transfer applicants.

Are you having problems transferring credits and completing your education?

St Katherine College is partnering with many leading companies to provide outstanding educational opportunities for our students. Leading company executives will offer seminars and symposia about the industry that will complement classroom and laboratory instruction. Scientists and other professionals actively engaged in innovation and research will also complement instructional offerings. To apply what they learn here, SKC students will have available research opportunities and internships in industry labs across the region.

SKC is committed to offering meaningful and practical education in the sciences. Our major programs in Biochemistry & Chemistry, Biological Sciences, and Biotechnology aim to equip students with the analytical skills and knowledge needed for successful careers in the biotechnology industry.  We are training the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientific leaders.

Ken Blanchard writes, “The Hole in the Gospel reminds us that God has the power to transform the world through us. Read this book and let Richard Stearns be your guide back to the Lord.” If you haven’t read this personal account of discovery and witness buy or borrow a copy and read it. It’s an easy read that focuses on the basics: We are to love God, We are to love our neighbor, and We are to go and make disciples of others who will do the same. That’s how Stearns (President, World Vision US) distills his response to the question, “What does God expect?” He speaks of love that changes hearts and minds and the world when he writes, “That love, when demonstrated to the world through acts of kindness, compassion, and justice, is revolutionary; and when we become the agents of it, we make credible the message of the Savior who transforms men and women for eternity.” It takes transformed people to transform the world.

Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? Thomas Nelson, 320 pages, 2009.