Dear Prospective Students and Parents:
I am excited to introduce you to Ave Maria University!
We offer a classical liberal arts education that is authentically Catholic and academically rigorous. The class sizes are small and 98% of our full-time faculty have PhDs, providing students the tools they need to become critical thinkers, competent writers, and lovers of learning. Ave Maria offers 21 majors, including new ones in business and psychology, and also three pre-professional programs.
Graduates of the Class of 2011 were admitted to top law schools and other graduate programs of distinction, including The London School of Economics. Indeed, despite our young history, an Ave Maria education has been a springboard for many to promising careers and vocations. A number of our graduates have entered the seminary or religious life. Others have discovered their calling to the married life – with a fellow Ave classmate! We believe that university life should provide an environment for young men and women to mature into responsible adults who celebrate their faith in Jesus Christ and apply their knowledge to the challenges of the 21st century. While attendance at Mass on Sunday is not mandatory on our campus, it is expected, and the moral climate in our dorms allows our students to maintain the values instilled in them by their parents.
I am new to Ave Maria University and this year will be my first as president. My wife and five children moved with me to beautiful, sunny Southwest Florida to be part of Ave Maria University’s future because we believe its mission is vitally important. It is clear to me that what our founder, Tom Monaghan, envisioned is coming to fruition, and that the Lord is honoring His holy Mother by blessing us with record enrollment this fall. Put simply, Ave Maria is unique, affordable and authentic. In May 2011, His Eminence William Cardinal Levada, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, extolled our vibrant Catholic ethos when he addressed our graduates.
I hope you will visit our campus and see for yourselves why Ave Maria University is attracting some of our country’s finest scholars and students.
Kind regards,
H. James Towey
President