Three Somers Residents Enter Saint Michael's College

COLCHESTER, VT — The following local residents began their first year at Saint Michael's College this semester:

Katelyn Fawthrop, daughter of Irene and Roland Fawthrop of Somers, graduate of Somers High School

Rachel Tshonas, daughter of Lisa Tshonas of Ellington, graduate of Ellington High School

Rachel Tshonas, daughter of Peter Tshonas of Ellington, graduate of Ellington High School

Saint Michael's, a distinctive Phi Beta Kappa college, provides education with a social conscience, with a superb faculty dedicated to advancing a transformative undergraduate experience for each student. One of Princeton Review's Best 378 Colleges, Saint Michael's makes it possible for students to participate in independent science research, do real-work internships, get free passes to the best skiing in the East, and live in sight of Vermont's majestic Green Mountains.

Welcoming the new students was the college's brand new Quad Commons-a 40,000-square-foot student center and 43,000-square-foot residence hall of suite-style housing. The student center includes a day-and-night café, Einstein Bros Bagels, digital lounge, fitness center, study spaces, radio station, meditation space, large meeting room, and solarium. Built to the highest efficiency design standards, the complex incorporates energy modeling software for best use of energy supply, and a geothermal heat pump system to create energy.

New courses added this fall to the liberal arts curriculum of 33 majors include The History of Rock, Population and Evolutionary Genetics, Entrepreneurship, Snow: The Art & Science of Alpine Crystals; Human Behavior and The Environment, and others.

About Saint Michael's

At Saint Michael's College www.smcvt.edu students are challenged to do their best, find their niche, take on opportunities to grow, and immerse themselves in academic pursuits. Intellectual rigor, compassion, teamwork, caring-these characterize a Saint Michael's experience. A residential Catholic college, Saint Michael's is steeped in the social justice spirit of its founding priests, the Edmundites. Saint Michael's is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top 10 college towns. Headed by President John J. Neuhauser, the college has 1,900 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Identified by the Princeton Review, 2014 as one of the nation's Best 378 Colleges, and included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2014, Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Goldwater, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants and awards. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report rankings.