Mike Shick’s involvement with Rosary College began with a rose — a rose from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, to be more specific.
After spending 20 years in the military, Shick thought it might be time for a change.
So, he prayed a novena to St. Thérèse asking for confirmation.
And on the ninth day, he received a series of roses — a sign of intercession attributed to St. Thérèse — prompting him to take a leap of faith toward military retirement. After retirement, he began his new career as an assistant professor at Western Carolina University and started his own company, ROSEMET LLC.
That was until Father Dwight Longenecker approached Shick with a proposal: to become one of the founders for a new college in Greenville, South Carolina — Rosary College.
“I am a retired senior military officer, with considerable leadership experience. I’m an academic and in business, and I just came off of doing policy, but at the time I did not know what I could do for the Church. So I asked Father Lonenecker what he wanted me to do,” Shick told Our Sunday Visitor. “Father looked at me and said, maybe you’re the answer to our prayers, and went on to explain how he wanted to open a Catholic college in the Greenville area.”
“I just started grinning, because here, unbeknownst to him on both sides, I had been praying about opening a Catholic college since I received the roses from St. Thérèse nearly a year prior; moreover, I had created a roadmap for starting a two-year college a decade before as part of one of my graduate programs.”
A microcosm of faith
For Shick and Father Longenecker, Greenville South Carolina seemed like an optimal place to open a new Catholic college. Rosary will be the first Catholic college in the state and will serve a city that has a vibrant, growing Catholic community.
“Greenville is a microcosm of the Faith,” Shick said. “There are a lot of amazing priests whose leadership has been amazing. The community has been exceptionally welcoming and warm. I have met so many families who have moved from other parts of the United States to Greenville because of the community and the Faith and how many options it has for a classical, Catholic K-12 education.”
Beyond high school, however, there were no local options for high school graduates to attend a Catholic college. Thus, the idea for Rosary College was born.
But opening a new college is a risky business, especially in today’s economic climate. Since the pandemic, colleges across the country are experiencing declining enrollment as high school students opt to forgo college.
“Greenville is a microcosm of the Faith. … I have met so many families who have moved from other parts of the United States to Greenville because of the community and the Faith and how many options it has for a classical, Catholic K-12 education.”
Mike Shick
The trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon as schools face enrollment uncertainty with declining birth rates and growing online options.
“There are several different factors at play for this trend in high education,” Shick said. “There are fewer children being born in the United States. The last numbers I saw was that the birth rate was between 1.6 to 1.7 births per family, which is indicative of a shrinking society. On top of that, these colleges are facing other challenges, and these institutions are closing for various different reasons, whether they’re Catholic or secular.”
Rosary College administrators did their research though, sending surveys to local community members to gauge their interest in the project.
The concept was well received, and college leaders realized that the new school would not just be economically feasible but would be a great addition to the community.
“We did our due diligence from the get-go, which was to do a feasibility analysis, and we sent out the survey to gauge what the community thought and what they felt was important,” Shick said. “In our opinion, many institutions have, to a certain degree, lost their way, their purpose and intent, which is to build and support wisdom and understanding. These families are seeking an institution where young men and women can build that wisdom and understanding.”
The first semester
Rosary College will begin its inaugural semester this fall, offering a two-year Associate of Catholic Studies in Integrated Humanities degree. Over the course of two years, students will take courses rooted in the classical liberal arts tradition. Courses include two semesters of Latin, a few Great Books courses and a variety of theology classes.
“Students will take courses in the seven distinct liberal arts subjects, but they’re integrated in the sense that they culminate in specifically two sciences, the study of philosophy and the study of theology. And the reason why they culminate in that is that both of those are considered to be sort of an architectonic study, in the sense that they draw all things together and show the relations between the parts,” Elizabeth L’Arrivee, the director of academic policy and compliance at Rosary College told Our Sunday Visitor.
Currently, 13 students are enrolled, Shick and L’Arrivee expect a few more to join the inaugural class before the first day of classes on Aug. 16.
“The curriculum sets you up for further study, or in case you don’t want to go on and do further study, it sets you up to understand the beauties and the benefits of this approach, because what it comes down to is, why do we learn,” L’Arrivee added. “We are learning so that we can live our lives better and become better human beings and fulfill our potentials.”
God first, education second
Rosary College seeks to offer an affordable two-year program to anybody, whether it be recent high school graduates unsure where to go, high school students seeking dual-enrollment credit or even adults that want to learn more about the Catholic faith.
“We do not just have students of a standard college age, we also have juniors and seniors in high school that become dual enrolled so that after high school they are able to go to Newman guide schools from an authentically Catholic program that’s rigorous, taught by world class scholars, and is, I would argue, exceptionally affordable,” said L’Arrivee.
Currently, Rosary College has partnered with two Newman Guide schools — Ave Maria in Florida and Thomas More College in Merrimack, New Hampshire — which will allow students to transfer credits to the respective institutions. Shick shared that the college has begun conversations with other Newman Guide schools about potential partnerships.
“What we hope students receive is, first, is a closer relationship with God. That is first and foremost. If God is the cause of all these things, then he has to be the primary purpose for which we are engaging the study of these subjects.”
Elizabeth L’Arrivee
“We are connecting with homeschool families and high schools about our dual enrollment program because we want to be able to help young men and women to continue to develop their knowledge and wisdom through early scholars and be able to see where God’s present in all things and the overlap of his design in each of our subject areas,” Shick said.
Ultimately though, the college hopes to provide its students with a well-rounded education and that by the time they leave, students have a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
“What we hope students receive is, first, is a closer relationship with God. That is first and foremost. If God is the cause of all these things, then he has to be the primary purpose for which we are engaging the study of these subjects,” L’Arrivee said. “We are trying to not only give students the ability to think rationally and understand arguments and logic and demonstration and evidence, but also to prepare their souls to be really, truly convinced by these arguments for faith when they hear them. And that is where the realm of faith really comes in.”
