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Torrey Honors Institute

Christina Houck, Torrey student, Torrey Honors Institute, books, reading, great books program

After my final reading semester of Torrey, posing with most of the books that we read. 

Christina Houck, Oxford, C.S. Lewis house, Cambridge University study abroad, Torrey study abroad, travel

Sitting at author and theologian C.S. Lewis' desk at his Oxford home after my study abroad at Cambridge University

Monet painting, National Gallery, London, Torrey study abroad, Torrey Honors Institute, reading, travel, explore, my favorite painter

Admiring a work by Monet, my favorite painter, in the National Gallery in London during my study abroad.

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." 

-Aristotle-


The piles of books that you see surrounding me in the first photo are 3 1/2 years worth of reading and writing and discussing. 
They're tears and coffee spilled on ancient pages. They're meaningful conversations at three in the morning when studying would be more responsible. They're asking questions that really matter - ones that come with lumps in throats and don’t always have answers. They're always having summer homework. And Christmas break homework. They're watching the dawn stream in through the window with wonder that it’s already morning again. They're poetry and philosophy and theology and music and science. They're disagreeing with brilliant authors for very good reasons. They're asking questions that you never knew were up for discussion. They're finding out what you believe about God, the world, and yourself, and why. 
Each text in each pile has changed the world at some time or another. Add them all together and they’ve changed my world irreversibly, too. It has been a lot of work, but I'm glad that I've been able to spend my time at college in such a difficult and meaningful way: battling my way through the Torrey Honors program. 

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Torrey is a unique educational experience. You can read more about the program and its curriculum at this website. 

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