Saint Katherine College is a liberal arts and sciences college in its formational stage, to be located in San Diego, California, United States. Saint Katherine College is an independent college closely associated with the Orthodox Christian Community.

Saint Katherine College
Established	2010
Type	Private / Independent
Emphases	Liberal Arts & Sciences
Affiliation	Orthodox Christian
President	Frank Papatheofanis, MD, PhD
Location	San Diego, California, USA
Website	http://www.stkath.org

The College will focus its integrative teaching in the core subjects of Composition, English Language and Literature, Foreign Language, U.S. Government and History, Economics, Mathematics, and the Sciences in addition to instruction in degree major-specific requirements. Applications will be accepted beginning July 2010, for the semester beginning August 2011.

The College emphasizes teaching and research—with relevance to the practical world and Christian witness as guiding principles: Inquiry Seeking Wisdom. College programs will encompass several academic disciplines and degree-granting programs, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations, laboratories, and programs whose work cuts across traditional departmental boundaries. These aims are realized in a singularly collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere, while educating outstanding students to become creative members of society. Saint Katherine College is independent, coeducational, and privately endowed and admits students of all religious and faith backgrounds.

Saint Katherine College offers degree programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees in Art, Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Economics, English Language and Literature, History, Interdisciplinary Studies, Music, Philosophy, Public Policy, and Theology.

Father Gregory Jensen writes:

For the last several months, I have been in conversation with the founder and president of SKC, Frank Papatheofanis, MD, PhD. Reflecting on his reasons for founding St Katherine College, an Orthodox Christian, a physician-scientist and educator with over 30 years of experience in academic medicine and science, Dr Papatheofanis turns first to Scripture. “St Paul writes in 2 Peter 1:5-10,” says, that “we increase in our faithfulness to the Lord.” He points out that the Apostle

…first mentions goodness as an important quality for us to seek before identifying knowledge as another desirable quality. St Paul tells us we should increase in knowledge about the Lord. Some come to know, increasing their knowledge of, Christ from a spiritual direction whereas some come to understand Him more from knowledge of His Creation or other routes. As a physician-scientist I have been supported in my faith through glimpses of the Divine in the created world. The notion of “inquiry seeking wisdom” emerged from these experiences. Rigorous inquiry is the bulwark of scholarship and research. But why? Why does inquiry matter? I think it matters because Wisdom, Jesus Christ, is revealed to us as we learn more about what He has created. I think such an approach to scholarship probably reigned when the world’s great centers of learning were organized. I also think that an institution founded around such a principle is again needed in the world today.

Thinking about my undergraduate education as a Roman Catholic at the University of Dallas (itself a Roman Catholic institution) I remember how important it was for me, and for the majority of the students, to see our professors not only in the classroom but to stand with them at Mass and receive Holy Communion together. I also remember how formative it was to have priests as professors. These men not only taught in the classroom, they celebrated Mass in the chapel, heard our confessions, and celebrated our marriages. Especially through their example, many of us became priests or, in the case of the women, entered became religious sisters and nuns.

Speaking as a psychologist for a moment, the four years that are typically spent at college are incredibly important to a person’s religious faith. If the empirical evidence tells me anything it is the local parish and the campus Orthodox Christian Fellowship simply can’t be expected to meet the spiritual and developmental needs of 18-21 year old Orthodox Christians. And, to be fair, an institution like St Katherine College isn’t going to meet the needs of anything but a small fraction of Orthodox Christian undergraduates. But this shouldn’t stop us from wholeheartedly supporting SKC.