Our Talented Program Assistants

Each summer we bring together a very select group of outstanding college and graduate students through a nationwide talent search for Program Assistants for the Great Books Summer Program. Program Assistants are chosen from hundreds of applicants based upon their academic excellence, intellectual enthusiasm, outgoing personality, experience in working with younger people and maturity.

Our 2011 staff hailed from colleges and universities such as Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Columbia, Cornell, and Bowdoin. They brought many diverse talents to the program and a shared love of great books. We had Greek scholars, philosophy majors, blossoming novelists, guitar players, rugby stars, debate team members and artists. A number of our past year Program Assistants will join us again in 2012 along with some new talent. Check back in early 2012 to see our new staff profiles.

The Program Assistants help facilitate seminar discussions, collaborate with students on their electives, and organize all kinds of fun indoor and outdoor activities. Each Program Assistant is assigned to a "pod", a group of 6-8 boys or girls on their dorm floor. They lead informal evening discussions in the dorm, assist their students with daily camp life, and make sure that everyone has a wonderful experience.

Meet some of our 2011 Program Assistants!

Eric Ward
Eric Ward is a graduate of Yale (B.A. English, with distinction, 2010) and Deep Springs College (A.A., 2007). At Yale, Eric was the founding editor of the undergraduate book review The Critic and a member of the Writing Partners, a group of upperclassmen hired by Yale to help undergraduates execute good academic work. He has also interned in the editorial department of the New York Review of Books. Eric is a two-time recipient of the Yale Literary Magazine's Frances Bergen Prize, and upon graduation he was awarded the Frederick Mortimer Clapp Fellowship, a prize given by the English Department to support a year of writing poetry. He is from Stockton, New Jersey.

Emily Culp
In honor of her third summer back at book camp, Emily’s entire bio will come in sets of three! Emily recently graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, where she studied literature, gender, and education. Like all English nerds, she enjoys Scrabble, thesis statements, and social justice. Mango-flavored Rita’s water ice, Carnegie cheesecake, and Amsterdam appeltart top her favorite desserts list. Her best reads of the past year include Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and J.D. Salinger’s The Snowman’s Apprentice. Emily plans to be under-appreciated as a public school secondary-level English teacher forevermore.

Isaac Ericson
Isaac is a History major at Columbia University with a Special Concentration in Human Rights. A New England native, Isaac is excited to spend a second summer at the Stanford branch and follow it with third summer at Amherst. His academic interests lie primarily in international humanitarian law and transitional justice, but also include literature and film. There are few things Isaac appreciates more than a well crafted sandwich or a sinking curveball that paints the corners of the Fenway Park batter's box.

Priya Purohit
Priya is currently pursuing an MA/PhD in English Literature with a Minor in Law at Indiana University, Bloomington. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Priya is thrilled to be spending part of her summer at Stanford! Although her academic focus is primarily Post-Colonial Studies with a dual concentration in South and Central Asian Women's Literature(s) and Constitutional Law, she loves reading about war history, pop culture and learning new languages. When not buried in books or teaching college freshmen, she enjoys running, dancing, testing new recipes, watching the Food Network so she can observe more skilled chefs test new recipes, and traveling far and wide. She also hopes that people will not mind if she bursts into spontaneous fits of excitement as the release of the final Harry Potter film draws near.

Tina Groeger
Tina grew up in Cambridge, MA and graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in Social Studies. This major was originally going to help her pursue an interest evolutionary psychology, but morphed into the study of German philosophers for the better part of three years. A few themes she always comes back to are questions of objectivity, human nature, and the role of the intellectual in society. Next year she will set off to Berlin to master the German language and continue studying philosophy. She also loves singing and harmonizing, photography, construction paper, and the soft-serve ice cream of Amherst dining hall. This is her fifth year as a PA at Great Books and she is thrilled to be back for another summer!

Gabe Baker
This will be Gabe's fourth summer at the Great Books program, and he is excited to return to Stanford!  Gabe studied ancient Greek and Latin at Oberlin College, and he is an enthusiast of classical languages, culture, and archaeology.  Having graduated from Oberlin with high honors last spring, he is now a teacher on staff at the Pacific Hills School in Los Angeles, where he teaches History, Latin, and Great Books-style English.  All academics aside, Gabe loves playing guitar, throwing Frisbee, and learning about the Italian culture and language.