Join us this summer!
@Oxford. Amherst. Stanford. Dublin.
For younger students, the Great Books Summer Program is often a time of intellectual awakening, as their own personal powers of critical thinking and perception blossom. Through stimulating questions and expertly led discussions, young minds learn how to make the connections between the themes of great literature and their own lives. Whether on-campus or online, we help our students gain confidence and find their own voice to share their ideas. In addition to practicing and developing their language skills, self-expression and reasoning, students develop their ability to listen carefully and consider the views of others. The end result is a more thoughtful young person who is better able to articulate opinions based on textual references and with the confidence to be heard.
Students in the Intermediate Program will read works by authors like Ovid, Virginia Woolf, Ursula Le Guin, Dante, Jorge Luis Borges, Jhumpa Lahiri, Octavia Butler, Shakespeare, W.E.B. Du Bois, and more. All reading materials are provided to students during camp. No advance reading is required; we prefer that students do the reading together during the program. While we are a reading and literature program, we take care to choose selections and excerpts that can be digested during the reading period in each day to provide rich discussion among our students.
Students who take part in multi-week programs get to experience two or three times the academics and fun at Great Books. Each week has a unique, thematic curriculum to engage and challenge the students to begin answering
At Great Books, we are committed to providing a fun and engaging environment. On-Campus, there is plenty of opportunity each day for students to interact with each other outside their classes where they can play field games, take a supervised trip to explore the campus, swim in the pool, or enjoy other activities. Social activities are integrated in Online programs too. We understand that even the most intellectually curious child needs time to play and make friends so we make certain that there is time each day for social events. Some activities that our students take part in are theater games, pod trivia night, scavenger hunts, and the final day art elective performances. Online activites include game nights, pod hangouts, open microphone performances, and more. While some students enroll with a friend, the vast majority come to Great Books alone. We help everyone make the connections with other students that lead to great camp friendships.
Students in the Intermediate Program are assigned to pods which are comprised of 6-8 students along with one college-aged Program Assistant who serves as both a camp counselor and academic mentor.
On-Campus, these counselors live i
9:00 a.m. | Seminar One: Homer's The Odyssey |
9:45 a.m. | Poetry Cup & Camp Meeting |
| 10:05 a.m. | Snack Break |
10:20 a.m. | Seminar Two: William Carlos Williams' poems |
11:05 a.m. | Discussion Groups |
12:05 p.m. | Lunch |
12:35 p.m. | Pod Reading & Hangout |
2:00 p.m. | Afternoon Dismissal/Family Time |
7:00 p.m. | Special Events on Select Evenings |
8:00 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 8:45 a.m. | Poetry Cup & Camp Meeting |
9:15 a.m. | Seminar One: Homer's The Odyssey |
10:00 a.m. | Snack Break |
10:15 a.m. | Seminar Two: William Carlos Williams' poems |
11:15 a.m. | Discussion Groups |
12:15 p.m. | Lunch |
1:00 p.m. | Free Time (field games, crafts, swimming, etc.) |
2:30 p.m. | Literature Elective (i.e. Utopia, Plato, Short stories, etc.) |
3:30 p.m. | Applied Arts Elective (Creative Writing, Theater, Music, Visual Art) |
5:30 p.m. | Dinner |
6:15 p.m. | Reading Time |
7:00 p.m. | Trivia Night |
9:00 p.m. | Pod Reading |
10:00 p.m. | Lights Out |
