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 2009 staff hailed from colleges and universities such as Dartmouth, Yale, Stanford, Amherst, Columbia, Northwestern, and Harvard. 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.

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.

Interested in joining the team for 2010? If you would like additional information about the position or our program, please read our job description or email us at info@greatbookssummer.com. Or simply go here to start your application!

Meet some of our 2009 Program Assistants!

Kate McCurdy
Kate is a senior at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where this intrepid American (hailing originally from Newburgh, NY) attempts to use her knowledge of Linguistics and Cultural Studies (obtained in pursuit of a joint degree) to navigate day-to-day life in a foreign land. (She also digs parentheses.) Kate enjoys acoustic guitar, vegetarian cuisine, and linguistic minutiae. She is also thoroughly excited for her second summer working with Great Books.

Noah Rosenblum and Nicholas Hayes
Noah and Nicholas, both Harvard grads, are thrilled to be returning to Great Books for their second year. They are currently living in Buenos Aires, brushing up on their Spanish and tango skills while working for Shmoop, an online resource for high school students, specializing in literature and history. Nick said of Shmoop, "Unlike Sparknotes or similar competitors, the goal of the site is to get kids engaging with literature on their own terms, asking questions about it, discovering the plurality of possible interpretations, and just plain getting them excited about the material." After this summer with GBSP, Noah plans to head to Washington. “I've always wanted to understand how our government works, I've always been into politics, and I can't imagine a better time to go,” while Nick plans to spend the next year or two doing volunteer work, location TBD.

Elise Akie Kutsunai
Elise is a senior at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a focus on literature and the historical relationships between mathematics and laboratory science. She was born and raised in Honolulu and has become an enthusiastic fan of New Mexican cuisine. She enjoys cooking and baking, movies, graphic novels, and struggling to master crochet.

Thea Hogarth
Thea is absolutely thrilled to be returning for her third summer as a PA at Great Books! A rising sophomore at Haverford College, Thea has spent the past year becoming old and wizened – and maybe wise – as a way to better assert her position as a member of the Great Books staff. Please forgive her misguided dream of authoring the next Great American Novel; all things pass in time. In the meantime, you should know that she gets her kicks from reading, baking, and online Scrabble. Experts have predicted a 99% likelihood of a major in Comparative Literature.

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 Amherst, though he has also worked as a PA at the Stanford Branch. 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.

Carolyn Sinsky
Carolyn hails from Dubuque, Iowa and is thrilled to return to her favorite place on earth (that very special part of northern California known as Stanford) for a second summer at Great Books. At the moment, however, she can generally be found on the opposite coast, pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at Yale University. She is at work on a book of poetry and a novel.

Michael Lecker
Michael is currently in his second year of the cultural studies PhD program at George Mason University. His research focuses on comic book culture, the construction of gender, sexuality, and the nation in mass culture, and feminist, Marxist, and gay and lesbian theory. As of now, two of his papers have been accepted into books. His M.A. in Popular Culture Studies is from Bowling Green State University, but he is originally from Erie, PA and enjoys yoga, reading, and being with friends. Besides that, he spends too much time in the library reading and writing.

Gabriel Baker
Gabe is from Pennsylvania, and currently attends Oberlin College in Ohio where he is a double major in Classical Studies and Comparative Literature. Gabe is a "Classics" enthusiast who reads and enjoys nothing more than the Greek and Latin languages. Gabe also plays guitar in an instrumental rock band, loves to throw frisbee, and enjoys the sun, rain, and snow.

Duncan Riddell
Duncan received his B.A. in Theater/Film studies and Philosophy at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Towards that degree, he studied at the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin, and at PCFE Film School in Prague. He currently lives in Chicago, IL, where he acts and writes. This August, he plans to direct an independent film, 'The Lake at Evening', from his own screenplay.

Tina Groeger
Tina grew up in Cambridge, MA and just 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 fourth year as a PA at Great Books and she is thrilled to be back for another summer!

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