A $300,000 grant from the New York–based Teagle Foundation will allow the BU Center for the Humanities (BUCH) to bring Boston-area high school students to campus for the next three summers to participate in a seminar program intended to deepen their engagement with the classics while better preparing them for college—and life as an engaged citizen.
Called the One and the Many at BU, the program’s first goal is to “inspire the students and get them excited about the humanities,” says BUCH director Susan Mizruchi. “The second goal is to enhance their skills in reading and writing and articulating ideas. The third is just to give them firsthand experience of what university life is like.”
The grant will allow BUCH to offer underserved and low-income high school students—rising juniors and seniors with college in their sights—three weeks of college-level philosophy and literature seminars, tutoring, and mentorship. It’s part of Teagle’s Knowledge for Freedom program, which uses challenging texts to make students think about: What is freedom? What is virtue? What is the social good?