Discover St. John's this Summer
“If you enjoy reading great literature, thinking about vast, profound, and challenging ideas, and having insightful, paradigm-shifting conversations, then you will like Summer Academy at St. John’s College,” says Andron Ocean, of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Andron was a participant in the 2011 program, who then applied to St. John’s. He plans to attend the Santa Fe campus this fall.
The 2012 Summer Academy takes place on the Annapolis campus June 24 to 30, and on the Santa Fe campus June 24 to 30 and July 1 to 7. Participants, typically rising high-school juniors and seniors, experience an immersion in the life of St. John’s undergraduates. For a week, they live on campus and read and examine original texts in small discussion classes with faculty members experienced in guiding thoughtful and lively conversations. Other classes may include math, music and language tutorials and science labs, interspersed with field trips, presentations and performances.
“We were from different parts of the world, but I found I had something important in common with the Summer Academy participants that I didn’t have with people elsewhere: We all wanted to read and discuss the deep and fundamental topics in these books,” says Lauren Culbertson, an Annapolis 2011 participant. Culbertson, who was recently accepted to the Annapolis class of 2016, applied to St. John’s in part because of her Summer Academy experience. “The thing that got me most excited about applying was taking the Summer Academy math classes. They were so different from any other math classes I had taken. We studied things like Locke’s conception of infinity and Zeno’s paradoxes. The prospect of learning math in this way was really exciting.”
Andron Ocean’s sister, Allegra, is applying to the 2012 Summer Academy in Santa Fe. “I was intrigued by my brother’s experience last summer and by what I learned when I attended the opening dinner and met a few of the high-school students who participated,” says Allegra. Once he returned home, Allegra asked her brother to describe the Summer Academy in detail. “I quickly determined that this was a fantastic opportunity for me to pursue.”
To learn more about St. John’s College’s Summer Academy, please contact: Kathleen Longwaters in the Santa Fe Admissions Office at 800-331-5232, or Alexandria Hinds in the Annapolis Admissions Office at 800-727-9238.
Read more about Summer Academy program details for each campus here.