The Tikvah High School Scholars Program
Program Brochure (PDF)
Tikvah is partnering with eight leading Jewish day schools to promote the serious consideration of Jewish thought and the enduring human questions.
The Tikvah Scholars Program aims to educate the future intellectual, moral, and civic leaders of the Jewish people by giving the very best Jewish high school students a chance to study great texts and big questions with some of the finest teachers of our generation. The Tikvah program is about the spirited study of ideas—love and friendship, faith and reason, ethics and economics, God and politics, freedom and virtue—and the role they should play in constructing a deep and meaningful Jewish existence. It is rooted in the belief that the most intellectually ambitious high school students should study the most serious human things, and that Jewish students need to explore and understand the great contributions of Jewish thought to human self-understanding, and the great contributions of philosophy, political thought, literature, and theology to charting the Jewish future.
The students selected for the Tikvah Scholars Program will participate in an intensive academic course of study that includes lectures, independent study, cultural experiences, and semi-weekly seminars in the Jewish Humanities. The Tikvah Scholars will attend special Tikvah retreats across North America. They will have opportunities for one-on-one mentoring with preeminent Jewish thinkers and leaders. In Spring 2011, each student will prepare a final project that explores an enduring human question informed by Jewish tradition. These projects will be presented at a final conference, with awards and scholarships for the most thoughtful and compelling papers, selected by a panel of leading Jewish academics, public intellectuals, and community leaders.
2009-10 Tikvah High School Scholars
RETREATS
Each Tikvah Scholar will participate in high-level academic retreats and other intellectual, cultural, and leadership opportunities with their Tikvah Scholars cohort and faculty, taking advantage of Tikvah's resources at the most prestigious universities and academic centers across North America. The centerpiece of these activities will be three retreats during the 2010-11 year, with additional programming during the course of the year. Both students and faculty will engage in intense reading, discussion and debate around large thematic questions that shape the way we live and think. Transportation, accommodations and all meals (dietary laws observed) will be covered by the Tikvah Fund. Dates (subject to change) for the retreats are as follows:
August 25-29, 2010; February 2011; June 2011
AWARDS
One year-end original paper from the Tikvah Scholars cohort, selected by members of the Tikvah Scholars Advisory Board (in formation), will receive a $10,000 scholarship toward future academic study. Other cash prizes will also be awarded for high-quality writing and thought.
HOW TO APPLY
Students will be selected from participating schools through a rigorous application process. Each school will coordinate the application process along with the Tikvah staff. Besides a transcript, nominations from faculty, and a previous writing sample, the application will include a series of questions that each applicant should respond to in approximately 400 words per question. These questions will help the committee understand how the applicants think and who they aspire to become.
