The Tikvah High School Scholars Program
HS Scholars Brochure
Tikvah is partnering with thirteen 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, civic, and religious leaders of the Jewish people by giving the most promising Jewish high school students a chance to study great texts and explore big questions with excellent scholars, teachers, and peers. The Tikvah program is about the spirited study of ideas–faith and reason, love and friendship, ethics and economics, freedom and virtue, human excellence and Jewish excellence–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 consider the most serious Jewish and human questions, 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, literature, political thought, and theology in charting the Jewish future.
The students selected for the Tikvah Scholars Program will participate in an intensive academic course of study that will afford them the opportunity to study with excellent teachers and scholars in the Humanities, to develop relationships with students at other high schools who share similar interests, and to prepare an original essay using Jewish and Western sources to explore a perennial theme, the best of which will be awarded scholarships for future academic study.
2009-10 Tikvah High School Scholars
Seminars
Each Tikvah Scholar will participate in high-level academic seminars and other intellectual, cultural, and leadership opportunities with their Tikvah Scholars cohort and faculty, taking advantage of Tikvah's resources at prestigious universities and academic centers throughout the Northeast. The centerpiece of these activities will be four seminars during the 2011-12 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.
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 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.
