Grant Summary
$50,000 over 24 months. In partnership with the Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF), Barnard College offered a semester-long program to a group of 11th grade HEAF students in fall 2006 that had as its goal the fostering of students' creativity, skills, and confidence as they move forward on their own paths toward college. Aiming to giving the students an authentic, on-campus college experience that would demonstrate the breadth and richness of a liberal arts education, the program used as its base an adaptation of the Reacting to the Past course, "The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 BC." (This is the first time a Reacting to the Past course has been adapted for high school students.) The program also featured four lectures in anthropology, art history, classics, and political science, as well as an off-campus performance of Antigone. Building on the successes of the first year of the program, Barnard and HEAF will run the program for two more years, with some changes. They will build in more in-class time for students to discuss course materials, to undertake weekly academic skills lessons, to complete research and writing assignments, and to listen to guest lectures.