A Community of Learning
The New Jersey Scholars Program provides a dynamic learning environment at the Lawrenceville School where 39 able and motivated high school students experience the life of the mind as they have never done before. Scholars plunge into an inter-disciplinary college-level five-week summer program, expanding their intellectual abilities by approaching the summer’s topic from many different directions. The Scholars learn and live together, stimulating and supporting each other as they wrestle with the challenges posed by this new approach to learning.
The Program covers room, board, and all academic expenses.
The Students
New Jersey Scholars have exceptional academic ability and the desire to maximize that ability to the utmost. They are hungry for intellectual challenges, and they eagerly share their ideas and questions with each other. The Scholars create an atmosphere of enthusiastic academic stimulation that stretches them usually well beyond even their own expectations. This special group of students come from a wide variety of backgrounds. About 75% come from public schools, reflecting a broad mixture of urban, suburban, and rural backgrounds. The Scholars also reflect diverse ethnic, economic, religious, and racial backgrounds.
The Faculty
The faculty creates a program designed to excite the Scholars about the inter-disciplinary approach to learning. Drawing on such disciplines as history, art/architecture, literature, music, and science, the faculty teaches the Scholars to approach topics in terms of a complex weaving of many disciplines. Faculty members dedicate themselves to helping each Scholars achieve the maximum growth in the Program. The faculty comes from a wide variety of colleges and universities, as well as from the Lawrenceville School.
The Academic Challenge
Each summer the Program investigates a specific area of study. Past programs have included Greece in the Age of Pericles, Russian Studies, the Middle Ages, and the 20th Century. Each day begins with a lecture to the whole group, followed by morning and afternoon small group seminars where active participation is essential. Scholars have substantial reading assignments and also write extensively about inter-disciplinary connections.
Halfway through the Program, the Scholars embark on a field trip to an appropriate site for “hands-on” exposure to their area of study. The Scholars also perform in an Arts Festival incorporating drama, music, art, and creative writing for their parents and all past New Jersey Scholars. The academic experience culminates in a major inter-disciplinary research project.