THE HUMANITIES OUTREACH PROJECT

Funded by a grant from the Horizons Project and by the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences

Project Director: Gary Williams, Distinguished Humanities Professor
Project Coordinator: Jeff Jones, lecturer in English

 This project specifically targets traditional humanities areas—literature, theatre, music and art history, foreign languages, philosophy, religious studies—with the goal of connecting current UI students with rural high-school students. The proposal also intends to complement campus-wide recruitment efforts.

The project uses a group of four upper-level UI students as mentors to high-school students in nearby rural communities where humanities-based interests typically find little support. Mentoring will take place on the UI campus, transportation provided.

We will schedule a series of exchanges between mentors and students. The specifics of these exchanges are determined on the basis of participants’ interests, but the general idea is that high-school students will find validation for their interests and will be exposed to the many opportunities that UI offers to develop these interests. We will bring high-school students here for public events such as plays or lectures, and we also want to offer them opportunities to attend classes or meet with faculty. Perhaps the culminating exchange will take place on Vandal Friday in late March 2008. All travel and expenses are covered by grant funds and the support budget for the humanities professorship.

We want to encourage high-school students to look beyond the horizons of their communities for information about the many ways people can orient their lives around an interest in the humanities. One over-arching premise is that a liberal arts education sets people free to become whatever they want. UI students  benefit from becoming spokespeople for their academic passions.

Students, parents, and teachers are welcome to contact the project coordinator, Jeff Jones, or the project director, Gary Williams, at any time with questions about the project.