About

Summer Program for outstanding African American High School Students

July 18 – 25, 2010

The Seminar for African American Scholars is an opportunity for talented, enthusiastic, open minded students to be enriched through scholarly research, spiritual examination and purpose building exercises.

This seminar will provide a complete Notre Dame experience. Students will stay in campus residence halls and have access to virtually all the same academic, recreational, and spiritual resources as traditional undergraduate students. One college credit will be offered to all participants upon completion of the program.

Seminar Series

Identity

What is race? How do we determine who is and who isn’t included when we speak of a specific group? Discussions center on the variability of race in the United States and its position as a social and historical construct.

Spiritually

Participants will grow in their Catholic identity and faith through a set of thought provoking spiritual exercises and experiences. These experiences require students to ask of themselves; Who am I? How do I want to be remembered? What has brought me here? What fears stand in my way of greater success? And most importantly: How can and will my faith sustain me through my life’s journey?

Campus Experience

The Scholars seminar will provide a complete Notre Dame experience. Students will stay in campus residence halls and have access to virtually all the same academic, recreational, and spiritual resources as traditional undergraduate students. Students will have an opportunity for a full campus tour. Participants will take part in seminar style classes in some of the University’s most technologically advance classrooms with some of the University’s most gifted faculty.

Interaction with Faculty

Scholars will have ample opportunity to interact with some of Notre Dame’s most outstanding faculty members both in the classroom and at several social functions.

Beyond the Classroom

Participant competitiveness, teambuilding and endurance skills are engaged through outside classroom experiences. The incorporated ropes course has helped foster teamwork, understanding, trust and group bonding by testing the limits of endurance and strength. The Notre Dame Amazing Race competition, assisted participants in establishing greater teamwork by testing problem solving skills, endurance and physical as well as mental strength. The yoga experience has fit well with our goal of encouraging reflection and openness to concepts and ideas that might be new or foreign.

Skill Set Acquired During Scholars

  • Listening and accepting other view points
  • Opening up to virtual strangers
  • Becoming more vocal
  • Learning to stay on task
  • Taking part in discussions that force one to think deeper than the surface
  • Overcoming shyness
  • Confronting ones fears and issues that may prevent growth

What past Scholars have learned (in their own words)

“I gained a sense of who I am.”
“I learned a great deal about other’s struggles.”
“A learning experience unlike any other.”
“I am not alone.”