Overview
In May 2019, the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University was awarded a $1,000 grant from the APA’s Berry Fund for Public Philosophy. The grant’s purpose was to support the growth initiatives of the WMU Lyceum, a free, weeklong philosophy-themed summer camp for high school students in Kalamazoo, MI.
Not only did the APA funds help us secure our primary objective of growing and diversifying the Lyceum, but it also raised the public profile of the camp. This, in turn, brought further benefits to our outreach efforts and helped us contribute to the pre-college philosophy community more generally.
Background
The Lyceum was started three years ago by graduate students in the Western Michigan University Philosophy MA Program. The camp has two aims: (i) to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills in a fun, engaging manner and (ii) to expose students to the study of philosophy in a college setting. To achieve these aims, the Lyceum uses a theme-based curriculum: daily class sessions combine critical thinking exercises and discussions that are focused on a specific topic within the camp’s larger theme (e.g., Philosophy and Technology, Philosophy and the Environment).
Last year the Lyceum leadership team — Adam Waggoner (graduate student, WMU Philosophy) and Charlie Kurth (Associate Professor, WMU Philosophy) — wanted to capitalize on the success the Lyceum had seen in its first two years (the summers of 2017, 2018). The result was a two-part growth initiative for the 2019 camp:
(1) Broaden and build. The first two sessions of the Lyceum drew a small number of students, most of whom came from affluent families. We want to significantly increase this number while also diversifying our student body. To do this, we have broadened our recruitment efforts to draw in significantly more students from socioeconomically disadvantaged schools in the Kalamazoo area.
(2) Measuring success. To gain a better understanding of how high school students become interested in both studying philosophy and going to college (big issues here at WMU), we developed a set of survey questions for students attending the camp (e.g., rate your interest in [studying philosophy/going to college]; did the Lyceum increase your confidence in defending your views in front of others?; what part of camp did you find most enjoyable?). By administering these questions at the beginning and end of the camp, we will not only gain insight on how to improve our program, but will also be better able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the camp as we seek addition funding for the 4th Lyceum (summer 2020) and beyond.
The cost of the camp is approximately $70-90 per student. This includes daily lunches for all participants and a philosophy book for each student. Both of these expenditures are central to the Lyceum’s success. By providing lunch for all participants, we give students the opportunity to engage with the Lyceum instructors outside of the classroom. By giving each student a book that is selected based on their individual philosophical interests, we help promote continued interest in philosophy.
Use of Funds and Results
The award from the APA Berry Fund supplemented other, locally-raised funds that we used to support our broaden and build efforts. Below we highlight three ways in which these funds advanced the objectives of both the WMU Lyceum and the larger philosophical community.
(1) We were successful with our primary objective: growing and diversifying the camp. Working with various partners at WMU, including the Dean’s Office, we identified strategies for recruiting a larger and more diverse group of campers from local high schools. These efforts included a targeted email campaign aimed at local high school principals, in person meetings with WMU outreach officers, and leveraging the resources of the WMU Marketing and Communications Office.
These efforts paid off. Enrollment in the camp was up nearly 30% (it would have been an over 50% jump but for several last minute cancelation). Moreover, not only did we draw students from two new Kalamazoo area high schools, but we also attracted students from the wider region: one student commuted from Indiana (two hours away) and a pair of students from the Detroit suburbs (also two hours away) booked a hotel room in Kalamazoo so that they could attend the camp!
That high school students were willing to make commitments like these was one of the most delightful surprises of the 2019 Lyceum. Not only does it speak to the deep interest in academically-oriented summer enrichment programs, but it reveals an opportunity. The philosophical community can — and should — be developing more philosophy-oriented summer camps like the Lyceum. To this extent, we have developed a template for those interested in doing this (see appendix) and we are working with partners to spread the word (more on this below).
(2) We were also delighted to see that, of our 14 participants, 7 were female and 7 were people of color. So here too there’s an opportunity for philosophy departments. As we know, interest in philosophy among females and people of color drops off in college. Our experience suggests that summer camps like the Lyceum can stimulate the interests of these students in philosophy before they arrive in college. That, in turn, may help diversify the disciple.
On this front, our data collection efforts illuminate the impact philosophy summer camps can have. For instance, our survey results suggest that the camp programing was successful not only in increasing the interest of women and students of color in philosophy, but also in bolstering their confidence in defending their view in front of others. On a more anecdotal note, one of this year’s campers was a high school senior attending the Lyceum for the second summer in a row. In the fall, she enrolled at WMU as a freshman and has declared Philosophy as her major. As she explained in her exit survey, the Lyceum “was a huge factor in my decision to major in philosophy” at Western Michigan.
(3) The Berry Grant brought additional, unanticipated benefits. Of particular note, our efforts to publicize the award drew the attention of Roberta Israeloff, Executive Director of the Squire Family Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee for the Philosophy Learning And Teaching Organization (PLATO). For the past several months, we have been working with Roberta to help grow the Lyceum and better spread the word about the benefits of summer philosophy enrichment camps (e.g., publicizing and sharing the template for running a camp that we developed). On this front, our efforts are already bearing fruit: the Philosophy Department at Stony Brook University is using the template we developed to start up a philosophy summer camp of their own.
Future Plans
Our plans for the 4th WMU Lyceum are already well underway. For instance, later this week, we will be meeting with a local principal to discuss ways to bring philosophy into his high school. We have found that there is significant overlap between students who attend the Lyceum and students who participate in high school Ethics Bowl (WMU Philosophy Department acurrently sponsors one high school team). The principal is interested in having us sponsor an Ethics Bowl team for his students, and we are excited about this opportunity —it will be a great way for us to both bring philosophy to another area school and draw more attention to enrichment opportunities like the Lyceum.
We are also exploring other ways to spread the word about value of philosophy-oriented summer camps. On this front, we are working with the team at PLATO to identify strategies for getting the message out. Of particular interest here are opportunities to talk about our experiences on blogs, in Op-Ed pieces, and in articles in venues like the Chronical and Inside High Ed.
Charlie Kurth
Charlie Kurth is an Associate Professor in the Western Michigan University Philosophy Department. His research explores questions at the intersection of ethics, moral psychology, and emotion theory. He recently published The Anxious Mind: An Investigation of the Varieties and Virtues of Anxiety (MIT Press, 2018).
