About the Program

The Erasmus Collegiate Summer Program was established to provide an opportunity for high school students to be introduced to the liberal arts. In one sense, the program works as an introduction to a liberal arts college, as the classes offered are collegiate-level classes. But its mission is simpler and at the same time more important: to awaken students to the great adventure and joy of learning that they will carry with them throughout life.

The program exists at a series of intersections: where the life of the mind encounters the vitality of the city; where students at the crossroads of high school and post-secondary education are able to address abiding questions and timely concerns; where each individual is called to discover the meaning and complexities of a larger community.

While New York City provides the necessary and exciting backdrop for these intersections, the true drama occurs in the classroom. There, the shared and essentially heroic endeavor of education is undertaken by all. Each student is called individually to experience the joy of thought, conversation, and understanding. And it is this joy, all the participants discover, that extends itself beyond the classroom, reaches out past the metropolis of New York City, in order to find permanent a home in them wherever they may discover their life's work in the world.