Classics Week at
Great Books Summer Program

Nominate Your Students

The renowned Great Books Summer Program gives advanced middle and high school students an exceptional pre-college experience on prestigious campuses worldwide. In Summer 2025, we are thrilled to launch a very special Classics Week program on the spectacular campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Rising grades 6-8, rising grades 9-12, and gap year.
Residential and day programs.

Socratic Discussion, Critical Thinking, and Fun
Known for its respected Classical Literature department, Pepperdine is the perfect place to delve into the classics and heroic literature of the Western Canon. Here we will nurture a lively community of learning where free inquiry, reason, and civil discourse shape critical thinking skills.

Students will enjoy intellectually inspiring seminars with peers who share their passion for great literature and learning. Fun social activities outside of class in a welcoming and well-supervised environment round out each day.

Engaging the Life of the Mind

Daily seminars are led in the Socratic-style pedagogy of “Shared Inquiry” by Professor Amos Rothschild of St. Thomas Aquinas College, with a guest seminar by Pepperdine Professor of Great Books, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. All Great Books educators take great care to model critical thinking, analytical reading, open inquiry, and reasoned self-expression. We strive for respectful conversations in search of knowledge, as we explore timeless themes of humanity in classic literature, philosophy, and art. Students come away with heightened powers of reason and expression and the confidence to engage with professors in a college setting!

Great Books is at nine locations and online in summer 2025:
Amherst College, Haverford College, Stanford University, Pepperdine University, and abroad in Oxford, Edinburgh, Dublin, Madrid, and Athens.

Our programs include:
Great Books & Big Ideas, Classics Week, Writer’s Workshop, Literary Travel, Reasoning & Persuasive Skills for Leaders.

Questions?
Call: 203-612-9470
Email: info@greatbookssummer.com

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Hear co-founder and president David Ward’s reflections on how the remarkable teaching at Great Books Summer Program prepares students for university and also for a future of intellectual engagement and ability.