Founded by Columbia University professors and alumni, the Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences, helps distinguish applicants for college admissions, while preparing students for the kinds of thinking, reading, writing, and discussion required for academic success at elite American, British, and Canadian universities. At the completion of every course, students receive an official certificate of completion from Columbia University, Teachers College. Students who complete the academy with distinction receive a personalized recommendation letter from the program for admission into university.

Program Details:

• 7-day intensive courses in college preparatory academic discourse in English at The American School of Kuwait

• Helps students develop their capacity as critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, and intellectually sophisticated readers and writers

• Available for current 9-11th grade students

• Instruction from professionally distinguished teachers and graduate-level instructors from Columbia University and other top-tier American universities

• Learning environment replicates the academic culture of elite American college classrooms

• Students who complete each course will receive an official certificate from Columbia University, Teachers College documenting the completion of the course

• Students who complete the full academy with distinction will receive a personalized recommendation letter from the program for admission into university

Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences

Foundations Level Course The newly designed Foundations level course welcomes students to join an interactive learning experience that will center in-depth inquiries, spatial explorations, and re-imagined environments. Drawing from principles of qualitative research and design thinking, students will build critical faculties as they engage with challenging readings about natural and built worlds, lead active discussions about spatial (in)justice, build observational skills through site visits, transform existing spaces through modeling, and iterate designs that illustrate the power of sustainable innovations. By participating in various research practices, students will develop disciplinary literacies across the arts and sciences, ultimately bringing their ideas to life for a diverse panel in a multi-modal presentation.

Intermediate Level CourseThe aim of the Intermediate level course is to enable students to be productive and contributing participants through their reading, writing, and speaking in the courses they will eventually take in their first year of study at highly selective American universities. Our course therefore focuses on the processes of reading, research, critical thinking, inquiry, discussion, and composition that typically are called for in freshman level courses in the most selective colleges and universities. Students have opportunities for intensive practice and the acquisition of the intellectual skills and habits of mind that account for academic success in producing such genres of academic discourse (spoken and written) as non-fictional reports, textual interpretations, reviews of articles and books, journalistic reportage, ethnographies, accounts of cultural events and movements, and academic arguments.

Advanced Level Course (Pre-requisite: Intermediate Level Course)The initial practical aim of the Advanced level course will be to offer intensive instruction that will prepare students for writing an effective college application essay. With that task behind them, students will take on a multidisciplinary inquiry project of compelling interest to the class; and engage in reading, writing, and research activities that advance their own knowledge while enabling them to contribute to the advancement of knowledge within the academic community of their classroom and potentially within the larger community of scholars who may be engaged in inquiries related to their own. To ensure the authenticity of the intellectual experience for the students in this course, the course content will be drawn directly from required multidisciplinary courses actually given in leading Ivy League universities and taught by instructors with extensive experience in teaching such courses. At all stages of the course students will also be assisted in becoming more sophisticated in their use of the English language for the advanced academic purposes that characterize the discourse of typical courses in elite American colleges.

When: January 13 to January 20, 2020 (off January 17th)Where: The American School of KuwaitCost: $2,450

New Students: Register at elitedirection.com/registerReturning Students: Log-in and Register at elitedirection.com/log-inRegistration Deadline: November 9, 2019New Student Application Deadline: November 23, 2019Contact us at admissions@elitedirection.com

The Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences is made possible by the partnership between Columbia University, Teachers College and Elite Direction. http://cpet.tc.columbia.edu/partnerships

Sheridan Blau Dr. Blau is the Professor of the Practice of Teaching in English and Head of the English Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also Professor of English and Education (emeritus) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he taught for nearly 40 years.

Ruth Vinz Dr. Vinz is a Professor in the English Education Program and the Enid and Lester Morse Endowed Chair in Teacher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Vinz is the Director of the Center for the Professional Education of Teachers at Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Vinz has taught in-service teachers and doctoral students for the past twenty-six years at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Adam Wolfsdorf Adam is the English Department Chair at Bay Ridge Preparatory High School, where he has taught for almost two decades. Adam is an Adjunct Professor in Shakespeare, Drama, and Educational Philosophy at Teachers College, Columbia University. Adam holds a PhD in English education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He received an MA in Psychology and Education from Columbia University, and a BA in English Language and Literature from Harvard College.

Ah-young SongAh-Young Song is an Visiting Assistant Professor at Vassar College. She taught for several years as a high school English teacher at independent schools in Massachusetts, South Korea, Taiwan, and New Hampshire. She has most recently worked with students at Teachers College, Barnard College, and Columbia University. Ah-young holds a PhD in English education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She completed her MA and BA in English from Brown University.

Maura RooseveltMaura Roosevelt is a full time PhD candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University. Maura was a Lecturer at New York University (NYU), teaching creative and expository essay writing to freshman. She received a “distinguished teaching award” every year she taught at NYU. She has also taught in a broad range of other academic contexts and settings, from The Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school in Connecticut to MS 279 in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. Maura is a published fiction writer and a graduate of Harvard College, where she studied English and American Literature and Language.

Ari DolidAri Dolid is an instructional coach in the San Leandro Unified School District, focusing on English Language Arts and the strategic integration of technology. Previously, he taught English for 14 years, and is a co-founder of The Social Justice Academy at San Leandro High School, a program dedicated to empowering youth to become agents of change in their communities on personal, cultural and institutional levels. Ari received his BA in Psychology from Columbia University, and his MA in the Teaching of English from Columbia University, Teachers College.

Rebekah CaplanRebekah is an Associate Director for Professional Development for the Bay Area Writing Project in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. Rebekah works with school districts in the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area to co-plan professional development programs that address the effective teaching and learning of writing.

Garrick Yau Garrick is the Founder of Elite Direction. Prior to Elite Direction, Garrick founded the EPE Group, an international education advisory organization that manages secondary school sister-school partnerships. Garrick has an MBA from Columbia University and a BS from Cornell University.

Our Instructional Leaders:

The Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences is made possible by the partnership between Columbia University, Teachers College and Elite Direction. http://cpet.tc.columbia.edu/partnerships

Foundations Level Course Syllabus

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

Building an Inquiry Community

Observing Built and Natural Environments

Creating a Design Brief Redesigning Spatial Planes

Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Iterating Spatial Models

Preparing to Present to a Live Panel

Presenting to a Live Panel Preparing for the Academic Conference

Revising and Editing for Publication

Intermediate Level Course Syllabus

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

Becoming Members of a Knowledge Building Community

Thoughtful Reading and Writing - Considering Perspectives

Participating in Academic Discourse:Constructing and Communicating Ideas

Introduction to Academic Research and Empirical Methodologies

Theoretical Frames for Research and the Interpretation of Data

Writing from Research and Data

Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Investigating Multiple Lenses and Ways of Looking

Critical Consciousness: Questioning Assumptions and Findings

Ethical and Intellectual Responsibility in Research Writing: Precision and Accuracy, Intellectual Humility, and Provisional Thinking

Preparing for the Academic Conference

Revising and Editing for Publication

The Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences is made possible by the partnership between Columbia University, Teachers College and Elite Direction. http://cpet.tc.columbia.edu/partnerships

Daily Schedule

8:30am - 12:00pm - Course Seminar12:00am - 12:55pm - Lunch1:00pm - 2:00pm - Elective/Course Seminar/Field Study2:05pm - 3:30pm - Course Seminar/Field Study

Advanced Level Course Syllabus

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4

Writing to Learn and Participating in an Academic Discussion of Philosophical Texts

The College Essay: Defining the Genre and Analyzing Samples

Writing as Philosophical Inquiry:Interrogating and Discussing Classical & Seminal Texts across the Disciplines

Pre-Writing for the College Essay

The College Essay: Creating the Rough Draft

Hermeneutic Methodology: Believing and Doubting

Metacognition: How Do We Create the Distance to Think About Our Own Thinking?

The College Essay: Analyzing and Responding to Drafts

Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Criticism and Analysis: Examining the Structure of Arguments & Testing Reasons & Conclusions

Close Reading & Critical Distance

The College Essay: The Problems of Self Presentation and Voice

Criticism and Analysis: Thinking with Theory in College Discourse

Interrogating Our Theories

The College Essay: Revising the Draft - Interrogating Our Ideas

Preparing for the Academic Conference

Revising and Editing for Publication

The Academy for Humanities and Human Sciences is made possible by the partnership between Columbia University, Teachers College and Elite Direction. http://cpet.tc.columbia.edu/partnerships