Lexington, KY - In the world of higher education, where can you find a Tiffany quality gem at a Wal-Mart price? While we might like to find a top-of-class product for a bargain price, we don't normally expect it; we are all too well aware of the $50,000 per year price tag of some of the nation's best known colleges and universities. Here's some welcome information to counter that price tag: if your student is exceptional, you can find an alternative in the three Maxwell Street buildings that provide a welcoming home for the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. The Gaines Center offers seats in this two-year program to a select few young men and women with voracious intellectual appetites and wide-ranging interests, providing highly individualized faculty attention for their junior and senior years. At once, their public university experience morphs into something they may have thought they would have to pay dearly and travel far to find.
The seminar
Exceptional faculty members engage Gaines Fellows' minds around the seminar table, covering topics requiring serious preparation, reflection and commitment. The program's staff encouraged me to sit in on a Gaines seminar examining philosophical perspectives on self-identity. No sleeping students here; participants offered considered opinions which were clearly grounded in the reading assignments and also indicated neural connections being made to other studies and to life experiences. While the seminar is the linchpin to broadening students' horizons, their junior year jury projects, focused on community involvement and improvement, magnify the effect. Guest speakers, events and funded travel opportunities expose Gaines Fellows to new ideas and experiences, building their knowledge base and adding sophistication and polish. If, as according to some philosophers, each life is an unfolding narrative, imagine the Gaines Center's impact on the narratives of these students.
The jury project
OK, you say, this is great, but perhaps you've been wondering "what's in it for me?" Why should you be interested? The juried project is where you will find an answer. First-year Gaines Fellows must develop a project with a community focus; one student is working currently on a project to benefit arts resources in her home county in Kentucky; another is working on issues of medical and legal collaboration to benefit those having difficulty accessing health care. The idea is to conduct research, think creatively about solutions to problems, present findings to a jury for review and, most importantly, offer a path a community can follow for improvement. Quite a few of the projects presented in recent years have been carried forward by interested community members, and fellows may remain involved as their ideas take on lives of their own beyond the assigned project.
Another answer lies in the Center's open-to-the-public annual lectures and events. Last spring's Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues, for example, focused on the public impact of art, how best to integrate art into our community, and envisioning the future of the Lexington arts community.
Senior thesis, plus
As seniors, Gaines Fellows must complete a thesis project, not unlike the work those continuing on for doctoral studies will complete several years ahead. Roughly 90%, in fact, continue on successfully for graduate or professional studies. One student is researching synesthesia, combining neuroscience, psychology and philosophy to explore a fascinating set of questions. She is both supported and challenged by a faculty committee of three as she moves through her research and prepares her 50+ page thesis paper. Many Gaines Fellows apply for external scholarships (Truman, Marshall, etc.) and are mentored capably through the process.
Intellectual freedom and accomplishment
Fellows love the program for the academic opportunities, the exceptional challenge and the camaraderie. They revel in seminars where faculty prod students for novel ideas, not simply correct answers. And they certainly appreciate the opportunity to have all of this without incurring debt for their education. While they have had positive experiences at UK prior to their selection as fellows, the Gaines program tends to be where they find their soulmates. It is where they find extraordinary academic enrichment and support for the life of the mind. Excitement about their studies is palpable among Fellows, and their social comfort within this environment - - centered on intellectual freedom and accomplishment - - is marvelous to note. These students are the Division I athletes of the academic realm. The Gaines Center is our Tiffany quality gem, available to students at a Wal-Mart price.
Can you imagine a world without the humanities? How would our civilization be different if we had no education in history, literature, the arts? In an increasingly interdisciplinary world, Gaines Fellows learn how to connect disparate subject areas, how to see the forest for the trees, and how to utilize their knowledge and talents for the good of the community. This remarkable group of students receives an educational enhancement comparable to that offered at the nation's most highly esteemed, most highly selective, and most expensive liberal arts colleges. How fortunate we are to have such a program thriving right here at the University of Kentucky, enriching the experiences of some of the university's brightest stars.
Jane S. Shropshire guides students and families through the college search process. Send questions or suggestions to JShrop@att.net or visit Shropshire Educational Consulting, LLC at www.ShropEd.net.