John P. Chesick Scholars Program forFirst-Generation/Low-Income Students
Summer Reading and Learning Groups
These small group meetings (no more than 12 students) meet 3 or 4 times in July-August with a faculty member to discuss common readings or topics.
Books are provided at no charge and there is no work involved other than keeping up with the reading assignments or watching the recorded videos. Get to know a faculty member and other first-year Chesick Scholars and get a head-start in finding your voice in a supportive academic setting. Enrollment in these is limited and first-come-first-served.
Registration forms will be sent in the Chesick Corner Newsletter on June 12. Please register by June 23rd. There are spaces to enter your first, and second choices (if you wish). Students need to commit to attending all three sessions.
Below are the descriptions for Summer 2023’s reading groups.
How to do Good/Bad Science
Run by Professor Ben Le
Meeting Schedule: Thursdays, July 13, 20, 27 from 7-8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Following several high profile cases of research fraud and a new understanding of how decisions made by well-intentioned researchers can produce erroneous results, the field of psychology has undergone a revolution over the last 15 years. We'll read and discuss Stuart Ritchie's recent book Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth to learn about how the process of doing science (in the field of psychology, but applicable to all sciences) has worked, and not worked, in the past and think about ways to change the process for the better by opening science to enhance transparency, promote researcher accountability, and reimagine the relationship between academic incentives and the publishing industry.
Learn more about Stuart Ritchie and about the “Replication Crisis” in psychology.
Children of the Movement
Run by Professor Emma Lapsansky-Werner
Meeting Schedule: Wednesdays July 12, 19, and 26 from 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time.
Children of the Movement : The Sons and Daughters of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, George Wallace, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Moses, James Chaney, Elaine Brown, and Others. Blake, John. (2007)
This book, by John Blake, makes the case that all of us who are alive today are “children” of the United States’ civil rights movement of the 1960s. You’ve probably read about those years, and about how that decade of the 1960s set the United States on a justice-struggle path that continues today. It was a path—one might argue—that did not affect only the United States, but also was part of a global rumbling that had dramatic eruptions in many Asian, African, South American, Caribbean, and European countries and cultures. So, we are going to “read around” in this collection of short essays, and ask ourselves how those mid-twentieth-century energies for social justice have helped to shape how we—as a global community—experience the world we inhabit today.
What to Expect in Chemistry at Haverford
Run by General Chemistry Laboratory Instructor and Coordinator Kelly Matz
Meeting Schedule: Wednesdays, 7/12, 7/19, 7/26, 8/2 from 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time.
Welcome to Chemistry! Whether you are interested in the pre-med track, chemistry, or science in general, my goal is to give you a foundation of knowledge to help smooth the transition between high school and college-level chemistry. About a third of the incoming freshman class takes introductory chemistry, so this is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with a topic that can be very daunting!
We will discuss the structure of Haverford's Introductory Chemistry course, as well as resources available to you upon your enrollment. We will review how to solve problems, how to study for exams, what the lab program is like, and how to read technical papers. Our work hub will be Moodle, where materials will be posted to support our discussions. I will also introduce you to past Chem 111/113 students, some of whom are currently in medical school! It truly does take a village to succeed, and my hope is to help you make connections not just with the material but also with other students who have been right where you are now.
My Broken Language
Run by Associate Professor and Chair of Spanish Ana Lopez-Sanchez
Meeting Schedule: Wednesdays July 12, 19, and 26 from 12-1 p.m. Eastern Time.
Quiara Alegría Hudes’ memoir, My Broken Language (Mi lenguaje roto in Spanish*), is a coming of age story that resonates with many readers. Growing up between Philly and its suburbs, part of both a Puerto Rican family and a Jewish family, the author negotiates her way between multiple languages, cultures, religions, and, most importantly, between the haves and have-nots. Following Alegría on her journey, we will discuss ideas of inclusion/exclusion, belonging, and finding one’s ‘language’ and voice through it all. We will also learn (or learn more) about the Philadelphia area and the multitude of communities it contains. Specific topics we will touch on are:
- our cultures, languages and heritages (as manifested, for example, in music, food, and storytelling)
- Philadelphia’s Latino communities
- minority experiences and their representation (or lack of representation) in classrooms
- our many (“unbroken”) languages
*Book can be read either in English or in its Spanish translation.