A $25,000 Knowledge for Freedom planning grant will support a three-week symposium titled “One Person Can Change the World” for underprivileged high school juniors in Broward County, Florida.
Roosevelt Montás did not need to be rich, privileged, or cultured to find something in great literature that spoke to the deepest sense of his own being. Since 2009, he has been introducing low-income high school students to intellectual traditions inspired by Socrates. Old classics still have the power to move and transform young people.
Brian Rosenberg, who serves on the board of the Teagle Foundation, speaks to Roosevelt Montás’s approach to the humanities, which moves away from hyper-specialization and toward a meaningful encounter with a new generation of students.
The Knowledge for Freedom Program appears on a list of seven proven strategies to help colleges advance academic equity, reduce disparities in graduation rates, and maximize every student’s educational outcome.
Roosevelt Montás argues that low-income students deserve the same opportunities to read the classics.
The Knowledge for Freedom Program is helping first-generation and low-income students at 11 Brooklyn high schools to achieve their higher education goals.
Frank Bruni, Op-Ed Columnist of The New York Times, reflects on his visit to Columbia University’s Freedom & Citizenship Program.