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Invitation to Participate
Thank you for your interest in “Say Something Wonderful:
Teaching the Pleasures of Poetry”! Sponsored by the
National Endowment for the Humanities, this seminar will be
offered at the DePaul University Humanities Center in the
Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. It will run for four
weeks, meeting five days a week, from June 29-July 24, 2009.
I hope that you will find most of your questions answered
on this website. Should you have further questions about the
scope or details of the program, please don’t hesitate
to ask. I will be happy to field questions about the material
covered in the program, housing arrangements, or anything
else that puzzles you. You may reach me by email at eselinge@depaul.edu
or by phone at 773-325-4475.
In what follows, you will find a description of the seminar,
an application form, and application guidelines. Let me draw
your attention to some advice from the NEH:
Give careful thought to your application essay, which will
serve as the core of your introduction to the application
review committee. It should include any personal and academic
information that is relevant; reasons for applying to the
particular project; your interest, both intellectual and
personal, in the topic; qualifications to do the work of
the project and make a contribution to it; what you hope
to accomplish by participation; and the relation of the
study to your teaching.
As you will see, teachers with a wide variety of specialties
are welcome to apply, and we hope to include teachers from
every grade, K-12, to encourage conversation across the boundaries
that separate elementary, middle, and high schools. But remember,
you may apply to only one summer seminar!
When complete, your application will consist of 3 copies
of each of the following: a cover sheet, a detailed CV, the
application essay, and two letters of recommendation. These
letters should be placed in sealed, signed envelopes by your
two referees and given back to you so that you can them to
me along with the rest of the materials. The application should
be postmarked no later than March 2, 2009, and should be sent
to me at the address below.
In my experience—and that of poetry readers I know
from their forties well into their nineties—the seeds
of a life-long engagement with poetry are usually planted
well before students reach college. Through reading, discussion,
reflection, and writing, we will explore how to make our students’
first exposure a joy.
I look forward to reading your application!
Sincerely,
Eric Murphy Selinger
Project Director: "Saying Something Wonderful"
DePaul University
Department of English
802 West Belden Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
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