High School Teaching Internship in Greece
General Information
Overview
The High School Summer Program offers positions for two undergraduate students, one from and American university and one from a Greek university, to work as teaching interns and to gain experience alongside a Harvard faculty member.
The program’s interns will have the opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills, and moreover, to coordinate, guide, and support high school students with little or no previous exposure to university methods of studying texts, writing essays, conducting surveys, or preparing presentations. The 7-week program will begin May 26 and will end July 11, 2013. All selected participants should arrive in Nafplion on May 26.
After a week-long orientation, the teaching interns will work for four weeks preparing for the High School Summer Program, which runs from June 25-July 11 (described in detail below). They will assemble course materials, finalize the syllabus, work on the teaching methodology that will be utilized during the seminars and assist with coordinating guest lectures and activities for the program. The interns will also compile information about education in Greek high schools, high school summer programs in the US, and the college application process in the US. Finally, the interns will have the opportunity to conduct research on broader topics (e.g. current debates on the teaching of history in Greek high schools, or collection of data on students who pursue study in the US) and the chance to share that research during the High School Summer Program.
The teaching interns will live and learn with students in the Cultural Internship Program. All American students take an intensive course in Modern Greek, designed specifically to help them perform their responsibilities as interns more productively, while their Greek counterparts attend a series of seminars on American culture. A number of weekend excursions supplement the educational program in Greece. Additionally, in October the Greek interns travel to the United States for visits to the main CHS campus in Washington, D.C., and sites in and around Boston, including Harvard University.
During the last two and a half weeks, the teaching interns will assist Nicolas Prevelakis, a Harvard faculty member in conducting the High School Summer Program seminars. The teaching interns must be fully prepared to support the daily seminar in the morning and the study hours in the afternoon. The interns will assist the students and provide them with guidelines for conducting their research projects and organizing a closing event. Moreover, the interns will give presentations of their own about the operation and function of American and Greek higher education systems.
The CHS will provide shared, furnished apartments for all interns in Old Town, Nafplion. The interns will also receive a stipend to offset costs associated with international travel, local transportation, meals, and incidentals.
Living and Working in Nafplion
The teaching interns will live together with the interns from the Cultural Internship Program in apartments in the Old Town of Nafplion within easy walking distance from the CHS. The apartments are fully furnished and generally accommodate approximately three to four students. The interns are responsible for their own meals and laundry and for maintaining a clean and orderly living environment.
Educational Program
Orientation
The American and Greek interns participate in a weeklong seminar that introduces the American students to the history and culture of Modern Greece and provides opportunities for intercultural conversations. It also gives the Greek interns a chance to learn about American culture through first-hand interaction with their American counterparts. Among the themes the program usually covers are the relationship between ancient and modern Greece; the role of philhellenism in the creation of the Greek state; the function of religion in Greek life; contemporary politics; family, gender and occupational roles; literature, poetry and music; and contemporary cinema. The approach of the course is comparative, presenting aspects of contemporary Greece, whenever possible, in comparison with the United States. With a schedule of required readings, the seminar relies heavily on the participation of students and the free exchange of ideas. This format is less typical in the Greek system, so Greek interns will gain new perspectives on American education, which not only prepares them to work more effectively in teams with the Americans but also sets appropriate expectations for their seminar on American culture.
Modern Greek
The American interns participate in an intensive, full-immersion course that aims to develop and strengthen their speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing skills in Modern Greek through the cumulative acquisition of vocabulary and systematic conversational practice. The course includes at least 48 hours of classroom instruction over the five weeks of the program. On average students spend 10 hours in class, review sessions, and office hours. They also attend one lecture, and participate in one field trip each week. The methodology of the course, supported by the technology available in the Iatrou Building, incorporates traditional techniques of instruction into a background of full linguistic and cultural immersion. While grammar drills, vocabulary quizzes, and translation exercises constitute the course’s instructional foundation, students benefit from a wide range of opportunities to practice the newly acquired material outside of the classroom and to bring into the classroom their everyday experience. In particular, the language program takes advantage of the focused linguistic domains of the internships and of the students’ daily interactions with their native-speaking peers.
Seminar on American Culture
While the American students work on acquiring Modern Greek, their Greek peers attend a seminar on American culture. Designed to parallel the development of the Modern Greek state, the survey focuses primarily on the literature, history, art, and popular culture of the 19th century. The first two weeks feature selections from American romantic writers, so students can see how the cultural forces that helped give rise to the Greek independence movement manifested themselves in America. The third week focuses on the Transcendentalists, the westward expansion of the United States, the abolition movement, and events leading up to the Civil War, most importantly, the raid on Harpers Ferry. The fourth and fifth weeks look more closely at the Civil War and its aftermath, including an introduction to baseball. The seminar also introduces students to the visual arts as represented by the Hudson River School, the American Barbizon School, the Realist painters, and the American Impressionists. The readings and discussions provide the background for the students’ trip to the United States where they will visit Washington, D.C., and Boston, MA in the Fall.
SYLLABUS 2013 (coming soon)
Past Syllabus: 2012
Excursions
While living and working in Nafplion, regular excursions provide students with the opportunity to visit other places of historical and cultural importance in the Argolid and beyond. A series of half-day trips will take students to the archaeological sites of Mycenae and Epidaurus, and locations in the eastern part of the region, such as Kranidi, Ermioni, and Franchthi Cave. On full-day trips, students will travel to the islands of Hydra or Poros. Interns also spend a weekend in Athens where they visit the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, the Parliament, and the National Archaeological Museum. This excursion includes free time, so students can visit other sites of personal interest.
The High School Summer Program (HSSP)
Overview
The Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece’s High School Summer Program (HSSP) is an exciting and innovative program for talented high school students with passion for learning and desire to excel. HSSP offers the unique opportunity for to selected high school students, from all disciplines, to spend two and a half weeks at the Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) in Nafplion, Greece and attend an intensive daily seminar led by a Harvard professor and teaching assistants from American and Greek universities.
During the seminar, the high school students will engage in a mixture of thought-provoking projects, presentations, field surveys, lectures and teleconferences, that are supplementary to the subjects offered in their school curriculum. Students will expand their knowledge, improve their communication and presentation skills, increase their understanding of American and Greek higher educational institutions’ structure and function, practice research methodology, work in teams, and gain experience at the university level while planning for their academic future.
The HSSP takes place at the CHS facility in Nafplion, where students can access Harvard’s online resources through the digital library of the Center. The program begins after the high school summer examination period and lasts for a period of 16 days.
The Seminar
The seminar titled “Introduction to the Study of Humanity” is led by Dr. Nicolas Prevelakis (Harvard Social Studies). It will introduce students to the foundations of the social sciences and will cover such topics as the different types of human societies, the factors that lead to social change, the relationship between morality and politics, and the role of nationalism, ethnicity, and religion in today’s world. The high school students will have the opportunity to experience an American college-level course, relying heavily on student participation, class discussion, writing assignments, and independent research.
Each day will consist of three hours of class in the morning, followed by three hours of activities, lectures, and homework in the afternoon. Skype sessions with Harvard scholars will take place occasionally, as a way to introduce students to some contemporary American practitioners. Throughout the course, students will develop a research project, which they will have the chance to present at the program’s closing event.
In addition to the seminar instructor, the students will have the chance to work closely with the two teaching interns who will provide them substantial help and guidance as they prepare their assignments. The course will be capped at 10 students, which will assure close interaction among the students, the professor, and the teaching interns.
Extra sessions will be dedicated to presentations of the American and Greek educational systems by the teaching interns, and will provide students with information about educational opportunities and university application procedures.
Application
Students interested in applying should
- fill out the online application,
- include in the application contact information for two references* and
- attach a PDF copy of his/her most recent transcript and a PDF copy of his/her résumé to the online application.**
*We ask that you provide us with the contact information for two faculty members who can speak to your academic work and evaluate your plans for participating in the internship program. If you cannot supply the contact information for two faculty members, please provide information for high school teachers, employers, or mentors who know you well. We will contact them directly about their recommendations.
**Application attachments MUST be in PDF format or they will not go through the system.
The CHS will contact finalists to schedule an interview.
Eligibility
PLEASE NOTE: Concentrators from Social Studies are strongly recommended to apply due to their studies’ relevance with the thematic areas of the Summer Program. However, students from any field may apply. The requirements are intellectual curiosity, willingness to support high school students with no previous exposure to university methods, a readiness to gain teaching experience alongside a Harvard faculty member, to work together with a fellow from a Greek university, and engage directly with other cultures. Knowledge of Modern Greek is welcome but not required. Only current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are eligible to apply and participate. The minimum GPA is 3.0/4.0 or 7.0/10.0.
Students who have participated in CHS programs in the past are eligible to apply. However, students who have never had a CHS internship will have priority.
For more information regarding the Internship program and registration with the program’s mailing list please contact us.
Questions
If you have any questions about the program or the application process, please do not hesitate to contact a programs coordinator.
