The Great Ideas Summer Institute (GISI) is a unique week-long academic experience for high school students hosted on the campus of Samford University in Homewood, Alabama. This summer program offers an opportunity for intellectually ambitious students to enjoy the energy of a college classroom, engage ideas that form the essence of American citizenship, and develop friendships with exceptional high school students. Candidates must have completed their sophomore or junior year of high school to apply.

Learn more about the GISI summer program.

Samford University

Designed for non-specialists from across the disciplines, University Fellows hosted the inaugural Summer Seminar focusing on Dante’s Divine Comedy in June of 2015. Faculty in Great Books or core courses often teach sections of the Divine Comedy, but a sustained discussion of the entire poem is a rare opportunity that this seminar provided. Hosted by faculty from Samford’s University Fellows honors program, the seminar moved between discussions of the poem and strategies for teaching it, with a special interest in the often-neglected cantos in Purgatorio and Paradiso.

In July of 2017, University Fellows offered its second Teaching the Christian Intellectual Tradition Summer Institute, Virgil and the Modern Christian Imagination. This institute provided faculty from across disciplines the opportunity to explore the influence of Virgil on twentieth century Christian poets and intellectuals while also providing a space to  discuss strategies for teaching today's undergraduate.