The Institute Scholarship Program
The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization in Cupertino CA is a non-profit organization for higher education founded in 2002. Our courses and lectures seek to improve our collective understanding of how we in the twenty-first century came to be who we are, why we think the way we do, and what assumptions about the world and human nature are traceable back to earlier periods in the five-thousand-year story of Western civilization. William H. Fredlund, Ph.D., the Institute’s founder and director, leads our distinguished faculty.
An important part of the Institute’s mission is the extension of full tuition scholarships and cash grants to instructors who are currently teaching social sciences or humanities (history, literature, philosophy, art, for example) or other courses in Bay Area middle and secondary schools and colleges.
The Institute scholarship award for the 2023-2024 academic year (October 2, 2023 to June 6, 2024) covers:
- One academic year (30 weeks) of full tuition for an Institute core course (applicants may choose whichever course is most appropriate to their area of professional focus):
- The Birth of Europe (Mondays, 7:00pm, starts Oct 2)
- The History of the U.S.A. (Tuesdays, 7:00pm, starts Oct 3)
- The History of Spain (Wednesdays, 7:00pm, starts Oct 4), or
- The History of Modern France (Thursdays, 7:00pm, starts Oct 5)
- A packet of required books for the chosen class
- A $1,000 cash grant for the teacher’s own classroom or other educational expenses
- Eight (8) semester units of Continuing Education (C.E.) units for the year, granted by the University of the Pacific. The Institute runs on the quarter system (Fall, Winter, Spring), but the C.E. units are granted on the University of the Pacific semester system—that is, 4 units at the end of the UoP Fall semester (which occurs at the midpoint of the Institute’s Winter quarter), and 4 more units at the end of the UoP Spring semester (and our year-end)—for a total of 8 semester C.E. units for the academic year.
The courses are conducted live at the Institute building at 10060 Bubb Road, Cupertino CA, and in-person attendance is subject to health safety rules in effect at the time. The live course is simulcast via high-quality video streaming with interactive Q&A, and recordings of the sessions are available thereafter.
No grades or tests are required, and the scholarship recipient is not required to account for classroom or other expenditures that are defrayed by the cash grant. However, regular attendance and participation in the applicant’s selected class are required.
The instructor is William H. Fredlund, Ph.D., the Director of the Institute, who obtained his B.A. and M.A. from UCLA, where he specialized in European history and art history. He then studied in Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship and completed a double Ph.D. in history and humanities at Stanford, specializing in Renaissance Italy. Dr. Fredlund, who is one of Silicon Valley’s most popular lecturers, has taught for UCLA, the University of Florence, Stanford, and UCSC Extension.
Applications
Please download, fill out, scan, and email the application to:
- office(at)westernciv(dot)com
Or print your completed application and mail it to:
- Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
- 10060 Bubb Road, Cupertino CA 95014
Deadline for submission:October 1, 2023 (space permitting ~ scholarships to qualified candidates will be granted on a first-come, first-served basis until the program is full).
The Institute Scholarship Program is made possible by a generous grant from The Valley Foundation.