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 West 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 scholarships to instructors who are currently teaching social sciences or humanities (history, literature, philosophy, art, or related courses) in Bay Area middle and secondary schools and colleges.
The Institute scholarship award for the 2026-2027 academic year (October 5, 2026 to June 3, 2027) covers:
- One academic year (30 weeks) of full tuition (for all teachers)
Applicants may choose whichever course is most appropriate to their area of professional focus:-
The History of the USA, Part 1 (The American Revolution and Westward Expansion): MONDAYS, 7:00pm, starts Oct 5, 2026
(https://westernciv.com/syllabus/history-of-the-united-states/)* -
Coming to America (From the Explorers to the Great Migrations): TUESDAYS, 7:00pm, starts Oct 6, 2026
(Syllabus coming soon) -
The History of the USA, Part 3 (America in the 20th Century): WEDNESDAYS, 7:00pm, starts Oct 7, 2026 (https://westernciv.com/syllabus/history-of-the-united-states-in-the-twentieth-century/)*
-
The History of Art (5,000 Year of Art in the Western World): THURSDAYS, 7:00pm, starts Oct 8, 2026
(https://westernciv.com/syllabus/history-of-art/)*
*NOTE: These syllabi still need to be updated for next year’s dates.)
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- A $1,000 cash grant (for first-year scholarship teachers only)
- Eight (8) semester units of Continuing Education (C.E.) units (for first-year scholarship teachers only; teachers in subsequent years program years may obtain the units via self-pay)
- All required books (for all teachers)
All 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, papers, 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 lively participation in the applicant’s selected class are REQUIRED. In-person attendance is vastly preferable to in order to best experience the collegiality of the program, but teachers have the option of participating online if they live at a distance or for occasional convenience (we know teachers have many life demands). However, engagement with the instructor and subject matter is absolutely necessary.
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 form to:
- office(at)westernciv(dot)com
Or print your completed application form and mail it to:
- Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
- 10060 Bubb Road, Cupertino CA 95014
Deadline for submission: October 1, 2026 (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.