Our Talented Program Assistants

Each summer we bring together a very select group of outstanding college and graduate students through a nationwide talent search for Program Assistants for the Great Books Summer Program. Program Assistants are chosen from hundreds of applicants based upon their academic excellence, intellectual enthusiasm, outgoing personality, experience in working with younger people and maturity.

Our 2008 staff hailed from colleges and universities such as Dartmouth, Yale, Stanford, Amherst, Columbia, Northwestern, and Harvard. They brought many diverse talents to the program and a shared love of great books. We had Greek scholars, philosophy majors, blossoming novelists, guitar players, rugby stars, debate team members and artists.

The Program Assistants help facilitate seminar discussions, collaborate with students on their electives, and organize all kinds of fun indoor and outdoor activities. Each Program Assistant is assigned to a "pod", a group of 6-8 boys or girls on their dorm floor. They lead informal evening discussions in the dorm, assist their students with daily camp life, and make sure that everyone has a wonderful experience.

Interested in joining the team for 2009? If you would like additional information about the position or our program, please read our job description or email us at info@greatbookssummer.com. Or simply go here to start your application!

Meet some of our 2008 Program Assistants!

Valerie Arvidson
Valerie has recently graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Creative Writing, and a minor in Anthropology. She finished her Honors Thesis, a novel, titled Eleven about a girl who runs away from home and discovers the surprising power of her heritage. The novel is a multi-media project with original prints, poetry, and passages in Italian. Valerie has been involved in editing and managing the Dartmouth Free Press newspaper, and two years ago she founded the campus feminist magazine, Untamed. She has spent the last four years working in the Education Department of the Hood Museum of Art. She enjoys printmaking, rock climbing, cooking, snowboarding, the outdoors, music, American literature, Italian language and literature, and meditation. Valerie loves to share her passion for writing and literature and hopes to always encourage and inspire younger people to think big and express themselves through literature and the arts. Valerie is moving to California in the coming year and is looking to continue working in the arts and she is currently applying to a teaching fellowship to work at under-resourced schools.

Nicholas Hayes
Nicholas grew up in the small Midwestern hamlet of Hillsdale, Michigan, but is delighted to return to his birthplace of Palo Alto (which he left at the tender age of three) for Great Books. He just graduated from Harvard University in June of 2008 with a BA in Social Studies, an interdisciplinary program which he used as an excuse to take any course he found interesting. Beyond philosophy, his one and only love, his interests include music of most kinds (especially early classical music), good conversations, yoga, and positively all things German. Next year, he'll be off to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to learn to dance tango.

Gaby Collins-Fernandez
When Gaby Collins-Fernandez is not playing with paint, reading, admiring trees and wishing she could be back at Great Books, she is a double major in Studio Art and Spanish Literature at Dartmouth College, where she will be beginning her senior year in the fall. On campus, Gaby is also involved in teaching Spanish drill sessions, and ushering college events. She is especially a fan of the color red, crayons, Spain, where she spent one term studying and one term as a teacher's assistant, bad jokes, and her native New York City.

Thea Hogarth
Thea is absolutely thrilled to be returning for her third summer at Great Books – but only her second summer as a PA! A rising sophomore at Haverford College, Thea has spent the past year becoming old and wizened – and maybe wise – as a way to better assert her position as a member of the Great Books staff. Please forgive her misguided dream of authoring the next Great American Novel; all things pass in time. In the meantime, you should know that she gets her kicks from reading, baking, and online Scrabble. Experts have predicted a 90% likelihood of a major in Comparative Literature.

Isaac Ericson
Isaac is a History major at Columbia University with a Special Concentration in Human Rights. A New England native, Isaac is excited to spend the summer at Amherst after working as a PA at the Stanford Branch last summer. His academic interests lie primarily in international humanitarian law and transitional justice, but also include literature and film. There are few things Isaac appreciates more than a well crafted sandwich or a sinking curveball that paints the corners of the Fenway Park batter's box.

Carolyn Sinsky
Carolyn hails from Dubuque, Iowa and is thrilled to return to her favorite place on earth (that very special part of northern California known as Stanford) for Great Books. At the moment, however, she can generally be found on the opposite coast, pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at Yale and contemplating various MFA programs in poetry. She will happily talk Russian, French, English, and all other manners and languages of literatures with anyone who cares to (you do, right?), but also marathon-running, novel-writing, ballet-dancing, and/or long-secretly-held plans to do any or all of the above.

Thomas Rooke
Thomas recently graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in English and Psychology. He enjoys reading, writing, dancing, and college football. When he is not catching up on pivotal works of 20th Century fiction, he is organizing beach parties, philanthropy events, and games of ultimate Frisbee.

Sam Maurey
Sam is a recent graduate of Amherst College with a degree in Political Science. Home is Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Politics aside, Sam has been rediscovering his inner book nerd for the past two years, beginning with his experience studying abroad in Shanghai, where he will be returning to teach English in the fall. Sam has been hooked on novels but has been recently enjoying poetry, especially Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg and Wallace Stevens. When Sam’s not reading or climbing trees he plays ping pong, tennis, and DJ.

Duncan Riddell
Duncan received his B.A. in Theater/Film studies and Philosophy at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Towards that degree, he studied at the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin, and at PCFE Film School in Prague. He currently lives in Chicago, IL, where he acts and writes. This August, he plans to direct an independent film, 'The Lake at Evening', from his own screenplay.

Tina Groeger
Tina grew up in Cambridge, MA and just graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in Social Studies. This major was originally going to help her pursue an interest evolutionary psychology, but morphed into the study of German philosophers for the better part of three years. A few themes she always comes back to are questions of objectivity, human nature, and the role of the intellectual in society. Next year she will set off to Berlin to master the German language and continue studying philosophy. She also loves singing and harmonizing, photography, construction paper, and the soft-serve ice cream of Amherst dining hall. This is her third year as a PA at Great Books and she is thrilled to be back for another summer!

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