Welcome to the page of the entering class of 2007-08—the inaugural class of the Kaplan Program!

Class picture of inaugural class of 2007-08 in front of University Hall.

Reed Wilson: "The Kaplan Humanities Scholar program gave me the absolute best learning environment my freshman year: it facilitated friendships that were based on a common love for knowledge. The program not only allows for true, one-on-one relationships to be built between students and Professors, but it also allows for meaningful friendships to be formed between the scholars over the two-quarter program. I am truly grateful to have been a part of this program, and I strongly encourage anyone who is interested in community-based knowledge to take this course."

Grayson Vreeland: "Joining the Kaplan program was one of the very best decisions of my freshman year. It's where I met some of my best friends and was introduced to ideas that will continue to inspire me throughout my college career."

Samantha Reed: “The Kaplan program was an overall amazing experience. It offers an intense interaction with texts that are so fundamental to shaping modern thought and does so in a way that other classes are in no way able to do in over course of a quarter. The subject material is also way more applicable than one might at first think. I've used examples… from Hobbes, Machiavelli, and even Dickens, not only in other classes but also in everyday conversations with friends about how society got to be the way it is today. It is definitely a class I would recommend, for both the fascinating coursework and the excellent professors teaching it.”

Sana Rahim: “The Kaplan program allowed me grow immensely as a writer and a critical reader. It was the perfect way to start my freshman year; I had a close-knit group of friends and professors who truly cared about my success at Northwestern.”

Victor Siclovan: “The Kaplan program is an intricate and well-designed study of how important historical figures have sought to define human nature and the good society, an inquiry that will always be of great importance in human affairs…. Through this analysis of history, art and literature, you too will engage in this important human discussion…. Ultimately, with the help of your peers and professors, you will be able to develop your own well-informed understanding of what this ‘good society’ is.”

Ravi Chopra: “The class gave me different tools and perspectives which I could use to not only analyze societies of the past, but imagine good societies of the future.”