PLU Receives Teagle Foundation Grant to launch “Transformative Text Scholars” pilot program for Tacoma and Pierce County high school students
By International Honors Core Faculty
PLU faculty have received a grant from the Teagle Foundation to run a Pilot Program in the Summer of 2026, intended for underserved high school students in the Tacoma and Pierce County areas.
The pilot program, developed by Adam Arnold (Philosophy/IHON), Carmiña Palerm (Hispanic and Latino Studies/IHON), Arthur Strum (IHON), and Scott Rogers (English/IHON), is called “Learning from the 5,000-Year-Old Human Conversation: the Transformative Text Scholars at PLU.” The pilot draws on faculty experiences teaching ancient and modern transformative texts to first-year students in the International Honors Program (IHON), including its focus on reading as “equipment for living,” and its emphasis on the power of conversation. As Strum points out, “In first-year IHON, our focus is on developing students’ own capacities — to read carefully, to think for themselves, to converse with each other effectively, and to find meaning in both ancient and modern works — rather than on testing and exams. This program gives us a chance to offer this kind of educational experience to underserved students who might benefit from it most.” Current IHON students will also work as tutors and mentors for the program participants.
This program gives us a chance to offer this kind of educational experience to underserved students who might benefit from it most.
The grant is part of the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge For Freedom initiative, inspired by the Freedom and Citizenship program at Columbia University. The Freedom and Citizenship program was founded by Dr. Roosevelt Montás, whose own life was changed by his encounter with liberal education as a college student. Teagle’s Knowledge for Freedom initiative supports programs that invite underserved high school students, like Montás himself was, to study humanity’s deepest questions about leading lives of purpose and civic responsibility. These programs also help mentor students about the college application process and give them a taste of residential college life.
PLU’s pilot program kicks off in July 2026 with an eight-day residential seminar at PLU, focused on a particular human dilemma: amidst endless cycles of violence, how can we turn away from force and learn to build power with others? Through sustained and careful reading of ancient and modern texts, such as Aeschylus’s “The Eumenides,” to “The Bhagavad Gita,” to the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, students will deepen their understanding of what justice might be and how we can establish it. Students will then connect their emerging understanding to Tacoma’s own history, including a guided visit to the Chinese Reconciliation Park, which recognizes the 1885 expulsion of Chinese residents from Tacoma.
Participants in the program will also be invited to reimagine themselves as the protagonists of their own educations. The program aims to empower students who may never have considered college to see themselves as vital contributors to longstanding conversations about freedom, justice, and hospitality. Beyond the summer seminar, participants will receive year-long mentoring from IHON faculty and current IHON students serving as program tutors, who will assist them with college applications and the development of public-facing projects. These projects will be featured on a public website, sharing the students’ contributions with the wider Tacoma community.