The Montaigne Scholarship Event helps introduce prospective students to the Shimer Great Books School and our unique approach to a college education. It is not a competition between applicants; rather, the reading, writing and discussion that comprise the event are designed to reflect the main features of every course offered by the Shimer School.
The first step in each year’s event is for prospective participants to request and read the “subject essay” for that year. Prospective participants can request this year’s subject essay from Laura Kendall Zimmermann at lmkendallzimmermann@noctrl.edu, from McKenna Herbst, at mjherbst@noctrl.edu, or from Stuart Patterson, at skpatterson@noctrl.edu.
The second step is for students to write their own personal “response essay” in reply to the subject essay, guided by a prompt set by the scholarship committee (which prompt will be supplied along with the subject essay). When a participant is satisfied with their response essay, they will submit it to Stuart Patterson (skpatterson@noctrl.edu), thereby signaling their interest in participating in the next Montaigne Scholarship Event. Please note: a participant’s response essay must be received before they can participate in the third and final phase of the Montaigne Scholarship Event.
The third and final step is for participants to join other participants in a discussion of the subject essay. For this discussion, participants will be joined by a Shimer School faculty member, who will lead the discussion among participants as they would any Shimer School class. This discussion will give participants a sense of how their ideas on the subject essay compare to those of other participants. Participants will also get a sense of how their courses would be run should they attend the Shimer School.