Congratulations Chaquita Williams and Chandra Plowden!
 
Chaquita Williams and Chandra Plowden, both juniors at Columbia College and English majors, have been accepted to participate in the Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies (SILCS) at Wheaton College this summer. Columbia College is the only institution that had more than one applicant accepted to the program, which admits only 12 students annually.
 
Williams and Plowden will spend June 1-29 with ten other highly-motivated English majors at SILCS, based at Wheaton College, in Norton, Massachusetts. The students, selected from a very competitive national pool, will study literary and cultural theory, will visit Harvard, Yale, and other New England graduate English programs, and will learn from a number of top scholars in the field who will serve as visiting lecturers for the institute. SILCS aims to increase diversity in the field of English studies by preparing students to apply to doctoral programs in English. The program supplements the undergraduate curriculum, introduces students to archival research, and works on writing and presentation skills.

Each SILCS student is sponsored by a faculty member at the home institution, who pledges to guide the student through the graduate school application process in the senior year. Chaquita and Chandra's sponsors at Columbia College are Professors Michael Broome and Claudia Smith Brinson, respectively. SILCS also matches each student up with a mentor from a different institution, who will stay in touch with the student throughout the graduate school experience.

Learn more about this Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-sponsored project at http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/silcs.