The Pew College Society at DBU

Mission

To challenge undergraduates at evangelical and confessional Protestant liberal arts colleges with a vision for pursuing scholarly careers as avenues to Christian service and to help them gain admission to excellent Ph.D. programs at major universities.

Theme

Pietas et Doctrina: The Pew College Society is governed by the ambition of uniting together in the mind and life of the Pew scholar the classical Christian ideals of piety and learning, spirituality and scholarship, genuine biblical faith and the life of the mind.

Ethos

PCS is for serious students who wish to honor Christ in their studies, who want to learn to love God with their mind, who desire to develop a biblical worldview and apply it comprehensively in learning and life, who recognize the importance of ideas, who want to be in conversation with other students and faculty, and who want to go deeper in their educational adventure as a believing Christian.

Programs and services

• PCS 4390 Pietas et Doctrina I: Studies in Christian Scholarship. An interdisciplinary investigation of advanced Christian learning and scholarship (i.e., doctrina)
  
• PCS 4391 Pietas et Doctrina II: Studies in Christian Spirituality. An investigation of classic Christian spirituality (i.e., Pietas) as the necessary prerequisite for life and work in Christian scholarship (i.e., Doctrina)
  
• Pew College Society Study Weekends
  
• Pew College Society Spring Student Conferences
  
• Information on extra-curricular scholarly opportunities
  1. The Pew Younger Scholars Summer Program at Notre Dame
  2. The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Study at Oxford University in England
  3. The Summer School Program at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia
  4. The study programs at Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado
  5. The film studies, Middle East, Russian, Central American, and American Studies program through the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities
     
• Information about various writing contests including the Amy Writing Award, the Carl F. H. Henry Writing Award, the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, and other opportunities
  
• Pew College Society provides for student participation in and paper presentations at the Friday Symposium; also attending local lectures, conferences, films, etc.
  
• Possible financial assistance for junior memberships in professional societies, for limited subscriptions to significant journals and periodicals, moneys for travel to graduate schools and for graduate school applications

Graduate School

One of the primary purposes of the PCS at DBU is to prepare Pew students for graduate school at the masters and Ph.D. levels. Information is available on graduate school to assist Pew scholars in the process of choosing, applying, and financing graduate school.

• PCS Graduate School Handbook

• Catalogs and information regarding prominent graduate programs nationwide

Faculty Mentors

PCS at DBU enables student members to get to know and be involved personally with faculty mentors at DBU who help and encourage the student in his or her academic tasks and in the graduate school decision and application process.

Community

PCS provides involvement in a committed spiritual, academic, and reading community that serves as a source of encouragement and support for those who are seeking to unite together the spiritual life and scholarship, and who are seriously considering the scholarly calling and the prospect of serving God in an academic vocation.

The DBU PCS is sponsored by The Pew Younger Scholars Program at the University of Notre Dame. The PYSP is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The PYSP administers five programs aimed at strengthening Christian scholarship by providing for the preparation and training of the next generation of Christian scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

The five initiatives of the Pew Younger Scholars Program are designed to address the specific challenges to the entrance into, and development of, younger Christian scholars in the academy.

1. Tradition brings students to Notre Dame for an intensive six week study in the Christian tradition.
   
   
2. The Undergraduate Summer Seminars bring forty-two promising undergraduates to Notre Dame to study with senior scholars for three weeks.
   
   
3. The College Societies' Program makes small matching grants to Christian colleges to support activities aimed at encouraging and preparing the best students to pursue graduate study.
   
   
4. The Graduate Summer Seminars bring twenty-four graduate students together for two separate seminars with accomplished Christian scholars in their fields.
   
   
5. The Mentoring Program connects graduate students and junior faculty with senior scholars in their field.
   

For information contact:
Lucie Marsden
Pew Younger Scholars Program
810 Flanner Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Pysp.2@nd.edu