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Currently, ours is one of only two Great Books programs in California’s 110 community colleges which serve nearly 3,000,000 students. Our Great Books faculty members include four Ph.Ds in English and Philosophy and all our professors are tenured with at least 10 years teaching experience. Our shared vision is to expose students to central imaginative, philosophical, and historical texts of Western Civilization.
In the last two years, the MPC Great Books Program is proud to have been recognized with four grants from the Apgar Foundation. The Apgar Foundation "makes grants to undergraduate programs that increase knowledge of and exposure to aspects of Western and American culture that have been instrumental in creating and sustaining the United States and other liberal democracies. The Foundation wants college faculty and students to deepen their understanding and appreciation of Western and American traditions, institutions, and values."
As an Apgar grant recipient, MPC joins such institutions as Washington and Lee University, Villanova University, Penn State University, UCLA, Emory University, MIT, and the University of Virginia.
MPC's Apgar Foundation grants have been used to convene two colloquiums, "Great Books and Democracy" with Robert Pinsky, Dana Gioia, and Victor Davis Hanson, followed by "Imaginative Freedom and Political Freedom" with Mark Edmundson, Clare Cavanagh, Zachary Mason, and Mark Bauerlein. DVDs of all presentations are available in the MPC Library.
This semester, the Great Books Program hosted its first Visiting Scholar, University of Virginia Professor of Romantic Poetry and author Mark Edmundson, who lectured and conducted seminars on "Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad," "Can Rock and Roll Save Your Life?", and "Football: The Lure of the Game." He also visited the Great Books Club and his wife, author Elizabeth Denton, visited the Creative Writing Club. DVDs are currently in production and video will be available on AMP Channel 27.
Apgar funds have also been used for a high school essay-writing contest, materials for our Great Books Club Lending Library, professional membership in the Association of Core Texts and Courses, conference attendance, and local and national marketing.
The MPC Great Books Program is deeply honored by the Apgar Foundation's continuing confidence and support.
In general, the MPC Great Books Program equips students with the concepts, terminology, and vocabulary that will allow them to participate in what Robert Hutchins called “The Great Conversation.” We reject the notion that Great Books are reserved for private schools and Ivy League universities. Our courses are for anyone drawn to depth and complexity rather than superficiality and ideology, to perennial questions rather than aprioristic answers, to reflection and "shared inquiry" rather than reactive or formulaic polemics, to permanent learning rather than terminal degrees.
Upon completion of English 5, Introduction to Great Books, and any four other designated Great Books courses, the MPC-GBP awards a certificate recognizing the student as a "Great Books Scholar." This designation will aid in transfer and scholarship applications, enhance one's resume or curriculum vitae for future employers, and signify to others such highly-prized qualities as verbal fluency and cultural literacy.
In addition, enough of our courses are online so that the student may complete the program from anywhere in the world.
Recently, in a national competition, MPC Great Books Program students Julie Brown-Smith and Aaron Birk were selected to present their papers at the Association for Core Texts and Course Student Conference at Pepperdine. Ms. Brown-Smith's paper concerned her major art project based on Goethe's Faust; Mr. Birk's paper concerns the The Book of Five Rings and its applicability in various situations from personal relations to warfare and business. Ms. Brown-Smith is currently at U.C. Berkeley majoring in Rhetoric. Mr. Birk is at the University of Redlands where he has started a Great Books Club.
Former MPC Great Books Club president Joshua Converse has published an essay (linked below) on the founding of the MPC Great Books Program in Literary Matters, a publication of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. He is currently a graduate student at San Francisco State majoring in English after taking his B.A. at U.C. Santa Cruz.
Former MPC Great Books Club VP Aaron Birk has designed some fun Great Books gear, available at www.zazzle.com/Nordse
PLEASE NOTE: The MPC Great Books Club will now be meeting Mondays, from 12:30-1:30, in HSS-104, the new Humanities Division Conference Room.
Joshua Converse's Essay 
Interview on YouTube 
Chronicle of Higher Ed story 
Named NAS "Excellent Program" 
For IHE's story about us, visit 
Podcast with Donald Hall, click 
MPC Great Books Club discussion 
Radio Interview, 4.5 minutes in 
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