‘Language and Thinking’ Program Prepares Young Ukrainians for Future Leadership
With Nova Ukraine’s support, Bard College leads writing- and discussion-filled workshops on the topic of justice Students from across Ukraine developed critical reading, writing, and civic leadership skills in a new program this summer supported by Nova Ukraine. The tuition-free, residential program, called Language and Thinking Kyiv, was based on Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking approach to learning and was led by students and faculty members from the school. A total of 29 high school students completed the three-week program, which focused on the theme of “justice.” Students read and discussed texts written by Václav Havel, Lesia Ukrainka, Martin Luther King Jr., and others, and zeroed in on topics such as freedom, responsibility, and dignity. The students worked in small, immersive workshops and practiced a variety of writing formats, including free writing, loop writing, and process writing—all in English—and then shared and discussed their work with their classmates to examine and refine their own thought processes. One example of their assignments was the use of dialectical notebooks, in which students write down their thoughts about a text they had read together, then pass their notebook to another student to add their perspective.
