Telluride Association
Encyclopedia
The Telluride Association is a non-profit organization
in the United States
that provides young people with free educational programs emphasizing intellectual curiosity, democratic self-governance, and social responsibility. Students are invited to apply based on academic criteria, such as high standardized test scores; however, anyone can apply without nomination. The association was named in 1910 by it founder Lucien Lucius Nunn
for his city of residence, Telluride, Colorado
.
The Association's principal programs are summer seminars for high school students, called TASSes and TASPs
, and scholarship houses, called Telluride Houses, for college students. These residential programs are offered at no cost to the students, who are encouraged to use the benefit of their extraordinary education for service to society. The Association is run largely by those elected to membership from its recent alumni, Deep Springs College
alumni, and current Branch students.
founded the Association in 1911 after building the first Telluride House at Cornell University
in 1910. The first President of the Telluride Association was Charles Walcott, the famous paleontologist and fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
. The house originally provided room and board for young men who had worked for Nunn and were studying engineering at Cornell. It has since expanded to encompass a variety of summer programs, scholarships, and additional houses, all coeducational. The association is named after the town of Telluride, Colorado where L.L. Nunn resided for much of his adult life.
Telluride Houses, or Branches, have operated at Cornell University
since 1911 and at the University of Michigan
since 1999. Each house is populated by a diverse group of graduate students and undergraduates who share an interest in self-governance and intellectual community. Students participate in a year-round public speaking program and plan academic seminars. The houses are largely self-governed, with somewhat different focuses: residents of Cornell Branch take on such responsibilities as hiring employees and maintaining and renovating the house, while residents of Michigan Branch plan and execute an annual project linking practical work in the community with theoretical and academic inquiry. Distinguished alumni of the Cornell Branch include Steven Weinberg
, Eve Sedgwick, Francis Fukuyama
, Paul Wolfowitz
, Jan Svejnar
, Dominick LaCapra
, and Gayatri Spivak. A handful of faculty also live at the houses for limited terms. Distinguished faculty guests of the Cornell Branch have included Michel Foucault
, Richard Feynman
, Frances Perkins
, Linus Pauling
, and Allan Bloom
.
Telluride Houses have formerly existed in Pasadena, California
, the University of California, Berkeley
, and the University of Chicago
.
Telluride Association Summer Program
s, or TASPs, are six-week educational experiences for rising high school seniors offering intellectual challenges rarely found in secondary school or even in college. They are designed to bring together young people from around the world who share a passion for learning. The participants, or TASPers, attend an intensive seminar led by college and university faculty members and participate in many educational and social activities outside the classroom. Like the Telluride houses, each TASP receives a discretionary budget, whose use is democratically distributed via weekly house meetings.
Telluride Association Sophomore Seminars, or TASSes, are also six-week summer programs. TASSes, which are offered to high school sophomores, have an academic focus on African American studies
and related fields. Their basic structure is similar to that of the TASPs, and some TASS alumni choose to attend a TASP the following summer.
TASSes have been held at Indiana University
since 1993 and at the University of Michigan
since 2002.
The Mansfield-Wefald Senior Thesis Prize is awarded annually for the best scholarly thesis written by a Telluride associate who will have completed his or her final year of undergraduate education that year.
The Mike Yarrow Adventurous Education Award is given annually to a returning member of a Branch of Telluride Association, or a Deep Springs
student who will be entering a Branch the following year. The award funds non-paying, public service activity during the summer that is outside of an academic institution.
The Nunn Archive Fellowship is awarded to help associates study and preserve the legacy of Lucien Lucius Nunn
.
Beginning in the late 1950s, the Telluride House at Cornell operated a two-year postgraduate exchange scholarship program with Lincoln College, Oxford
, welcoming a Sidgwick Scholar to stay at Telluride House and to study at Cornell, usually for an M.A., and sending a Housemember to study for an Oxford M.Phil while resident at Lincoln College. Despite the best efforts of both sides, the program was ended in 2002.
The Reese Miller Exchange Scholarship is available to students at Cornell University, the University of Michigan, Central European University in Budapest, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The scholarship operates as an exchange for one semester or one year between recent undergraduates and graduate students at Cornell and CEU and between students at U. of M. and UCT.
, a separate two-year college founded by Nunn
in 1917.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that provides young people with free educational programs emphasizing intellectual curiosity, democratic self-governance, and social responsibility. Students are invited to apply based on academic criteria, such as high standardized test scores; however, anyone can apply without nomination. The association was named in 1910 by it founder Lucien Lucius Nunn
L. L. Nunn
Lucien Lucius Nunn was an American entrepreneur and educator who founded Telluride Association and Deep Springs College...
for his city of residence, Telluride, Colorado
Telluride, Colorado
The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
.
The Association's principal programs are summer seminars for high school students, called TASSes and TASPs
Telluride Association Summer Program
Telluride Association Summer Programs, or TASPs, are extremely selective six-week educational experiences for rising high school seniors offering intellectual challenges rarely found in secondary school or even in college...
, and scholarship houses, called Telluride Houses, for college students. These residential programs are offered at no cost to the students, who are encouraged to use the benefit of their extraordinary education for service to society. The Association is run largely by those elected to membership from its recent alumni, Deep Springs College
Deep Springs College
Deep Springs is a private, all-male , alternative college in Deep Springs, California, in the United States. A two-year college, the institution currently aims for a student body size of 26, though the number is occasionally lower...
alumni, and current Branch students.
History
Lucien Lucius NunnL. L. Nunn
Lucien Lucius Nunn was an American entrepreneur and educator who founded Telluride Association and Deep Springs College...
founded the Association in 1911 after building the first Telluride House at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1910. The first President of the Telluride Association was Charles Walcott, the famous paleontologist and fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. The house originally provided room and board for young men who had worked for Nunn and were studying engineering at Cornell. It has since expanded to encompass a variety of summer programs, scholarships, and additional houses, all coeducational. The association is named after the town of Telluride, Colorado where L.L. Nunn resided for much of his adult life.
Programs
Telluride Association seeks out young people with the desire and the ability to contribute to society, and helps them develop intellectually and as community members. Telluride Association promotes no particular political or religious viewpoint.Telluride Houses, or Branches, have operated at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
since 1911 and at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
since 1999. Each house is populated by a diverse group of graduate students and undergraduates who share an interest in self-governance and intellectual community. Students participate in a year-round public speaking program and plan academic seminars. The houses are largely self-governed, with somewhat different focuses: residents of Cornell Branch take on such responsibilities as hiring employees and maintaining and renovating the house, while residents of Michigan Branch plan and execute an annual project linking practical work in the community with theoretical and academic inquiry. Distinguished alumni of the Cornell Branch include Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg
Steven Weinberg is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles....
, Eve Sedgwick, Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and author. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of...
, Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
, Jan Svejnar
Jan Švejnar
Jan Švejnar is a USA-based, Czech-born economist. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2008 election of the President of the Czech Republic....
, Dominick LaCapra
Dominick LaCapra
Dominick LaCapra is an American-born European historian and the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies at Cornell University.-Career:LaCapra received his B.A. from Cornell and his Ph.D. from Harvard...
, and Gayatri Spivak. A handful of faculty also live at the houses for limited terms. Distinguished faculty guests of the Cornell Branch have included Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
, Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins , born Fannie Coralie Perkins, was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition...
, Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
, and Allan Bloom
Allan Bloom
Allan David Bloom was an American philosopher, classicist, and academic. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, and the University...
.
Telluride Houses have formerly existed in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Telluride Association Summer Program
Telluride Association Summer Program
Telluride Association Summer Programs, or TASPs, are extremely selective six-week educational experiences for rising high school seniors offering intellectual challenges rarely found in secondary school or even in college...
s, or TASPs, are six-week educational experiences for rising high school seniors offering intellectual challenges rarely found in secondary school or even in college. They are designed to bring together young people from around the world who share a passion for learning. The participants, or TASPers, attend an intensive seminar led by college and university faculty members and participate in many educational and social activities outside the classroom. Like the Telluride houses, each TASP receives a discretionary budget, whose use is democratically distributed via weekly house meetings.
Telluride Association Sophomore Seminars, or TASSes, are also six-week summer programs. TASSes, which are offered to high school sophomores, have an academic focus on African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
and related fields. Their basic structure is similar to that of the TASPs, and some TASS alumni choose to attend a TASP the following summer.
TASSes have been held at Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
since 1993 and at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
since 2002.
Awards
Telluride Association Awards are awarded to members of the Telluride community by the Association.The Mansfield-Wefald Senior Thesis Prize is awarded annually for the best scholarly thesis written by a Telluride associate who will have completed his or her final year of undergraduate education that year.
The Mike Yarrow Adventurous Education Award is given annually to a returning member of a Branch of Telluride Association, or a Deep Springs
Deep Springs College
Deep Springs is a private, all-male , alternative college in Deep Springs, California, in the United States. A two-year college, the institution currently aims for a student body size of 26, though the number is occasionally lower...
student who will be entering a Branch the following year. The award funds non-paying, public service activity during the summer that is outside of an academic institution.
The Nunn Archive Fellowship is awarded to help associates study and preserve the legacy of Lucien Lucius Nunn
L. L. Nunn
Lucien Lucius Nunn was an American entrepreneur and educator who founded Telluride Association and Deep Springs College...
.
Beginning in the late 1950s, the Telluride House at Cornell operated a two-year postgraduate exchange scholarship program with Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
, welcoming a Sidgwick Scholar to stay at Telluride House and to study at Cornell, usually for an M.A., and sending a Housemember to study for an Oxford M.Phil while resident at Lincoln College. Despite the best efforts of both sides, the program was ended in 2002.
The Reese Miller Exchange Scholarship is available to students at Cornell University, the University of Michigan, Central European University in Budapest, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The scholarship operates as an exchange for one semester or one year between recent undergraduates and graduate students at Cornell and CEU and between students at U. of M. and UCT.
Membership
Telluride Association consists of about 100 volunteer members who serve as the Association's trustees. Members are elected to membership, usually while in their twenties, on the basis of demonstrated leadership and commitment to Telluride's educational goals. The Association’s membership is mainly current and former participants of its programs and alumni of Deep Springs CollegeDeep Springs College
Deep Springs is a private, all-male , alternative college in Deep Springs, California, in the United States. A two-year college, the institution currently aims for a student body size of 26, though the number is occasionally lower...
, a separate two-year college founded by Nunn
L. L. Nunn
Lucien Lucius Nunn was an American entrepreneur and educator who founded Telluride Association and Deep Springs College...
in 1917.
External links
- Telluride Association, official website
- Michigan Branch of the Telluride Association, official website
- Cornell Branch of the Telluride Association, official website