The Core asks you some tough, tough questions. Because we aren’t overachieving enough, the Center for the Core Curriculum decided to instate the Core Scholars Program earlier this year. Finally, the announcement has been made, and the wait’s over: We now know and envy the names of the winners of the $200 cash prizes and coveted title.

Joking aside, we have some serious creative engagement from our scholars this year in music, art and dance. True to its aim of “cultivat(ing) a critical and creative intellectual capacity”, modern-day relevance, contemplation and interdisciplinary reinterpretation is the order of the day:

• Ben Kaplan (CC ’14) sings a ditty about how “Frontiers of Science is just Lit Hum/it all depends on how you view it.” He admits it’s tongue in cheek, but insists that he tried “to get to the core of the Core”: its goal of seeing old texts and ideas in a new context.”
• From Richard Lenz (CC ’12) we have “12 Woodcuts Based on the Fifth Story of the Fourth Day of Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron'” He explains, “The uses of pattern and line in early 20th century German art provide possibilities for representing the range of moods that the story encompasses, from the bliss of passion to sorrow and grief. While the scenario that the story describes is not universal, the sadness that it describes is.”
• Amir Safavi (CC ’14) delivers “Medea for Solo Violin,” an interpretation of Euripides’ “Medea”. He says, “The ending serves as a reminder that, despite the actions she will take by the end of the play, Medea truly remains the same helpless victim she was when the play began.” Hmm, so really maybe “Literature Humanities is just music/it all depends on how you skew it?”
• Finally from Dominique Nieves (CC ’12) comes Hail Mary,” an interpretive dance piece about which she says “I have said that prayer every night before I went to sleep for the past twelve years without understanding it, because in reciting it so often, I never stopped to listen to the words. I think the Core Curriculum is about taking the time to digest, debate and explore which is what I have done through the medium of my choreography.”

Critically observe, as your several Core classes will no doubt have taught you to do by now, the age groups of our our Scholars this year. Why are our seniors and sophomore underrepresented in the Core Scholar program? Posit a hypothesis in a 250-word critical response to the Core Scholar Program description. Or perform a back of the envelope calculation in the comments.