We have already announced the upcoming deadline — April 7, 2016 — for applications to our Summer Seminars, the intensive 9-day session on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences, and the equally immersive C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society. The seminars will run from July 8-16 in Seattle.

Sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, these are amazing opportunities intended primarily for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students — plus a select group of professors, scientists, teachers, pastors, and other professionals. Our graduates have gone on to do very interesting things — some of which we’re not at liberty to describe in the current environment. Let’s just say, these are some extremely bright and talented people from whom the world of ID-related scholarship will be hearing much more in the future.

They are also a very international group. If you are considering applying to join us, you will be interested in these eloquent and penetrating comments from one of our Summer Seminar alumni:

My name is Jonatas Cavani and I currently work as a Social Studies teacher in an international school in Seoul, South Korea. Born in Brazil, I finished my high school and university education in the U.S. I majored in Social Sciences at the Extension School of Harvard University, and it was during my studies that I decided to become an educator. Since my college years, I have worked in Brazil, China, and now, in South Korea. Currently I’m finishing a graduate degree at Biola University in Science and Religion.

One of the topics of interest in my teaching profession has been the intersection of science and religion, as well as the history and philosophy of science. Attending the Summer Seminar on Science and Society has helped me to clarify some of my thoughts on this interdisciplinary subject, and even given me some ideas for future research. In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis speaks of a “regenerate science” that would truly explain things without explaining them away. It would speak of the parts without forgetting the whole. That is, in my view, a perfect summary of what I have seen and heard at the Center for Science & Culture’s Summer Seminar. We discussed the particulars, without forgetting the universals. The present crisis of modern science springs from the fact that it has become enslaved to a naturalistic view of Man and Nature. The Summer Seminar offered us nothing but a key, a key that could open the naturalistic captivity where science is locked up. The key to a “regenerate science.”

In many ways my experience in the Summer Seminar was both challenging and rewarding. It was challenging because the materials that we had to study in advance were broad in scope, encompassing technical scientific articles, philosophical and theological reflections, and much historical analyses. But it was the best graduate seminar that I have ever experienced in my life. It was not only the quality of the lectures and discussions, or even the pedigree and frankness of the speakers that impressed me, but also the quality of the attendees. I have met scientists, professors, philosophers, and theologians of diverse religious background, political orientation, and nationalities, all reunited in the same place under the banner of an ancient but powerful injunction, “to follow the argument wherever it leads.”

Not only was the whole experience mentally stimulating, but also intellectually humbling. I have never met so many people, at the same time, who were far more knowledgeable than I am in areas that I have always considered my forte. I have felt like a lion in a den of Daniels. And that is precisely why I would highly recommend the Summer Seminar to all students, researchers, and professionals who can contribute to the “regenerative science” that C. S. Lewis spoke about. In a nutshell, I have seen the seeds of a great Design Revolution, a revolution stronger than all the reactionary forces in the academia that are trying to suppress and suffocate it. This teleological science will not seek to abolish man, but to restore him.

The “best graduate seminar that I have ever experienced in my life“! Not bad. If the Center for Science & Culture’s Summer Seminars sounds right for you, now is the time to get your application materials together. See here and here for further details on admission, costs, scholarships, and more. If you have a friend or family member who you think would be interested, kindly pass on the information, too.