Brief History of The Joe Berg Seminars Concept
The Joe Berg Seminars concept originated in 1955 as a program for bright science students at the Niles Township Community High School in Skokie, Illinois. It was the brainchild of Jacob W. Shapiro, a chemist who had established a similar program more than a decade before as a high school science teacher in Columbia, Tennessee. Each student in the program received personalized mentoring on their science research projects from science professionals in the community, and those same science professionals presented periodic evening seminars to all the students in the program. One of the students in the program was the grandson of Joseph Berg, a wealthy Chicago trucking parts manufacturer. Berg was so impressed with the program that in 1957 he established the Joe Berg Foundation and supplied it with a recurring annual budget of $75,000 (equivalent to more than $800,000 in today’s money!) to enable Shapiro to spread his seminar model around the country (8).
Demand for the Joe Berg Foundation's model increased when the launch of Sputnik I in October of 1957 set the “Space Race” into high gear, and Shapiro traveled far and wide as program coordinator to help communities establish their own seminar programs (9). By the mid-1960s, according to Joseph Berg’s New York Times obituary (10), there were more than 700 science seminar programs in operation in the US and Canada. Our program, The Joe Berg Seminars, is the descendant of one of those. For whatever reason – perhaps partly because American astronauts landing on the Moon several times between 1969 and 1972 seemed to have “won” the Space Race – the number of programs diminished over time. Now there are only two remaining that we know of, ours and one at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts program, which was established in 1959, is called the “Science Seminar”. It is similar to the original Niles Township Community High School program established by Shapiro, with seminars and mentoring, and is limited to students at Wachusett Regional High School (11). Our program, The Joe Berg Seminars, was established in 1960 as the Joe Berg Society. It implemented Science seminars, but no mentoring with science research projects, and further differentiated itself from other Joe Berg Foundation programs by later adding Humanities seminar track.
Students who qualify for The Joe Berg Seminars have always been among the best at their schools, and even without the seminars most would likely go on to become leaders in whatever field they decide to pursue. But the seminars stimulate their brains in ways that would never happen at school. They are exposed to ideas and fields they would never come across in school, and so envision possibilities they might never have done otherwise. They meet like-minded students from other schools and build friendships and collaborations that would not have happened without the seminars. And most importantly, The Joe Berg Seminars experience nurtures their love of learning and hones their critical thinking, qualities that are essential in the leaders and highly desirable in the citizens of tomorrow.
Our vision for the future of The Joe Berg Seminars program, one that would make it even more effective and available far beyond the local area, has four phases:
Demand for the Joe Berg Foundation's model increased when the launch of Sputnik I in October of 1957 set the “Space Race” into high gear, and Shapiro traveled far and wide as program coordinator to help communities establish their own seminar programs (9). By the mid-1960s, according to Joseph Berg’s New York Times obituary (10), there were more than 700 science seminar programs in operation in the US and Canada. Our program, The Joe Berg Seminars, is the descendant of one of those. For whatever reason – perhaps partly because American astronauts landing on the Moon several times between 1969 and 1972 seemed to have “won” the Space Race – the number of programs diminished over time. Now there are only two remaining that we know of, ours and one at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts program, which was established in 1959, is called the “Science Seminar”. It is similar to the original Niles Township Community High School program established by Shapiro, with seminars and mentoring, and is limited to students at Wachusett Regional High School (11). Our program, The Joe Berg Seminars, was established in 1960 as the Joe Berg Society. It implemented Science seminars, but no mentoring with science research projects, and further differentiated itself from other Joe Berg Foundation programs by later adding Humanities seminar track.
Students who qualify for The Joe Berg Seminars have always been among the best at their schools, and even without the seminars most would likely go on to become leaders in whatever field they decide to pursue. But the seminars stimulate their brains in ways that would never happen at school. They are exposed to ideas and fields they would never come across in school, and so envision possibilities they might never have done otherwise. They meet like-minded students from other schools and build friendships and collaborations that would not have happened without the seminars. And most importantly, The Joe Berg Seminars experience nurtures their love of learning and hones their critical thinking, qualities that are essential in the leaders and highly desirable in the citizens of tomorrow.
Our vision for the future of The Joe Berg Seminars program, one that would make it even more effective and available far beyond the local area, has four phases:
- Phase 1: Maintaining the existing Joe Berg Seminars program
- Phase 2: Introducing a mentorship program into the existing program
- Phase 3: Establishing Joe Berg Middle School clubs in local middle schools
- Phase 4: Expanding the Joe Berg Seminars concept beyond the local area
8. Maizel, Albert Q. “Opportunity for the Brilliant Science Student.” Reader’s Digest, August 1958.
https://www.joeberg.org/uploads/5/7/0/8/57081557/opportunity_for_the_brilliant_science_student_-_readers_digest_august_1958_opt.pdf.
9. Joe Berg Foundation. The Berg Plan for the Advancement of Science. Joe Berg Foundation, 1959. https://www.joeberg.org/uploads/5/7/0/8/57081557/the_berg_plan_1.pdf.
10. The New York Times. “JOSEPH BERG.” July 8, 1964, sec. Archives. https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/08/archives/joseph-berg.html.
11. For information about the Wachusett Regional High School program, search for “Science Seminar” on the “WRHS
Student Activities” page at this link: https://sites.google.com/wrsd.net/wrhsstudentactivities.
https://www.joeberg.org/uploads/5/7/0/8/57081557/opportunity_for_the_brilliant_science_student_-_readers_digest_august_1958_opt.pdf.
9. Joe Berg Foundation. The Berg Plan for the Advancement of Science. Joe Berg Foundation, 1959. https://www.joeberg.org/uploads/5/7/0/8/57081557/the_berg_plan_1.pdf.
10. The New York Times. “JOSEPH BERG.” July 8, 1964, sec. Archives. https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/08/archives/joseph-berg.html.
11. For information about the Wachusett Regional High School program, search for “Science Seminar” on the “WRHS
Student Activities” page at this link: https://sites.google.com/wrsd.net/wrhsstudentactivities.
- The Joe Berg Seminars Vision for the Future Home
- The Challenges
- Meeting the Challenges
- Brief History of The Joe Berg Seminars Concept
- About The Joe Berg Seminars Program
- The Joe Berg Seminars Mentorship Program
- Joe Berg Middle School Clubs
- Dissemination of The Joe Berg Seminars Concept Beyond the Local Area