About the Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars
Members of Jacksonville’s Southside Kiwanis Club brought the Joe Berg Seminars concept to Jacksonville after hearing about it in a presentation on the Joe Berg program, possibly by Jacob W. Shapiro, at a Kiwanis International Convention in Chicago in 1958. The Southside Kiwanis Club introduced the concept to the Duval County School Board, and the school board adopted it, but broadened the reach of the program by offering the seminars without the post-seminar mentoring in the original Joe Berg Foundation design. This made it possible for gifted students from multiple schools to attend seminars presented at a single location, rather than having multiple seminars at each school. The program, known then as the Joe Berg Society, was launched in 1960 with a Science Seminar series. Students were nominated by their teachers and guidance counselors and tested for admission into the two-year program in the fall of their sophomore year, and newly admitted Joe Berg Scholars began attending seminars in the spring of their sophomore year. They continued attending seminars, with summers off, through the fall of their senior year. In the spring of their senior year, the Southside Kiwanis Club held a graduation banquet for the Scholars. The success and popularity of the program led to a Humanities Seminar series being introduced alongside the Science series in 1963.
Support for the program came from the Duval County School Board and the Southside Kiwanis Club until 2000, when the University of North Florida (UNF) took over. In 2008, cuts in the state university system budget due to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 meant that UNF was no longer able to provide financial support, but facilities support continued. Since 2008, our financial support has come from individual and corporate donations to our tax-exempt UNF Foundation account.
Today, the Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars still invites nominations from teachers and guidance counselors and tests students for entry in the fall of their sophomore year. Each year we admit up to 100 Joe Berg Scholars, who choose at the time of testing to join either the Science seminar track or the Humanities seminar track. In February the new sophomore class joins the existing junior class (Scholars who are in their senior year have already graduated from the program). By this time, the junior class has dropped by about 20% because Scholars must maintain a certain level of seminar attendance to remain in the program. Each February therefore finds up to about 180 Scholars in the program, usually coming from 16-18 different schools. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Scholars were required to perform a minimum number of hours of community service during their junior year. This requirement was put on pause due to the pandemic but will be reinstated. By the time Scholars graduate they have attended 20 to 28 hour-and-a-half-long college-level seminars in a variety of subjects in the fields of science or humanities.
The Jacksonville community has been and continues to be very generous to the Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars and our Scholars. Excellent speakers are eager to share their fields with these bright young people for no financial compensation, local organizations host site tours gratis, and speakers, parents, and organizations provide financial support when they are able. The Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars will be a fundamental part of our new vision for the Joe Berg Seminars.
Support for the program came from the Duval County School Board and the Southside Kiwanis Club until 2000, when the University of North Florida (UNF) took over. In 2008, cuts in the state university system budget due to the financial crisis of 2007-2008 meant that UNF was no longer able to provide financial support, but facilities support continued. Since 2008, our financial support has come from individual and corporate donations to our tax-exempt UNF Foundation account.
Today, the Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars still invites nominations from teachers and guidance counselors and tests students for entry in the fall of their sophomore year. Each year we admit up to 100 Joe Berg Scholars, who choose at the time of testing to join either the Science seminar track or the Humanities seminar track. In February the new sophomore class joins the existing junior class (Scholars who are in their senior year have already graduated from the program). By this time, the junior class has dropped by about 20% because Scholars must maintain a certain level of seminar attendance to remain in the program. Each February therefore finds up to about 180 Scholars in the program, usually coming from 16-18 different schools. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Scholars were required to perform a minimum number of hours of community service during their junior year. This requirement was put on pause due to the pandemic but will be reinstated. By the time Scholars graduate they have attended 20 to 28 hour-and-a-half-long college-level seminars in a variety of subjects in the fields of science or humanities.
The Jacksonville community has been and continues to be very generous to the Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars and our Scholars. Excellent speakers are eager to share their fields with these bright young people for no financial compensation, local organizations host site tours gratis, and speakers, parents, and organizations provide financial support when they are able. The Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars will be a fundamental part of our new vision for the Joe Berg Seminars.