In late June 2025, Dwight Hall’s doors opened to a vibrant cohort of 48 students aged 10 to 14 who chose to spend their summer learning under the tutelage of the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation.
The program, also known as U.S. Grant, employs Yale undergraduates as teachers for six weeks, during which they create, design, and teach their own curricula on topics of their choice for students inside Dwight Hall.
U.S. Grant makes education accessible to local New Haven students from public and parochial schools through its generous cost model. The program is offered to families for a total of $75, with full scholarships available. The fee includes tuition, field trip transportation , and lunches provided by the State of Connecticut. The program has kept its pricing consistent to ensure that financial constraints do not hinder students from accessing the opportunities that U.S. Grant provides.
This year, the two co-directors, Jenelle Burgess ’26 and Steven Rourick ’27, led a teaching team that included Vimbisai Basvi ’25, Gaya Buchta ’27, Stella Choi ’26, Sophia Eno ’27, and Kai Padilla-Smith ’25.
Core courses offered a variety of engaging subjects, ranging from math challenges and creative writing to more specialized topics such as coding, the world of art, and even artificial intelligence. Electives, on the other hand, allowed students to branch out into their specific interests with courses such as writing a pop song, inventing a language, and letter writing.
For Jenelle, the experience reflected her connection and dedication to the New Haven community. Jenelle grew up in New York, where there is a wide variety of individuals, immigrants, and communities of color. Coming into New Haven and starting at Yale, Jenelle observed a stark “dichotomy between [Yale’s] campus and New Haven,” which spurred her to connect with the local community. From setting up local exhibitions for Black artists in the area to engaging with New Haven students through this program, Jenelle stated that her experiences in New Haven have profoundly shaped her as a person.
Fellow co-director Steven echoed Jenelle’s sentiments and described his own desire to pursue public service and education from an early age. Steven stated that prior to Yale, he had always wanted to become an educator. When he learned about U.S. Grant, he jumped at the opportunity to engage with Dwight Hall and to work directly with the younger generation. While he is unsure of what the future holds, he is “incredibly gratified” that he had the opportunity to participate in U.S. Grant, since it has been a “lifelong dream” of his.
During the program, students had opportunities to feel appreciated by their classmates, from t-shirt design contests to creating poetry they could share with their class. When students engaged with one another, they were “beaming” with excitement and laughter.
When asked about the experience of teaching a class, Vimbisai Basvi recalled that seeing the “curiosity of these students was infectious.” Vimbisai noted that she came from a family of teachers, yet had never pursued teaching herself until she encountered the U.S. Grant program. During the program, she taught a course where students learned about conditionals, Scratch, logic, and the fundamentals of computer programming. “It taught me to be less intimidated to teach,” she recalled, as students eagerly took the initiative to learn and enjoyed the coding process throughout the program.
Vimbisai reflected on a moment in the program where she tasked students at the end of the day to debug a particularly challenging piece of code that required teamwork to solve. Although they did not finish in class, what was “inspiring,” she said, was that the students took the assignment home with them, and by the next morning they had already solved the problem.
As the program came to a close, the directors and teachers recalled fond memories of students creating group chats to stay in touch and hugging one another as they left. To these students, U.S. Grant was more than just an educational space. It was a place where the strength of the local New Haven community was highlighted and where they could build lasting connections with other curious minds.
The U.S. Grant program culminated with spirit week, and the celebration of students’ final projects developed within the classes they took.
The U.S. Grant program embodies the Advance pillar of the organization’s Engage, Grow, and Advance model, which supports collaborative projects and incubates innovative solutions that bring about lasting change in New Haven and communities nationwide.
To learn more about the U.S. Grant program and get involved, click here.
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