Read Well, Live Well
Pursuing the Good Life Together through Great Books
At Torrey Honors, we believe that reading well helps us live well. Read Well, Live Well is a free, pre-college summer seminar for incoming high school seniors from underserved communities in the greater Los Angeles area. Through transformative texts, deep discussions and engaging field trips with Torrey Honors professors, Read Well, Live Well scholars explore how great thinkers from the past speak powerfully into contemporary conversations and are equipped to make a difference in their communities.
Program Overview
Read Well, Live Well is a free, two-week summer seminar designed to prepare incoming high school seniors from underserved communities to attend college and to wrestle with big questions about justice, democracy, education and what it means to live well as members of a community.
Read Well, Live Well scholars receive an immersive college-style experience, including:
- Living in a dorm on Biola's campus and eating at Café Biola.
- Reading transformative texts by great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Frederick Douglass, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Discussing big questions in small groups led by Torrey Honors professors.
- Exploring inspiring Los Angeles civic and cultural sites such as the Getty Center, the Griffith Observatory and a live Shakespeare performance.
- Practicing college-level writing with help from college mentors.
- Participating in practical workshops on navigating the college application process, and developing skills and strategies to succeed in college and beyond.
Following the summer, Read Well, Live Well scholars will meet regularly during the school year for additional thought-provoking events with Torrey Honors professors and for free assistance in applying for college, locating relevant scholarships and succeeding in college and future endeavors.
“Through a carefully crafted curriculum, I had the opportunity to read a diverse selection of texts and engage in meaningful discussion with my peers in order to address the challenging yet critical questions that society faces today. The welcoming community at Read Well, Live Well makes it easy to not just make friends, but to have the willingness to listen and learn from one another as well. Moreover, with aspirations of becoming a first-generation college student, having access to resources like college advising and exposure to university life helped immensely in increasing my awareness about the opportunities available in higher education and the road to get there. My time at camp was easily the favorite part of my summer, and I still find myself looking back at the fun memories I was able to create with everyone there.”
"Read Well, Live Well is an amazing summer program that challenged me academically and helped me feel confident in the college process. I loved having complex discussions and seeing new perspectives, and the workshops prepared me for tackling my college essays and what I should expect in college. I rapidly became friends with the other students through field trips and activities like the beach day, s’mores night, and playing capture the flag across campus."
“The Read Well, Live Well program far surpasses all of its prospective benefits. Though the lessons you learn through this rigorous program are advantageous—it is not just the pure understandings of philosophers, activists, and scholars that are of considerable merit—but the beautiful, unplanned, organic life lessons. Although this camp constituted 0.002% of my life, the lessons of friendship, faith, open-mindedness, and pursuit of knowledge will stay within me forever and help cultivate further wisdom as I pursue my education.”
“We are blessed to partner with Read Well, Live Well. The urban inner city youth that we serve need opportunities and programs like these to remove the barriers that exist in their lives. These barriers often block their access to higher education. Educational opportunities like these assist to change the narratives of our young people. This immersive experience helps to reshape their perspective and it offers them a fresh vision for their future. We are HUGE supporters of the program and recommend it to everyone!”
“The pandemic shined a massive light on the century-long issue of educational inequity amongst under-resourced communities of color. Torrey Honors' Read Well, Live Well program is utilizing an immersive, relationally centered, academic experience to help increase opportunity for students who may not originally have had access. Torrey Honors sought out our students and Solidarity is so grateful to increase the opportunity for educational enrichment for the neighborhood through such an intentional and needed program like Read Well, Live Well.”
Program Benefits
For the two-week summer program, every Read Well, Live Well scholar receives:
- Free tuition, room and board
- Free books
- Free t-shirt
- Free field trips and lectures by guest speakers
- Free mentorship by Torrey Honors professors and students
- Free help applying to colleges, finding scholarships to pay for college, strategies for succeeding in college and lessons in leadership development.
Students who successfully complete the two weeks will earn a letter of recommendation from a Torrey Honors professor to accompany their college applications.
I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.
Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.
I don't study to know more, but to ignore less.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
How to Apply
High-achieving, current high school juniors in the greater Los Angeles area who are curious, hard-working, and open to sharing their ideas are encouraged to apply!
Read Well, Live Well is an intellectually rigorous program, and students should expect to read, discuss, and write intensively. Preference will be given to students from low-income households, underrepresented groups and/or who will be the first generation in their families to attend college.
Application Deadline
April 1, 2025
Program Dates
July 6–19, 2025
About the Program
The Read Well, Live Well program is run by the Torrey Honors College and funded by the Teagle Foundation’s Knowledge for Freedom initiative. Other universities with Knowledge for Freedom programs include Columbia University, Villanova University and Yale University. For more information about the program, please contact us at read.well.live.well@biola.edu.