Gather with fellow student writers for a week of training, coaching, and learning.
The 2024 Veritas Institute will take place at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from Tuesday, May 28th to Sunday, June 2nd, 2024.
This year's theme is “Is Human Nature Moral?" Scholars, journalists, and other Christian leaders will explore with you the craft of writing and discuss how Christianity interacts with questions about human nature.
The Veritas Institute includes opportunities to:
Students are put into writing cohorts with other student attendees to receive coaching throughout the week and form friendships with their peers in cohorts. Students meet with a top professionals to learn about crafts involved in public writing and thinking and journey through the week together.
Over the course of six days, our session speakers will explore and discuss how Christianity interacts with questions about human nature. Past speakers include Ross Andersen, Lydia Dugdale, Jennifer Herdt, L.M. Sacasas, Praveen Sethupathy, Roz Picard, Zena Hitz, Karin Öberg, Christine Emba, Miroslav Volf, Christian Miller, Tyler VanderWeele, and more!
Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Steven Harris is a faith-based public policy advocate and scholar of American religious history and African American studies. He currently serves as Senior Director of Academic Programs at the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University. Prior to arriving at Georgetown, Steven spent several years on Capitol Hill building coalitions and working on domestic and international public policy issues at the intersection of religion, justice, and human dignity. During that time, he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, and spent time in South Korea interviewing North Korean defectors on DPRK human rights violations. His most recent commentary and writing has explored the intersection of religion, race, and politics in the contemporary U.S. A Vanderbilt graduate, Steven holds an MDiv from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, an MA in religion from Yale, and an MA in religion from Harvard, where he is also a teaching fellow and PhD candidate.
Columbia University
Columbia University
Justin recently completed his dissertation from Yale University’s Department of Religious Studies, where he studies virtue ethics and political theory. He is currently a researcher in bioethics at Columbia University Medical School.
St. John's College
St. John's College
Zena Hitz is a Tutor at St. John's College in Annapolis, as well as the founder and president of the Catherine Project. She writes for general audiences about freedom, education, happiness, the decline of our institutions, faith, hope, and love. Her scholarship is in classical philosophy, especially questions about law, character, friendship, and the human good. She is the author of Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of the Intellectual Life and A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life.
Cornell University
Cornell University
Dr. Praveen Sethupathy is Professor of Physiological Genomics and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cornell University. He is also Director of the Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics. He leads a research lab focused on genome-scale and molecular approaches to understand physiology and human disease. Praveen received his BA degree from Cornell University and his PhD in Genomics from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute under the mentorship of former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, he moved in 2011 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. The same year he was selected by Genome Technology as one of the nation’s top 25 rising young investigators in genomics. In 2017, he returned to Cornell University as an Associate Professor. Praveen has authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals such as Cell and Science and has served as a reviewer for over 50 different journals. Honors include a faculty merit award for outstanding teaching and mentoring, the prestigious American Diabetes Association Pathway To Stop Diabetes Research Accelerator (which is awarded to only three people per year), and the inaugural Boehringer Ingelheim Award for Excellence in Research Mentorship. Praveen is an advocate for thoughtful discussion at the interface of science and faith and has served on the advisory board of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), serves on the Board of BioLogos, is a frequent speaker for the Veritas Forum, and a mentor in the Veritas Faculty Scholars program.
Center for Public Justice
Center for Public Justice
Stephanie Summers is the CEO of the Center for Public Justice. Ms. Summers is a co- author with Washington Post columnist Michael J. Gerson and Katie Thompson of Unleashing Opportunity: Why Escaping Poverty Requires a Shared Vision of Justice (Falls City Press). A frequent speaker and moderator, recent topics include Christian activism in Reformed Public Theology (Baker Academic) and leadership in The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement (Routledge). Ms. Summers is a recipient of the inaugural Duke Divinity Reflective Leadership Award. She received her M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Eastern University. Photo Credit: Whitney Ingram
The Center for Christianity and Public Life
The Center for Christianity and Public Life
Micheal Wear is founder, president, and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution based in the nation's capital with the mission to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. He has served as a trusted resource and advisor for a range of civic leaders on matters of faith and public life for the last fifteen years, including as a White House and presidential campaign staffer. Wear previously led Public Square Strategies, a consulting firm he founded that helps religious organizations, political organizations, businesses and others effectively navigate the rapidly changing American religious and political landscape. He is the author of "The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life," which argues that the kind of people we are has much to do with the kind of politics and public life we will have.
Writers and editors from well-known publications will lead our writing cohorts, share their expertise, and provide direct feedback to attendees. Past writing coaches include Caitrin Keiper, Samuel Matlack, B.D. McClay, Leah Libresco Sargeant, and Mene Ukueberuwa.
Freelance Writer
Freelance Writer
Tara Isabella Burton is the author of Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians and Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, as well as of the novels Social Creature and The World Cannot Give. Her third novel, Here in Avalon, was published in January 2024. She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and more, and has a doctorate in theology from Oxford.
Plough Quarterly
Plough Quarterly
Caitrin Keiper is editor-at-large of Plough and a senior editor of The New Atlantis. She was previously editor of Philanthropy and a Novak Journalism Fellow. Her articles have been published in the Weekly Standard, the American Interest, Commentary, First Things, books by Harper Collins and Templeton Press, and elsewhere. Her award-winning essay "Do Elephants Have Souls?" is available in audio and print at TheNewAtlantis.com.
The New Atlantis
The New Atlantis
Samuel Matlack is managing editor of The New Atlantis, where he writes about our technological condition and our place in the natural world.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
Mene Ukueberuwa is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. He has contributed writing on topics from the Catholic Church to tax policy and urban development. His work also has been published in National Review, First Things, The New Republic, The New Criterion, and City Journal. He holds a B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College.
We look forward to a meaningful week together as we explore the question, "Is Human Nature Moral?" Please note that this is only the current draft schedule and some of the details may change before the week begins.
More information to come.
The Veritas Institute is a week-long formation experience for students interested in being public Christian voices after college. It trains students to communicate the plausibility of religious faith in the modern world and familiarizes them with relevant professional pathways. The Veritas Institute is run by the Augustine Collective, a department at The Veritas Forum. During the Institute, students interact with Christian scholars and writers, share experiences with peers from other campuses, and experience a time of learning, training, and encouragement.
To meet, think, discuss, write, edit, and pray with fellow students from across the country? To hear from and interact with fantastic speakers? To receive direct coaching from top notch writers and editors on the crafts of public thinking and writing? To learn about professional pathways for being a public voice? To explore Washington, D.C.? Pick your reason! Whatever brings you to the Institute, we’re thrilled to have you apply.
The final schedule is still to come, but you can see the current draft schedule above. It will conclude the morning of Sunday June 2nd. The week will consist of a mix of content sessions, workshops and seminars, office hours, free write time, and field trips.
Speakers and coaches include Zena Hitz and Praveen Sethupathy with more to be announced. The theme is “Is Human Nature Moral?"
The Catholic University of America (CUA) will host this year’s Institute (as a location; the University is not otherwise engaged in sponsoring the program). The University is just a short metro ride from many of D.C.’s main attractions.
CUA is located at 620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, D.C. 20064.
This is no fee to attend, and all meals provided on site are free. Lodging at CUA (in a dorm building) is also covered. The cost to you of your travel will depend upon the following:
- If accepted students submit a reimbursement form before the travel receipts deadline (to be announced), they will receive 100% reimbursement for the cost of their primary method of travel. Travel reimbursements can be submitted at a link to be provided.
- If you do not submit your reimbursements by the travel receipt deadline, then you will be responsible for the full cost of your own travel.
Meals en route or any meals, snacks, coffee, etc not provided as part of the official schedule will not be covered.
Any souvenirs or other incidental costs you incur in D.C. will not be covered.
Please note the following transportation costs will also not be covered:
If you are flying or taking a train or bus into D.C., please plan accordingly. The metro (subway) in D.C. will be much cheaper than a taxi/Uber/Lyft. CUA is very close to the Brookland-CUA metro stop on D.C.’s red line.
You can apply for the Institute by clicking on this link
The application deadline is Monday, February 26th at 11:59 pm ET (email augustine@veritas.org to inquire about submitting a late application).
Our general expectation is that student attendees stay for the entire duration of the week. If you have any concerns about staying for the whole week, please do let us know at augustine@veritas.org and we can discuss it with you further.
If you have been accepted to the program, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your spot. At that point, you can withdraw your application if you are not able to confirm your attendance. However, if you do confirm your spot, we consider it a firm commitment that you will attend and we would strongly ask that you not cancel after that time unless for a genuine emergency.
Please note that if you do cancel for any non-emergency reasons after purchasing your travel, we will not reimburse you for any travel you purchased and we will ask you to return any money received for your travel reimbursement. Of course, if a true emergency arises, such as a medical or family situation, you should cancel and we will still reimburse your travel. Please email us at augustine@veritas.org if this situation applies to you.
In general, we would like attending students to prioritize travel options in the following order:
We are asking students to book the most affordable option available to them, but this will be on “the honor system”—we do not need to confirm the option before you purchase any tickets.
If you need to come to the conference from a location outside the U.S. or there is some other reason you expect your travel to be especially expensive, please contact us at augustine@veritas.org in order to confirm that this is possible.
- If accepted students submit a reimbursement form before the travel receipts deadline (Saturday, April 6th, 2024) then you will receive 100% reimbursement for the cost of your primary method of travel. Travel reimbursements can be submitted here.
- If you do not submit your reimbursements by the travel receipt deadline, then you will be responsible for the full cost of your own travel
Please note the following transportation costs will not be covered:
If you are flying or taking a train or bus into the D.C. airport, please plan accordingly. The metro (subway) in D.C. will be much cheaper than a taxi/Uber/Lyft. CUA is very close to the Brookland-CUA metro stop on D.C.’s red line.
We ask each student to purchase their own travel, and then submit a reimbursement before the travel receipts deadline If you are unable to front the cost of your travel, please let us know and we can purchase it for you.
The Catholic University of America (CUA) will host this year’s Institute (as a location; the University is not otherwise engaged in sponsoring the program). The University is just a short metro ride from many of D.C.’s main attractions.
Campus location: 620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20064
At CUA, you will have access to the classroom spaces we will be using and your dorm room. In addition, you will have guest access to the dining hall, the library, and a modest gym space.
Lodging will be in Opus Hall at CUA. Students will be placed in a four-bedroom suite, with each student getting his or her own bedroom. Each suite has a bathroom and a living room. A linen set (two sheets, two towels, pillow, and pillowcase) will be provided but if you would like additional bedding you can bring your own. The rooms will have WiFi access and an air conditioner unit. Free laundry machines are available on the lobby level (first floor).
If you have any questions about the lodging, feel free to be in touch.
For most of the week the dress code is dressy casual. You should also bring your own toiletries (toothpaste, shower soap or body wash, hand soap, shampoo, etc). You may also wish to bring a water bottle, a notebook, and other items you’d want for a week-long program of this kind. We will make at least one more casual trip off site, so make sure to bring some clothes for walking around as well. You will want to bring one business outfit as well.
Yes. The application for the Institute asked for this information, but if you did not provide it at that time please let us know at augustine@veritas.org.
We do not currently expect any such regulations.
The final schedule is still to come, but you can see the current draft schedule above. It will conclude on the morning of Saturday, June 10th. The week will consist of a mix of content sessions, writing workshops and seminars, office hours, free write time, and field trips.
Speakers and coaches include Zena Hitz and Praveen Sethupathy with more to be announced. The theme is "Is Human Nature Moral?"
Information to come!
Any necessary preparation, pre-work, and pre-reads will be announced to attending students.
With any questions, please email the Augustine Collective team at augustine@veritas.org.
Space is limited for this week-long training, so we encourage you to apply early.
If you have any questions, please email us at augustine@veritas.org.
Application Deadline: February 26th (email augustine@veritas.org to inquire about submitting a late application)