Jennifer Bero - Hebrew Studies, Archeology

Bero was attracted to the Great Books Program because of its dual emphasis on mathematics and literature, studies which she feels are equally necessary. She values advanced mathematics because of her love of optics:

"Optics interests me because it forces you to look at the world in a different way. Instead of just looking at an individual thing, a book or a door, you're looking at the light that is coming from it. And I think that Classics works in the same way. Like Socrates - he doesn't take for granted a familiar word like piety. He analyzes it and tries to to find the characteristics of piety versus impiety and I think that helps in using your mind: not just to see a door but to figure out out what is actually going on. If you can't explain the very basic and very simplest parts of what you're trying to understand, making complex ideas about it is useless."