The Power of Good Podcast Features Clemente Grads and Faculty
May 18, 2021
The team from theA Reckoning in Boston documentary offers a powerful look behind the scenes and thoughtful reflections on the value of a humanities education.
Clemente alums Carl Chandler and Kafi Dixon join Clemente history professor and Harvard instructor Tim McCarthy for a spirited conversation on the Power of Good podcast. The episode, A Reckoning In Boston: The Growing Racial & Economic Divide In The City, takes listeners behind the scenes of the documentary, which held its New England premiere at the Boston International Film Festival and will air on PBS Independent Lens next season. And it explores what difference an engagement with the humanities in a welcoming and supportive classroom can make for students and the community.
You will live as long as your life has meaning. I embarked on this educational journey to satisfy my life’s desire to learn. This opportunity crossed my path at the right moment and is supplying me with the chance to evaluate my ability to perform on the college level with like-minded people within the veteran’s community, where a person can always find support. All of the instructors and staff are helpful! Thank you for this possibility. – George, Coast Guard, Ocean City, NJ The New Jersey Clemente Course Veterans Initiative (CCVI) launched its second cohort on September 25, 2025, welcoming twenty-four veterans from every branch of service. The cohort includes eight women; and while most come from communities across New Jersey, the course has also drawn participants from New York. Part of the wider Clemente Veterans Initiative and operating in partnership with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and Atlantic Cape Community College , the CCVI brings transformative humanities education to those who have served.
You may be familiar with Clemente's 30+ programs across the United States, but did you know that Clemente also has a long and rich history in Australia?
The Clemente Course in Worcester, MA continues to thrive through partnerships that bring the humanities to life in unexpected ways. Hosted by the Worcester Art Museum , the course benefits from inspiring classroom space and exclusive after-hours gallery tours led by Art History instructor Elissa Chase, the first of which took place in early October. A new partnership with Indigo Fire Studio in Watertown brought an especially hands-on dimension to learning this fall: the studio donated 25 pounds of clay and kiln space; and under the guidance of Mass Humanities' Sarah Carroll, students participated in a clay handbuilding class that wove together Philosophy of Art, Art History, and creative expression.
Amy Howard on how Clemente changed her life and her community.
25 years ago, The Clemente Course partnered with Illinois Humanities to offer free college-level humanities courses to low-income adults in Chicago through The Odyssey Project and Proyecto Odisea . Clemente Executive Director, Dr. Aaron Rosen, recently joined Dulce Maria Diaz (Odyssey Project alumna and founder of the SHE Gallery ) and Dr. Rebecca Amato (Director of Teaching and Learning, Illinois Humanities) on the Federation of State Humanities podcast Humanities= . In this episode, hear how this transformative program changes lives!
The Clemente Course in the Humanities is proud to announce writer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay as the first recipient of the Public Humanities Prize.