Student Spotlight – Summer Haura, Hertog Fellow
University of Florida student Summer Haura, a third-year double major in philosophy and biochemistry with a certificate in ethics and society, was named a 2025 Humanities at Hertog Fellow.
This summer, Haura was one of only 32 students selected from more than 900 applicants nationwide for Hertog’s flagship six-week Political Studies Program in Washington, D.C. The highly selective fellowship provides housing, a stipend and a rigorous schedule of daily seminars, guest lectures and excursions.
Haura’s days included three hours of seminars each morning, guest speakers over lunch, and afternoon excursions to sites like the U.S. Capitol and Roosevelt Island. She studied texts from Plato’s Gorgias and Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus to de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, guided by faculty including Kevin Kambo, Shiloh Brooks, Ryan Hanley, Daniel Burns, Charles Fain Lehman and Jakub Grygiel. Prominent speakers such as Robbie George, Yuval Levin and Harvey Mansfield also joined the program.
“One of my favorite parts of Hertog was engaging with articulate peers in a small group setting to analyze complex texts,” Haura said. “They challenged me in ways that truly helped me grow both as an intellectual and as a person.” She also noted how the diversity of teaching approaches pushed her to refine how she expressed her ideas.
Haura credited UF’s Hamilton School Society of Fellows with preparing her for Hertog. Weekly SOF seminars on works like Milton’s Paradise Lost, Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Eliot’s The Waste Land trained her to manage heavy reading loads and contribute meaningfully to discussions. “Because of SOF, hundreds of pages of weekly reading didn’t feel daunting, and three hours of daily dialogue at Hertog felt exciting. That foundation allowed me not just to engage with the texts, but to thrive in a lively and challenging environment.”
Dr. Ingram, director of the Society of Fellows, added: “Our goal is to prepare students to grapple with great texts in a way that builds intellectual confidence. Summer’s success at Hertog shows how this training equips students for prestigious opportunities and beyond.”
At UF, Haura is active in Hamilton’s Focus on Fiction Reading Group, competes with the UF Ethics Case Competition Team and has shadowed at Shands Hospital. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy and a career in bioethics.
Haura now joins the ranks of notable Hertog alumni, representing the program’s role in shaping future leaders in political thought.
