The Yale Young Global Scholars program is a unique opportunity for many. High school students from all over the world stay at Yale for two-week sessions of academic enrichment. YYGS was split into four academic tracks: Literature, Philosophy & Culture; Innovations in Science & Technology; Politics of Law & Economics; and Solving Global Challenges.

For the forthcoming year, Yale has cut the humanities track, known as LPC.

As an instructor for YYGS last summer, I taught original seminars in which I advised students through the process of making a collaborative creative capstone project, and encouraged reflective and social exploration in a global setting. This program allowed eleventh and twelfth grade students from over 150 countries to experience their educational interests in a higher-level setting. Eliminating the humanities track’s unique opportunity for critical intellectual exploration sends a troubling message, especially from a university often called the “humanities Ivy.”

The only cause YYGS cited for the cut is to “increase seats in our remaining tracks.” Though the reasoning remains opaque, the decision reflects how society’s focus on education as a means to a financial end in a dismal job market has impacted both student and institutional decisions.

While it’s true that students have been increasingly shifting towards STEM degrees due to more promising job opportunities, Yale of all institutions should know the persistent importance of humanities careers and of humanities skills for life outside of jobs. Considering YYGS is for intellectual enrichment and not for credit, YYGS is the perfect opportunity to engage in the humanities regardless of where students end up in their careers.

Yale is a school many students look to, trusting Yale still knows the value of investing in the humanities. Many enroll specifically because of its strong humanities programs. It’s worth noting that this year’s reunion for past participants in YYGS who now attend Yale was, anecdotally, almost entirely made up of former LPC students.

The freedom of the LPC’s project-based style was profound for my students as it ushered them into an academic environment that went beyond perfunctory high school regurgitation — they worked in groups of unfamiliar peers making an imaginative project that gave analytical commentary on a given topic.

I had a group that made a video where each of them reflected on experiences where they’d felt “outside of the circle” and what they’d learned about themselves in the process. While in progress, they expressed embarrassment and nervousness about their project; but after presenting, many in the audience thanked them for their vulnerability, identifying with sentiments the project expressed. The students told me afterward that they felt much more confident in themselves, in being creative and in being sincere.

I know what it is like to be a high schooler interested in the humanities, disheartened by the lack of opportunities and appreciation for my interests. The average high schooler’s exposure to humanities differs significantly from what can be found in higher education. It’s easy to believe that learning history is useless when all you have ever been taught in history classes were seemingly insignificant facts.

These kids were starved for the humanities. Very few high schools offer classes where they get to think critically about the history, art and culture of their lives and world. Very few high schools teach how to think about the implications of historical changes and trends on the lives of people like us, and how the threads of history have shaped everything about the world around us.

If we do not give students the opportunity to ask the important questions through their education, how can we blame them for treating education like a passionless tool? Students everywhere receive so much pressure to direct their intellectual interests towards profit.

I’ve seen so many of my peers following instructions to “go into computer science, study economics, look at the degrees with the highest return on investment” as if education is only a transaction, and not part of our journey of exploration throughout our one human life. Through YYGS, not only did my students get to see what it’s like to have a career in the humanities, they also learned what it means to incorporate humanities and critical thinking into their engagement with the world in everyday life.

Yale, out of all prominent universities, should know what’s at stake. It is Yale’s responsibility to have a role in preserving vulnerable studies. In a country where critical thinking and social studies have been under attack for years, what hope are we giving future generations to invest in understanding themselves and the world’s cultures, history and art? If even Yale is telling high schoolers that their academic interests in the humanities have no place, what hope do they have?

MELANIE TROTOCHAUD is a master’s student at Yale Divinity School studying Religion and the Arts. She can be reached at melanie.trotochaud@yale.edu.