Last modified: Friday, January 11, 2008 12:58 AM EST Ph.D. in training BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF NORTON - Life as an English professor may seem mundane, but a new three-year, $430,000 grant to Wheaton College hopes to prove otherwise. In June, Wheaton will invite 12 junior English majors from around the country to a four-week national institute on becoming a Ph.D. in English. Call it English Professor 101, if you will. Its formal name is the Summer Institute in Literary and Cultural Studies. The students will get a crash course in the vocabulary, the materials and the life of someone with a doctorate in English, Wheaton English professor Paula Krebs said. The goal is to increase diversity among college and university faculty members teaching English. The sciences have a similar program, said Krebs, the institute director. "People don't understand what an English professor does," she said. "They understand what a lawyer does." The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant is renewable after it expires, Krebs said. The 12 undergraduates will each get a $2,500 stipend and will stay in the Wheaton dormitories, she said. The program will cost the students nothing. The program grew out of work by a college English teachers group focused on African Americans in their field, Krebs said. "It's a cultural leap when a child says, 'I want to go to school for eight more years. I want to get a Ph.D. I want to be a college professor,'" she said. The students will spend about three hours each morning in the classroom reading about theory and learning about "the language of the profession," Krebs said. "There's a certain sophisticated vocabulary they need to learn," she said. "They need to see themselves as entering into an ongoing conversation." Two graduate students will help the 12 undergraduates with their writing, individually and in groups. Each student will bring an undergraduate English essay, which they will revise into a graduate school admission writing sample. At least three lectures each week from professionals from around the country will introduce the 12 students to research specialties, as well as "how you can have a family and have a professional life," Krebs said. Students will take two field trips each week to explore top archives and other research sites, such as Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research. The Yale Center for British Art has invited the Wheaton program as well, Krebs said. "I want students to understand the relationship between the different humanities," she said. A mentor from a different college will help each student through the graduate school application process. Students will reunite annually at conferences of the Modern Language Association and the College Language Association. Students will not be required to return their stipend if they choose not to attend graduate school, Krebs said. However, "if they think that's a fun thing to do for a month, we're halfway there," she said. MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.