OPL’s Ben Franklin Circles is meeting on Monday, January 8th at 1pm.
Ben Franklin created the Junto Club in 1727, when he was just 21 years old. The club was made of himself and 11 other tradesman and artisans. The club met every Friday to discuss morals, politics, natural philosophy, self-improvement, and networking. They created the first lending library, the Union Fire company, University of Pennsylvania, volunteer militia, and paved the way for a neighborhood watch funded by property taxes.
In 2016, the 92nd Street Y in New York, along with Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Citizen University, revived the Junto Club, paired it with Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues for self-improvement, and created Ben Franklin Circles.
“Ben Franklin Circles provide the space for diverse individuals to come together to corm deep emotion connections that build character, strengthen community bonds and civic engagement, and inspire empathy among individuals.”
