Five students gathered in a Princeton University classroom this summer to listen intently to different renditions of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Then they considered other kinds of anthems, including a Sonia Sanchez poem that connected and lamented atrocities around the world, including the civil wars in the United States and Rwanda. The poem repeated “we the people” in one of its stanzas, evoking the U.S. Constitution.

“When it comes to anthems, where do we fit in?” asked teacher Jalylah Burrell, a doctoral candidate at Yale. “How do we reconcile the ‘we’ with the ‘me’?”

It’s heady stuff even for college students — but the five in Burrell’s seminar were all New York high school students, there to participate in the W.E.B. DuBois Scholars Institute.

“It has opened my perspective on many things,” said Camois, 16, a junior at Bronx Compass HS in Castle Hill. “It made me rethink the foundation I set myself on and made me open to other opinions.”

He was one of four New York City public school students who received UFT scholarships covering tuition and room and board for this year’s summer institute, which ran from June 27 to Aug. 1.

“The institute fosters the kind of dialogue and critical thinking about society that are part of the DuBois legacy,” said UFT Vice President Karen Alford.

Admission is based on grade point average, leadership potential and other factors. All students come from families and communities that have experienced “historical barriers to achievement and opportunity,” according to the institute’s mission statement.

The W.E.B. DuBois Scholars Institute also has an academy for middle school students entering 8th and 9th grades, and they, too, are taught college-level work by teachers who are doctoral candidates at top-flight universities.

For Denva, who will enter 8th grade at IS 392 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the fall, the experience of reading excerpts from “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander was an eye-opener. “Our discussion touched on police brutality and unemployment, but we didn’t take it at face value,” he said. “We also asked, ‘What’s the history behind this?’”

Britney, one of Denva’s classmates at both IS 392 and the institute, said the experience heightened her awareness about structural racism and social media’s influence on the African American image. She said having fellow students with similar backgrounds to hers made a difference. “We relate to each other and that gave me more confidence to speak about my experience,” she said.

Camois thought about aspects of the institute experience he would like to bring back to Bronx Compass HS. “I want to bring questions to students about where they come from and where they’re going,” he said. “I want them to think long range.”