Why This Class

As important as it is for your student to understand life in other cultures, you also want them to know the story of where we’ve come from here in the United States. This course helps students understand the challenges America has overcome through the concept of citizen scholarship.

Students in this course travel back in time through projects, simulations, and debates to recreate some of the critical events that have defined U.S. history. Specifically, mentors help students explore the stories of America’s founders, showing how their lives as scholars enabled them to shape and influence our country in dramatically positive ways. The semester ends with a summit project in which students present what they’ve learned from this process to a live audience of classmates, parents, and guests.

By the end of this course, students appreciate the history and challenges of the United States, actively set goals for themselves as citizen-scholars, and take action to achieve those goals.

Overarching Questions

How are citizenship and scholarship connected?

Why was scholarship so key to enabling the U.S. founders to accomplish what they did?

What kind of world do we live in now compared to the past?

Why are local histories essential to both U.S. history and my history?

What key events from the past shaped the course of the U.S.?