Hamilton Leaders Academy Programs

The Hamilton Friends Association selects its students through the Hamilton Citizenship Achievement Award. This award seeks out high school juniors from all across the country who have the characteristics of Alexander Hamilton: talented, highly motivated, service-minded.

The winners of our award become eligible to participate in the Hamilton Leaders Academy. The Hamilton Leaders Academy is a four year program that provides students with the training they need to excel in college and beyond. Each year of the curriculum is concluded with a summer “Leader Week,” a condensed week of leadership and life skill training. Whether our students are in high school or college, each year of curriculum and each leader week are tailored specifically to help students deal with the challenges they are facing. Also included in the Hamilton Leaders Academy is a paid internship program designed to help students discover their career path and get the organizational experience they need to succeed in the working world.

First Year

Our first year begins with conference calls hosted by college admissions professionals and discusses the college search, the college essay and the college application. We also provide each student with individual assistance on the college admissions process.

In addition to assistance with college entrance, our first year curriculum also focuses on helping students to identify their core values and teaches them how to use those values to create a vision statement that will guide them as they make tough choices about college and career.

The first year ends with a week of leadership training in Seattle. We give the students the opportunity to explore various career routes and to listen to successful professionals talk about the varied paths they have taken to get to their positions. Most importantly, we work intensively with students to design goals that will help them explore their opportunities and achieve their vision. With the skills learned at the Leader Week, students begin their first year of college with an idea of where they want to go and what they need to do to get there.

Second Year

The second year of the program begins during the students’ first year of college. In this academic year, we focus more on technical skills such as personal budgeting and time management. We believe that effective time management and debt avoidance are essential to the success of college students.

The Second year ends with an international volunteer experience through Cross-Cultural Solutions in Guatemala. This experience is meant to expand students’ worldview and to expose them to a global perspective. The days are spent volunteering and learning about Guatemalan Culture and the evenings are spent reflecting on their experience and how it can help them be a better leader.

During the trip our curriculum also returns to our program mainstay—vision and goal setting. Students are given guidance as they look back at the goals they set for themselves in Seattle and discuss with one another what changed and what they have learned over the past year. Lastly, they have time to set new goals for themselves, goals that align with their new priorities.

Prospective Third and Fourth Years

We expect that year three will focus on goal realization, workplace skills and navigating various organizational cultures. The fourth year will focus on college end issues such as resume prep, grad school selection, future studies and career exploration. The third and fourth years of the program have not yet been fully developed; however, Hamilton Friends will tailor these years to meet the needs of the students during their sophomore and junior years of college.

Internship Program

In the summer of 2008 we piloted our Experience New York Internship Program. This program sends students to New York between their freshman and sophomore years in college. These paid internships are meant to give the students some general work experience that will both help them gain real-world skills and give them the opportunity to explore their professional interests more fully.

In addition to providing the students with internship placement and housing, Hamilton Friends also organizes supplemental internship workshops to help the students process what they were learning at their placement. Organized and designed by Alexis Cox, Hamilton Board of Advisors Member and Director of Program Development, these workshops are interactive discussions meant to teach students how they can use their internship to develop their organizational and leadership skills.
                                            
In 2009, we were able to offer this opportunity to six students in conjunction with the New-York Historical Society and Lumus Construction. As the program grows we hope to be able to offer an internship opportunity to all our Hamilton Scholars.

In the future we also want to offer our students more interest-focused internships in their later years of college so that they have the opportunity to get experience in their specific field of interest.