Our Vision

Preserving Hamilton's Legacy – Energizing Tomorrow's Leaders

Alexander Hamilton spent his entire life trying to make America's governmental, legal and economic systems function. His successes resulted in a thriving new democracy: the United States of America. This America is Hamilton's monument and his greatest legacy. Therefore, to preserve Hamilton's legacy our task at Hamilton Friends is clear: to help create leaders capable of maintaining the United States as the greatest democracy the world has ever known.

Our Mission

The mission of the Alexander Hamilton Friends Association is derived directly from our vision. It is to identify young Americans with the qualities of Alexander Hamilton – high achievers with a strong sense of purpose, integrity and a passion for service – and, through practical training programs, internship experiences and financial assistance, help them more fully achieve their potential. Eventually, we want all those whom we identify and train to emerge from college launched in a career field of their choice without the burden of student debt.
 
Identify – Each year we identify up to 100 high-achieving, service-oriented high school juniors who receive the Alexander Hamilton Citizenship Achievement Award. Twenty-five of our winners receive gold awards, another 25 receive silver awards and 50 are awarded merit certificates. The gold award winners and a select number of the silver winners are invited to participate in our extensive 4 year Hamilton Scholars training program.

Hamilton Scholars Practical Training Programs - Our gold and selected silver Hamilton Award winners are enrolled in our Hamilton Scholars training program. Hamilton Scholars is an educational program that focuses on personal vision, goal setting, leadership and practical skills for college and the workplace. The program is currently two years in length, but our plans call for expansion to four years in the future. Each academic year of training ends in an intensive week of leadership training called the Hamilton Leaders Academy.

Internship Experiences – Our philosophy at Hamilton Friends is that internships should be paid work experiences that move students along their chosen career path. We are piloting an internship program with the New-York Historical Society in New York City. This program is designed as a general internship program to enable students to obtain professional work experiences in New York for an eight-week period between the freshman and sophomore year of college. Future internship programs will be tailored to individual needs and will be offered across the country.

Financial Assistance – One of our long term objectives is to see all of our award winners emerge from college debt-free and launched in careers of their choice unencumbered with student loans. Hamilton Award gold and silver winners receive $500 and $250 scholarships, respectively. These funds are intended to help students pay for the costs of college applications, campus visits and related expenses. In addition we help our Hamilton Scholars students find scholarships they might otherwise not identify. As our organization grows we intend to provide financial assistance to all our winners who need it. That goal, however, is several years away.