A quiet conviction, two decades in the making.

In 2003, William Keyes believed that the most promising young men in America — regardless of zip code — deserved the same apprenticeship in ideas and institutions that the country's elite had always taken for granted. He designed a summer in Washington that married high-level professional work with a demanding curriculum on ethics, constitutional principles, and leadership.

Twenty years and 300 scholars later, that conviction has become a community. Institute alumni are Rhodes and Truman Scholars, federal judges, research physicians, pastors, entrepreneurs, and educators. Many mentor the next cohort themselves — the quiet proof that the work continues.

In 2016, we expanded with the Collegiate Institutes, extending the depth of the summer program across the academic year in five American cities. The Institute's work is now year-round, but the standard has not changed: excellence, character, and service.