The Ashbrook Center is enjoying unprecedented growth! There are more young people in our undergraduate program, more teachers studying with us in our master’s program, and more high school students being impacted in their classrooms across our nation.
Because of the support of our generous donors, the Ashbrook Center has become the leading national educator in strengthening constitutional self-government. Ashbrook teaches students and teachers across our country what America is and what America represents in the long history of the world.
The Ashbrook Center at Ashland University was among the first of a new breed of academic centers, and it is certainly one of the most successful. We are governed by our own board and raise all of our own funds. This independence enables us to identify needs and design programs to meet these needs without traversing the usual university bureaucracy.
Our programs have expanded in reach, in prestige, and in content. And the students – who range from middle school to experienced educators – continue to say they want more.
They come for a view of history that recognizes the awe-inspiring magnificence of the American experiment. They come for scholarship that challenges their preconceptions, yet affirms their love of liberty. They come to learn from top-notch, engaged faculty, the primary-source documents that bear witness to America’s essential greatness, and perhaps most importantly, they come to learn from each other.
The Ashbrook Scholar program, a rigorous undergraduate program for students at Ashland University, began with 14 eager undergrads in 1984. Today, there are 119 Ashbrook Scholars enrolled. Ashbrook Scholars study the best that has been thought and done in the hope of understanding what is good and noble and just. The students fully participate in this unique challenge that will leave them with a deep appreciation of freedom lasting a lifetime.
The Master of Arts in American History and Government program, the only program of its kind in America designed specifically for middle and high school teachers, has grown from a few dozen students in 2005 to more than 330 last year. These teachers tell us that they have chosen our program because of the emphasis on studying the substance of history rather than on learning the methods of teaching. Teachers travel here from all 50 states then return to their classrooms to teach more than 270,000 middle and high school students each year. Over the course of their careers, these teachers will impact more than 5.4 million students in communities across the country!
Experts tell us fewer than half of our high school students understand our history on even a basic level. A country that doesn’t understand and embrace its history is in danger of losing not just a sense of its past but a key element of its identity and national pride.
The programs at Ashbrook can’t reach every high school student. But every year more than 270,000 – and this number grows every year – are learning about American history as we believe it should be taught. These young people will go on to lead our country with a sense of pride in our country’s accomplishments, a trust in American exceptionalism, and a knowledge of the extraordinary essential rightness of the American dream.
With your help, we can shape the future of America. Please consider a donation today.