The Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University will conduct a three-year Congressional Academy for Students American History and Civics to lead high school students in a careful study of the pivotal turning points in American history. The study will be framed around three documents that raise the most significant issues of self-government in our constitutional democracy: the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the “I Have a Dream” speech. Participating students will spend two weeks in Washington, DC and takes two day trips—one to Philadelphia and the other one to Gettysburg to study the American Revolution and Founding, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement. The program will expose participants to the ideas and arguments that shaped these three great American epochs, the documents that make up our history, and the places where the history was made. One hundred students, a boy and girl from every state, will be selected each year.