I learned that William and Mary was a college in Virginia when I was sixteen. I had all the American presidents memorized and I applied to the Pre-Collegiate Program in Early American History because I wanted to add anything at all to my resumé and was already panicking about not getting into college. Over three weeks, high school students explore historic sites in pursuit of English settlement, Revolutionary War, and Civil War histories in Virginia; here, Virginia’s history as a distinctly Southern society is told as American history writ large. I fell hard for William and Mary. Without a doubt, NIAHD handed me my alma mater. 

As an undergraduate and MA student, I returned to NIAHD as a residential program assistant, chasing high school students in and out of dorms. This year marks my second year as a full instructor of a small seminar of nine high school students. We visit the same sites, discuss the same (and some new!) readings, and work to write well together.

www.wm.edu/as/niahd/