Virginia is so wealthy with historical past, it’s troublesome to get a full understanding of the state’s roots. However college students attending William & Mary’s Nationwide Institute of American Historical past & Democracy (NIAHD) summer time periods get an incomparable have a look at regional historical past by a hands-on method.
NIAHD simply accomplished its summer time 2025 pre-college program, which noticed elevated enrollment over the prior two years. This system hosted two periods by June and July, offering highschool college students with an interactive and immersive studying expertise on the American Revolution and the Civil Battle.
Of almost 200 college students who utilized to this system, 108 college students took half on this 12 months’s periods, a cohort made up of Virginia residents, out-of-state college students and worldwide college students starting from Turkey to China and together with the UK and the Republic of Eire.
“We’re actually gratified to have so many worldwide college students this 12 months,” mentioned Robyn Schroeder, assistant director of NIAHD, noting that it’s a brand new document for the institute. “(It) displays our core worth, that the historical past right here is for everybody. As an teacher, I can hear college students enthusiastic about the which means of spiritual freedom, legacies of slavery and the way buildings and landscapes mirror and form an entire tradition.”
As an alternative of lectures or prolonged textbooks to elucidate occasions that occurred round Williamsburg and Richmond, individuals have direct entry to discover buildings and landscapes whereas listening to from leaders in public historical past, together with archaeologists, historians and curators.
Along with this unique entry, college students who attend the pre-college program earn school credit for the work accomplished over the three-week session.
This system total aligns with the Democracy Initiative, a part of Imaginative and prescient 2026, with William & Mary main efforts to observe and promote democratic beliefs within the pursuit of a extra excellent union.
A rising neighborhood
NIAHD is a small however mighty institute, with every program using 5 full-time instructors and eight to 9 residential instructing assistants who’re often William & Mary college students. The institute is a part of the Harrison Ruffin Tyler Division of Historical past, using the division’s tutorial power because the institute began in 2002 in partnership with Colonial Williamsburg.
That is the twenty third 12 months that NIAHD has welcomed highschool college students to William & Mary. To this point, the institute has had 2,395 college students attend this system, with this 12 months’s cohort including to an enthusiastic and curious alumni neighborhood.
“It’s really superb to see former college students work together with our present college students and so they share their ardour for historical past and data of the previous,” mentioned Julie Richter, director of NIAHD.
Some alumni of NIAHD go off to work at museums and historic websites, together with a few of this summer time’s web site visits.
“It’s significant to present college students to see folks shut in age as professionals who assist others to study historical past,” she added.
Enrollment on this 12 months’s program was up 25% over the previous two years, reflecting an enthusiasm from college students in regards to the worth of finding out historical past at this second and William & Mary’s fame as a nationally preeminent establishment.
“These college students have a collective sense of curiosity and a want to be taught in regards to the complexities of the previous,” mentioned Richter. “They wish to take into consideration greater than what they learn in textbooks. Additionally they wish to discuss in regards to the previous and attempt to perceive how the previous occasions proceed to form our nation in 2025.”
A spot-based historical past method
Spencer Celente, a highschool junior based mostly in New York, heard about this system from his grandmother, a Williamsburg native. With an curiosity in majoring in historical past or worldwide relations in school, Celente determined this system can be price pursuing and despatched in his utility.
What he skilled exceeded his expectations. Collaborating within the second session, which lined the Civil Battle and American independence, he was capable of discover places tied to class lectures and studying work, going to the state capitol in Richmond someday and the Westover Plantation on one other.
“It was actually informative to do these readings beforehand,” Celente mentioned. “You’d be studying in regards to the capitol prior and the way the entire design is influenced by beliefs of freedom and democracy. You then’d go and truly see and perceive what the studying was speaking about.”
The session tour of the capitol targeted closely on Thomas Jefferson’s private challenge to make Richmond the brand new capital of the Commonwealth as an alternative of Williamsburg. Feeling that Williamsburg was nonetheless influenced by British authorities, Jefferson tried to create “a temple of justice and freedom,” in Richmond, the place Celente walked round and heard extra about governance.
Some of the impactful places Celente visited throughout his session was the Nice Dismal Swamp in Southeast Virginia. As a part of the primary group in NIAHD’s historical past to go to the swamp, Celente felt the speedy impression of the world as quickly as he stepped out of the van.
“You felt that it was impenetrable,” he mentioned. “You just about couldn’t get out. Nobody may discover you there.”
As he realized, the swamp performed a big position within the revolutionary period, with enslaved folks utilizing it as a refuge and establishing marooning communities to flee re-enslavement within the South.
“It was fairly fascinating to see that folks have been truly capable of make a residing in there and get away from the system of slavery that Virginia had on the time,” Celente added. “That’s undoubtedly one thing you’re not going to examine in your historical past textbook.”
All through the three-week session, Celente felt he acquired high quality instruction, and van journeys allowed for bonding among the many cohort. On account of this program, he mentioned he and different members of this system have been contemplating William & Mary after highschool.
Ought to purposes and curiosity proceed to extend, Richter mentioned that NIAHD would make plans to extend enrollment and add further programs to summer time periods. Richter and Schroeder are desirous to see their alumni develop and hope to develop upon pre-college college students’ curiosity for historical past, particularly because the nation prepares to mark its semiquincentennial subsequent 12 months.
“This manner of doing historical past is totally distinctive to William & Mary,” mentioned Schroeder. “It displays the standard and density of native heritage and the methods it could communicate to the nation and the world over.”
William Oster, Communications Specialist
