The Gilder Lehrman Institute (GLI) is pleased to offer several programs for students throughout the year, encouraging the study of American history and supporting students in their career and research goals.
If you have any questions, please email education@gilderlehrman.org.
The AP US History Study Guide provides videos, timelines, primary sources, essays, and practice questions to help students prepare for the APUSH exam.
EduHam Online helps students in grades 6–12 see the relevance of the founding era by using primary sources to create a performance piece as Lin-Manuel Miranda did in the musical Hamilton.
The Gilder Lehrman History School is a summer program of live, interactive courses taught by Gilder Lehrman master teachers.
Gilder Lehrman History U offers high school students free courses in American history.
History School Book Club is based on Book Breaks, our popular weekly book talk series with leading historians. It focuses on topics relevant to American history education and interesting to high school students.
This program features Hamilton cast members reading award-winning children’s books, followed by a teacher-led discussion of the history behind the story.
This contest, inaugurated in 2025, asks students in our Affiliate School network to creatively showcase their understanding of American history, civics, and the naturalization exam by proposing a new question for the exam. Ten prizes will be awarded, and each winning student will receive a $500 prize and be featured on the Citizenship Test: Civics and American History webpage. Ten prizes will be awarded.
This prize allows Affiliate School teachers to honor a promising and passionate history student in their school.
High school students attending schools in our Affiliate School Program are eligible for the David McCullough Essay Prizes, which offer $25,000 in prizes for outstanding student writing. Students can submit an original research essay or an interpretive essay focused on a document in the Gilder Lehrman Collection.
The Student Advisory Council is a group of high-achieving students interested in American history. The students provide feedback on existing programs and help the Institute refine its outreach to meet the needs of young people. Students in grades 8–12 can join the council and act as the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s student voice.
The Institute offers a contest to reward outstanding student work as part of our ongoing project supported by the Veterans Legacy Grant Program. GLI offers awards to students who create a written or audio/visual portrait of a US Veteran or service member. Students in grades 6–12 can submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a Veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal Veterans cemetery. Each year, up to ten student winners receive a $500 award.
The Institute hosts year-round remote internships for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students (as well as recent college graduates). Interns are paid $16 per hour. During the academic year, interns work an average of 10–15 hours per week; during the summer session, they work an average of 15–24 hours per week.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute has partnered with Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY), with the generous support of the McCormick Family Foundation, to offer scholarships of $10,000 each year for up to four years exclusively for students from Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute and the National History Academy are partnering to provide twenty scholarships exclusively to students at schools in our Affiliate School Program. These scholarships, which cover the National History Academy’s four-week residential summer program, include room, board, learning materials, and visits to historic sites.