The John F. Kennedy
Institute in Government

Choate Rosemary Hall
Wallingford, Connecticut

     For four weeks, the Institute is integrated into the life of the summer academic session on the Choate campus. The program is built around a core of three courses that introduce students to the interplay of political ideas in the history of Western civilization, the foundations and workings of the American Republic, and public policy issues of contemporary importance. Students work closely with the Kennedy Institute faculty, which is typically composed of Choate Rosemary Hall faculty members, as well as teachers with considerable Washington experience in the fields of government, politics, and journalism. The program is academically rigorous; while on campus, students read intensively, engage in daily discussions, write papers, take tests, and prepare oral presentations. In Washington, students read briefing materials and take part in sophisticated conversations with leaders in government, politics, and journalism over policy matters of national and international significance.

     Undoubtedly, the highlight of the program is the week spent in Washington in late July, when Institute participants have an opportunity to meet with outstanding officials from all three branches of the federal government, as well as representatives of interest groups, national political parties, and the media. Because the Institute is highly selective and small--each summer about a dozen students participate--the group is able to gain unparalleled "behind the scenes" access in the nation's capital. In this context, students explore public policy issues with the policymakers themselves, perhaps being briefed on the nuances of U.S. policy in the Middle East with a foreign service officer at the Department of State in the morning and discussing the merits of the nation's position with a United States Senator in the afternoon. To the extent that it is possible, students see the government in operation, observing House and Senate debates and committee hearings on Capitol Hill. Students also spend time in the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court, where they gain revealing perspectives from insiders in those hallowed halls. The Kennedy Institute program also seeks out the unelected in positions of power and influence: those working as legislative aides, law clerks, bureaucrats, lobbyists, political consultants, and journalists.

     The coursework on campus and the activities of the Washington trip are carefully integrated so that students can bridge the gap between academic analysis and actual political processes. Students studying environmental policy, for example, have visited the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington offices of the Sierra Club, and discussed federal policy with outstanding legislators on the Interior Committees of the House and the Senate.