Hillsdale Hostel

About

Attend a Hillsdale Hostel, a learning vacation unlike any other. Spend time with Hillsdale professors who are experts in their fields, exploring the great ideas and principles that built and sustain our country. Discuss the ideas that have created more freedom and raised the hopes and expectations of millions, not only in this country but throughout the world.

Relive higher education as it used to be, in a place where it still is.

Hillsdale Hostels let you relive the experience of higher education as it used to be, in a place where it still is. It’s college life as you remember it: the sharing of insights, the give-and-take of lively discussion, the camaraderie of peers. It’s a fresh look at the enduring values of our society in the Hillsdale way, free of the trendy ideological clichés that dominate thinking on so many other campuses today. It’s a vacation unlike any you’ve had—the learning experience of a lifetime, to complement a lifetime of learning.

Hillsdale Hostels offer a week of exciting activities. Guests share intense discussions with Hillsdale faculty members and fellow program participants, delving deeply into the sources of American liberty. Guests are welcome to take advantage of varying opportunities for fun, recreation, and fitness in our state-of-the-art health education and sports complex. All seminars include delicious meals and top-rated accommodations.

 

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Upcoming Seminars

APRIL 3-6, 2024

Various national flags

American Foreign Policy

Should American foreign policy be guided by a concern for supporting freedom around the world, by a concern for America’s national security, or by a combination of both? This seminar, held at Hillsdale’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers, Connecticut, will consider the history and principles of American foreign policy, as well as recent and current controversies.

Register Today for April 3-6

MAY 16-19, 2024, AND MAY 20-23, 2024

Usa Supreme Court Washington Architecture Building

Historical Issues and Controversies

Held at the College’s Rockwell Lake Lodge in Luther, Michigan, this seminar will consider historical issues and controversies since the turn of the 20th century, including constitutionalism vs. statism, affirmative action, education, and terrorism. Offered twice in May and also offered twice in August.

Register Today for May 16-19

Register Today for May 20-23

JUNE 9-11, AND JUNE 12-14, 2024

The Great Reset

In 2020, members of the world’s elite met at the World Economic Forum and launched the Great Reset initiative to transform the world economy. Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive director of the Forum, wrote, “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.” This program will consider the idea and history of the Great Reset, its ramifications for America, and pro-freedom alternatives. Offered twice in June.

Register Today for June 9-11

Register Today for June 12-14

JUNE 23–29, 2024

The Great Conversation in Western Literature

Great literature reflects and shapes the character of a civilization and of its citizens. Thus Homer was called the “schoolteacher of the Greeks.” Who have been the schoolteachers of America, and more generally, of the citizens of the West? This seminar will examine the great conversation in Western literature, beginning in ancient Greece and Rome and continuing through Renaissance Europe, Elizabethan England, and the United States.

Register Today for The Great Conversation in Western Literature

JUNE 23-29, 2024

Signing of the Constitution Painting

Constitutional Issues and Controversies

For 235 years, the American Constitution has served as a bulwark of limited government. Over the last century, its authority has been challenged by proponents of progressivism. This seminar will contrast the Founders’ view with the progressive view of topics such as the family, civil rights, free speech, foreign policy, and religious liberty.

Register Today for Constitutional Issues and Controversies

JULY 7–13, 2024

Dollar Bill Pyramid and Eye

Economic Theories and Controversies

The idea that the free market is the best way to arrange the exchange of goods and services in a free society, an idea embraced by the American Founders, is not without controversies. This seminar will consider the theories of free market economics, theories that oppose the free market, and important economic controversies of the twentieth century and of today.

Register Today for Economic Theories and Controversies

JULY 7–13, 2024

Abraham Lincoln with Soldiers

The Civil War

The principal cause of the Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, was the crisis over slavery, which had its roots in the American Founding. This seminar will consider the Founders on slavery, the “positive good” school, the rise of sectionalism, the secession controversy, the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln, the Constitution in wartime, and Reconstruction.

Register Today for The Civil War

JULY 21-27, 2024

Making of Today’s America

Over the course of the 20th century, the federal government grew dramatically—especially following the advent of the Great Society—as did divisions in American political and social life. Abroad, America emerged as the world’s greatest power, fighting and winning two World Wars and a Cold War. This seminar will consider the major political and historical developments and events of the previous century, including the rise of progressivism, liberalism, and the administrative state, the revolutions of the 1960s, and Communism and Nazism.

Register Today for Making of Today’s America

JULY 21–27, 2024

Stained glass imagery with Jesus

History of Christianity

Christianity is over 2,000 years old, with theological roots stretching back to the time of the ancient Hebrews. Despite widespread persecution, Christianity spread quickly and has had a profound impact on the development of Western Civilization. This seminar will consider the history of Christianity, beginning with the early Church and continuing through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and into the modern world.

Register Today for History of Christianity

AUGUST 1-4, AND AUGUST 5-8, 2024

Usa Supreme Court Washington Architecture Building

Historical Issues and Controversies

Held at the College’s Rockwell Lake Lodge in Luther, Michigan, this seminar will consider historical issues and controversies since the turn of the 20th century, including constitutionalism vs. statism, affirmative action, education, and terrorism. Also offered twice in May.

Register Today August 1-4

Register Today for August 5-8

OCTOBER 16–24, 2024

Civil Right in America

The American Founders understood civil rights in light of the natural rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. This understanding guided Abraham Lincoln’s statesmanship and the early civil rights movement. However, many contemporary civil rights leaders reject the Founders as irredeemably racist and have abandoned the idea of a colorblind society. Held at Hillsdale’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Somers, Connecticut, this seminar will consider civil rights in America from the founding to today.

Register Today for Civil Right in America

 

We offer three locations to enjoy a Hillsdale Hostel – on the beautiful Hillsdale campus, nestled in the rolling farm country of southern Michigan; surrounded by the natural setting of our Rockwell Lake Lodge located at the G. H. Gordon Biological Station in Luther, Michigan; and in the heart of our nation’s capital at our Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Capitol Hill, just minutes from the Supreme Court, the Senate office buildings, and the historic Union Station.