Hillsdale College and Its Growing History of Civic Education
HILLSDALE, Mich. — This Independence Day, Hillsdale College is highlighting its many contributions to the study of civics around the country and among people of all ages.
Since its founding in 1844, the mission of Hillsdale College has been to preserve “the blessings from civil and religious liberty.” It does so by educating “all persons who wish” to learn. Over the last several decades, Hillsdale College has developed and carried out successful civic education programs, both on campus and beyond.
Since 2004, Hillsdale has required a course on the U.S. Constitution for graduation. Since then, a total of 5,610 undergraduate students taken the course, which introduces them to early American political thought and basic American political concepts such as natural rights, social compact theory, religious liberty, separation of powers, and rule of law.
In addition to undergraduate offerings, Hillsdale’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, which opened in 2012, has awarded 11 Ph.D.s and 117 M.A. degrees. The Van Andel Graduate School of Government in D.C., which opened in January 2020, granted M.A. degrees to its first graduating class in May 2022.
The K-12 Education Office developed The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum which teaches a content-rich, honest, and robust history and accurate account of civics to K-12 students. Since its launch, parts of the curriculum have been downloaded more than 115,000 times.
In 2011, Hillsdale launched an online courses program to further its mission of providing “all who wish to learn” the education necessary to preserve the civil and religious liberties of America. Since that date, there have been more than 700,000 enrollments in online courses that teach American history and government as done at Hillsdale College free of charge to the public.
As part of its nationwide educational outreach, Hillsdale College has distributed copies of its pocket Constitution, fulfilling over two million individual requests and close to 500,000 requests from schools. The College has also sent Constitution 101 boxes to 9,377 state legislators and members of Congress in 2013. These boxes included the U.S. Constitution reader, a Constitution 101 DVD, and study guide.
For more information about Hillsdale College and its civic education initiatives, click here.