The DC Leadership Academy expands the economic reasoning skills learned in other FTE programs through four days of activities and projects in the same interactive style that FTE alumni will recognize.

Non-credit

Residential

Accepts International Students

Financial Aid

“Leadership and Economics” is an extension of our Economics for Leaders (EFL), Economic Forces in American History (EFAH), Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy (EGE), and Environment & the Economy (E&E) programs. Participants are challenged to take their FTE experience to the next level by applying the economic reasoning propositions to historical analysis and leadership dilemmas. Topics explored include history, government policy and budgeting, leadership and economics.

During the week, instructors will explore the opportunity cost of leadership through lectures, discussions, and field trips. Students will be introduced to public choice theory as a framework to help understand elected officials decision making and field trips will provide an experiential component to reinforce classroom lessons. In 2023, field trips may include taking part in either an official executive or legislative branch briefing, visits to national museums and monuments. Visits to congressional hearings are also possible should they be in session.

In addition to the advanced economic and leadership activities, students have the opportunity to visit some of Washington, DC’s great attractions as well as hear from FTE alumni living and working in DC. Participants will stay at American University, arriving Monday afternoon and departing Friday morning.

The program is an extension of economic reasoning learned in other FTE student programs to contemporary and historical leadership and decision-making. Program sessions, both in the classroom, and throughout DC, build on the economics and leadership topics taught in our student programs.

Single Session

Jul 10 - Jul 14

1 week

Residential

1000 USD

There is a $1,000 program fee that covers tuition and room and board at American University. Participants are also responsible for travel to and from the program site and spending money.

Financial Aid

FTE strives to make its programs accessible and affordable to the best and brightest students, regardless of financial status. Scholarship funding is awarded based on a combination of factors, including:

Financial need
Leadership activities
Academic and extracurricular achievement
Site selection
Scholarship assistance typically ranges from $100 to $1500. Please note that full-tuition scholarships are extremely rare, and requests for assistance based strictly on merit are generally not considered.

Students are only eligible to receive scholarship funding for one FTE program during the course of their high school career. If a student is attending more than one program in a given year, funding will only be applied to one program.

Finally, scholarship requests to attend program sites that are a significant distance away will not be considered favorably, especially if there is a much closer site to your home. (For example, if you live in California but are asking for scholarship help to go to EFL at Yale University, your chances of receiving aid are less than if you ask for aid to attend EFL at UCLA.)

To Request Scholarship Assistance
To apply, please fill out the scholarship section when completing the Student Application. Applications are reviewed for scholarship funding at the same time as program admission. Admission and award notifications will be received via email within three weeks of submission.