Jackson Long ‘20 was selected to participate in the Economics for Leaders Program that was conducted at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX from July 8-14, 2019. Jackson was one of 32 students from around the country honored by being accepted into the program hosted by the Foundation for Teaching Economics. All of the students were selected because they had demonstrated excellent leadership potential, and Jackson was awarded a full scholarship to attend the program at SMU.

During the week-long Economics for Leaders program, students gained an understanding of economic reasoning principles and how to employ those concepts for successful and effective leadership.  Additionally, participants heightened their awareness of the impact their decisions have on others and the responsibility that awareness imposes.

The days at SMU were divided in half with the morning sessions covering economics and the afternoon sessions covering leadership.  “I participated in different team building activities, which allowed me to practice leadership skills through various games and tasks. The leadership activities included the ‘lean of faith’ which helped me to learn to trust my fellow classmates, which is a critical quality in leadership.  My favorite part of this program was the people I met and the lifelong friends that I made,” said Jackson. 

After the program at SMU ended, Jackson attended the National Institute of American History & Democracy’s Pre-College Summer Program in Early American History at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA from July 14- August 3.  As part of the program, he visited Jamestown, Yorktown, Bacon’s Castle, Shirley Plantation, Native American and Frontier villages, and the church where Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech.

Jackson reflected, “By the end of the three week period, I had traveled over 800 miles, read over 500 pages of historical materials and had written three papers on different issues relating to Colonial America.  I also received four hours of college credit from the College of William & Mary. This was a really intensive academic program, but I enjoyed it very much. My favorite part of the program was the site visits. It made history come alive.”