We enjoyed our six MAHG sessions this past summer, and we trust they fueled you with ideas for the school year in which many of you are now engaged. Summer 2011 promises another rich variety of studies. In upcoming issues we'll introduce some of our new courses and faculty.

The Ashbrook Center also sponsors enrichment programs during the school year. On page five of this issue, you may read about two weekend seminars on the Ratification of the Constitution offered this spring in Philadelphia and Boston. We are also available to partner with your public school district on Teaching American History Grant projects funded through the Department of Education. These grants are usually announced early in the new year, and grant submission deadlines follow shortly thereafter. If you are interested in submitting a proposal with our help, we encourage you to contact us now.

Join me in congratulating two candidates in the Masters program who receive their diplomas this December, Deborah Demirjian and Kate Pitrone. The description of their thesis work in this issue demonstrates that in the MAHG program, your culminating project can focus on a specific statesman, event, or development or can trace an historical question across periods. Both approaches form part of that coordinated study of American history and government that helps us see whence we have come and whither we are tending.