We are excited to offer a robust suite of interactive summer programming to support our members’ intellectual formation and career advancement. This series provides students with opportunities to encounter AHS in its national breadth and connect with renowned practitioners and scholars and fellow students alike.

Stay tuned for updates!

Social Events and Professional Development

Welcome to DC Happy Hour

We are pleased to host our annual “Welcome to DC” happy hour for our undergraduates and recent alumni in DC this summer. This happy hour will take place from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm on  June 11 at Jack Rose Dining Saloon (2007 18th St NW). This is a great opportunity to mingle with and meet your fellow AHS students and build connections for the variety of events happening in DC this summer, including but not limited to our Summer Series. Free food and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) will be available. Register here by June 5.

Movie Nights

Continuing our annual foreign affairs film series, we are excited to host two movie screenings this summer at AHS HQ (1750 H St NW) from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm on June 23 and July 21. Both screenings will have snacks and dinner available for registered attendees. Register here for our screenings of Top Gun: Maverick and Argo.

Above: Students mingle and chat during our 2025 Welcome to DC Happy Hour.

Hamilton National Fellowship

The Hamilton National Fellowship provides grants to students and recent graduates with summer internships at DC-based institutions. Learn more here.

Student Leadership Conference

The 2026 Student Leadership Conference (SLC) will take place between July 30 and August 2 in Washington, D.C. The four-day conference will give students an opportunity to engage with scholars in foreign policy and national security through expert panels, chapter training, and professional development exercises. Learn more and register here.

Above: Students participate in various programming events during the 2025 iteration of the Alexander Hamilton Society’s Student Leadership Conference.

Field Visits

Students located in DC over the summer will have the opportunity to visit diplomatic installations and meet with their personnel to develop an understanding of diplomacy, regional issues, and their respective histories of American partnership.

This summer, we plan to visit the following:

  • The Organization of American States (details TBD)
  • British Embassy Washington (details TBD)
  • Embassy of Japan in the United States of America (details TBD)
  • Victims of Communism Museum and Foundation (July 8, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm), register here

Above: Students participate in our field visits to the Embassy of Japan, the Embassy of Norway, and the Pentagon in Summer 2025.

Yorktown Staff Ride

In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary of independence, we are excited to host an expert-led staff ride to Yorktown Battlefield in Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia in July. Students will be designated a historical figure and asked to research their assignment, culminating in an in-character speech on the tactical, political, and personal decisions made by the figure at Yorktown in 1781. Accepted students will receive breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with bus transportation to and from the battlefield. This staff ride will be a day trip during a weekend in July. Apply here by May 19.

Image: Members of our professional chapters on their visit to the Yorktown National Battlefield in Summer 2025.

Book Club

Students located in DC over the summer will also have the opportunity to participate in a biweekly book club on the history of American statecraft hosted by a member of AHS staff. This will culminate in a talk and Q&A with the book’s author.

This summer, we will be reading To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution by Michael O’Hanlon. In commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, To Dare Mighty Things provides a comprehensive history and retrospective analysis of American defense policy since the Revolution. In his book, Dr. O’Hanlon examines various episodes throughout American history to understand the origins of American grand strategy and whether any true themes can be drawn from the long, checkered history of America, as an upstart and a superpower. 

This reading club will be held biweekly at AHS’s HQ (1750 H St NW) on Tuesdays from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (June 9, June 23, and July 7). The first 20 registrants will receive a complimentary copy of To Dare Mighty Things in advance. Dinner will be provided. Sign up here for the book club by May 22, and sign up here for the July 14 book talk with Dr. O’Hanlon.

Image: A book talk from 2025’s Summer Series with Zack Cooper’s discussion of Tides of Fortune: The Rise and Decline of Great Militaries.