Close Up Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Close Up Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....

 educational organization in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Founded in 1971 Close Up offers high school students an in-depth view of the democratic process, by interactive participation.

Participation

Close Up offers students and teachers from all 50 states and American Samoa
American Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...

, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

, Federated States of Micronesia
Federated States of Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia or FSM is an independent, sovereign island nation, made up of four states from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It comprises approximately 607 islands with c...

, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau and the United States Virgin Islands
United States Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...

 to come to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 to attend Close Up Academy's learning programs. These intensive programs help students understand the key roles that they, as ordinary citizens, play as active participants in the U.S. democratic system. Many schools send groups to Close Up every year. In addition, many students decide to attend on their own or with friends. Programs are offered year-round, including summer.

The high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 student program is five days and five nights and features meetings with elected officials on Capitol Hill, structured learning activities at Washington's monuments and memorials, and the chance to "live and learn" with students from other schools nationwide.

The middle school student program is five days and four nights and helps students learn first hand the lessons history can teach about good citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

 today.

Teachers and administrators who choose to bring groups of students attend an accelerated adult-learning program that includes study of some of Washington's not so well known memorials and monuments and that provides a forum for educators to share best practices with peers.

Close Up also offers a unique program for New Americans, specialized programs for Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

s, Teaching American History (TAH) programs for teachers, and a host of theme-based programs that enable participants to benefit from Washington's seasonality. It also offers customized programs for teachers who want to "pick and choose" content to match their school curriculum and degree of difficulty.

A typical day might start as early as 7:00 a.m. and end at 10:00 p.m. Tuition for most programs is all-inclusive and covers room, board, in-town travel, supervision, security and more.

More than 650,000 have participated in the program.

Outreach

Close Up also serves thousands of teachers and students nationwide though its mix of classroom-based learning tools such as publications, lesson plans, TV shows and videos. Its flagship publication is Current Issues. Current Issues is an annual textbook that provides insightful coverage of public policy topics. Its pro-con format is known for stimulating debate among students and for helping students appreciate multiple points of view.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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