Program Overview

Introduction to Marist University Summer Pre-College

Marist is a highly selective and comprehensive institution noted for its leadership in combining a liberal arts foundation with a professional education. The university offers a Summer Pre-College program that provides students with a premium education, career-ready skills, and lifelong friendships.

Program Goals

The Summer Pre-College American Military History program aims to:

• Be inspired by the military leadership of prominent military commanders from Washington through Petraeus to understand the crucial role of generalship/leadership in determining victory and defeat.
• Learn about the significant developments in warfare to include the causes, conduct, and results of selected wars from the American Revolution through the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
• Understand the evolution of the American military institutions.
• Analyze the influence of diverse political, cultural, and economic factors on the United States' armed forces to understand how the nation wages war.
• Analyze soldier and leader behavior in combat to build an understanding of the personal challenges of war.
• Experience living history as a soldier in the American Revolution and Civil War and at historic sites in the Hudson River Valley.

Course Credit

Upon successful completion of the Summer Pre-College American Military History Program, each student earns three college credits for the Marist course Hist223, U.S. Military History.

Program Cost

The cost of the program includes:

• Tuition and fees
• Housing
• Meals
• Field trips
• Course materials The total cost of the program is $3,700. This cost does not include travel expenses. Students may wish to bring funds for incidentals, shopping, souvenirs, and any personal items they wish to purchase. Students should bring a laptop for their coursework.

Program Description

A study of history provides students with a wide variety of skills both for living and for work. A comprehension of the past and the dynamics of change illuminates the present and enables students not only to exercise responsible citizenship but to enjoy autonomy in an increasingly complex world. The study and understanding of history, as with other of the liberal arts, instill or enhance a capacity for analysis and synthesis; and these transferable skills have applicability to a wide range of careers.

America was born in war and has been immersed in wars throughout its history. As the primary seat of the war in the thirteen colonies, New York's Hudson River Valley was the center of military activities throughout the American Revolution, was a key to the Union victory during the Civil War, and provided the location at Springwood from which President Roosevelt could monitor Allied forces during World War II when he was away from Washington, DC.

This two-week course will immerse students in military history through field trips, staff rides, and engaging seminars with active learning from the War for Independence to Afghanistan. Students will learn why America has gone to war over the last 230 years and how its armies have engaged its enemies here and abroad. History will come alive from Stony Point Battlefield in the south to FDR's Springwood in the north. An overnight encampment at New Windsor Cantonment will lead to a visit to West Point at the course's end.