Enhance Your College Applications

with the Presidential Leadership Program

What benefits does School Tours of America offer middle school and high school students?

Use your educational travel experience as an extra-curricular, leadership credential for your future college portfolio! All students, regardless of age, are eligible to participate in the Presidential Leadership Program sponsored by Adams State University and School Tours of America.

This program will give students the opportunity to more deeply explore the specific qualities, characteristics and leadership styles of many revered American leaders, and will culminate in a certificate of meritorious completion for your college portfolio.

What is expected of me to complete the course?

By participating, students will be expected to complete certain tasks on tour including participation in leadership discussions and demonstrations at certain historic sites and possibly a written reflection on the experience. Students will be challenged to identify the specific characteristics of our nation’s leaders and encouraged to find their own potential leadership roles in their family, school and community.

How is the course graded?

The program is based upon a Meritorious Completion status and is not subject to a letter grade. Upon completion of the program, students will be awarded a certificate of meritorious completion by Adams State University and School Tours of America. The certificate validates the student’s participation in an academic program on the nations’ historic east coast that possesses the same academic rigor and merit of an undergraduate course.  This certificate is an ideal credential reflecting both an extra curricular leadership and academic achievement for the student’s college admissions portfolio.

Is it possible to receive high school credit instead?

This decision is up to your high school or district.  While Adams State University is an accredited institution of higher learning and can only issue undergraduate and graduate level credit, it has prepared a high school course syllabus proposal based upon the same academic requirements in its undergraduate program. This proposal should facilitate your teacher in the approval process. The final decision regarding high school credit will always be up to the particular administrative body of the individual school or district, but Adams State University will provide your teacher the academic tools required in it’s undergraduate course and assist your teacher in the approval process.

About Adams State University

Adams State University is credentialed by the nation’s most credible and respected, educational governing body--the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools at North LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, Illinois, 60602-2504. More than 26,000 individuals enroll in ASC's PD courses each year for college credit.  Adams State University is one of the nation's largest providers of professional development opportunities that are relevant, timely, cost effective, and accessible. 

Individual Adams State University programs are accredited through the National Association of Schools of Music, Teacher Education Accrediting Council (TEAC) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP).  Adams State University is an institutional member of the American Council on Education, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business and the National Association of Schools of Music.  The college is also approved by the American Association of University Women.