“Before there was a Heritage Foundation or a Federalist Society, or a Cato or Claremont or Discovery or Hudson or Manhattan Institute, there was the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.”
—New York Times
ISI was there when the American conservative movement started sixty years ago. Ever since then, we have been teaching students like you the core ideas behind the free market, the American Founding, and Western civilization, ideas that are rarely taught in your classroom.
In the early 1950s journalist Frank Chodorov wrote two articles calling for a “fifty-year project” to revive the American ideals of individual freedom and personal responsibility “by implanting the idea in the minds of the coming generations.”
That call was realized in 1953. Chodorov founded ISI to counter the progressive ideology taking over American colleges. He selected a young journalist to lead our organization: William F. Buckley Jr.
Through six decades we have developed principled leaders in all corners of American society, including higher education, public service, the media, and business and finance. President Ronald Reagan said, “By the time the Reagan Revolution marched into Washington, I had the troops I needed—thanks in no small measure to the work with American youth ISI had been doing since 1953.”
We connect you with professors and leaders in business, politics, and journalism; introduce you to like-minded students from around the country; offer leadership opportunities in on-campus ISI Societies and student-run publications; and provide unique internship and fellowship opportunities.
ISI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt educational organization. We rely on the financial support of the general public—individuals, foundations, and corporations—and receive no funding or any other aid from any level of government.