The 2025 Coolidge Scholars Seminar
This year, the Coolidge Foundation named the 10th class of Coolidge Scholars.
Each Coolidge Scholar receives a four-year, full-ride, merit-based college scholarship. The scholarship honors academic excellence, hard work, humility, and service.
The Coolidge Scholarship ranks among the most competitive in the country: in 2025, out of more than 4,900 applicants, only 5 high school students were chosen as Coolidge Scholars.
The 2025 honorees join the community of Coolidge Scholars who are attending colleges all over the United States.
This August, the active Coolidge Scholars — ranging from high school seniors to college seniors — gathered to deepen their understanding of the principles that shaped our 30th president.
The Coolidge Scholars met at the President Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The seminar also included day trips to nearby locations such as the Vermont State House in Montepelier; the historic Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire; and Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Below are some highlights from the Coolidge Scholars Seminar.
At the Mount Washington Hotel, site of the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference: Coolidge Foundation chair Amity Shlaes (second from left) with 2021 Coolidge Scholars Adie Selassie, Emma Finn, and Matthew Gilbert
Dinner in the Mount Washington Hotel’s Sun Dining Room
After dinner, Matthew Gilbert treats his fellow Coolidge Scholars to a presentation on different bird populations on Mount Washington, including the rare Bicknell’s Thrush. Matthew, a passionate birder who conducts research for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, points out that the hotel wove images of the Black-Throated Blue Warbler into the carpet of the Sun Dining Room.
The Scholars assemble on the balcony of the Mount Washington Hotel, with the White Mountains in the background
Former Vermont governor Jim Douglas guides the Coolidge Scholars through the Vermont State House
Vermont state representative Jed Lipsky discusses federalism and how to address local and state needs
A hike exposes Coolidge Scholars to the New England landscape that shaped President Coolidge
At the covered bridge over New Hampshire’s Pemigewasset River
Coolidge Scholars present to their peers at the Coolidge Foundation’s offices in Plymouth Notch, Vermont
New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky shares insights with the Coolidge Scholars
Acts of service: Coolidge Scholars spend the day in Plymouth Notch helping the State of Vermont clear out outdated files
The Scholars fill an entire dumpster!
Coolidge Scholars visit National Life Group, a mission-driven insurance company chartered in Vermont in 1848. Corporate historians Brian Lindner and Steve Wood lead the Scholars on a tour through National Life’s long history and discuss the importance of trust.
Scholars declaim Coolidge’s January 1930 speech to the annual convention of the New York Life Insurance Company: “A policy-holder is a better citizen. He has an interest in the well-being of the country that he has bought and paid for.”
Scholars gather to work on a crossword puzzle together