Century Institute

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The Century Institute is a summer program for politically progressive college students. It began in 1999 as a bulwark against similar programs run by conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, it was funded by the liberal Century Foundation, a think tank started in 1919 by Edward A. Filene.

Its faculty has been a who's who of late 20th Century progressivism, including Prof. William Julius Wilson, activist Todd Gitlin, academic Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and UN official Gillian Martin Sorensen and her husband, John F. Kennedy advisor and speechwriter Theodore C. Sorensen. Others included journalist Al From, writer Jedediah Purdy, Clinton advisor Robert Reich and strategist/blogger Ruy Teixeira.

From 1999 until 2003, CISP was held on the campus of Williams College in western Massachusetts, drawing students from America's most prestigious colleges. But like many progressive causes, it faced funding troubles from the beginning. Money ran out in 2004 and the program has been cancelled for 2005.

The program's few dozen alumni have begun promising careers in law, academia, politics, journalism, education and overseas service.

[edit] Advisors

CISP'S original board of advisors:

[edit] External links