"As fun as it is scholastic," this spring course, which includes a week in D.C., "gives you the opportunity to take what you learn in the classroom and see it in action in the nation's capital."

From a summer in D.C. with the Kinder Scholars program to her Journal on Constitutional Democracy publication, Riley Messer (Political Science) talks "dreaming big" as a Kinder Institute undergrad.

You come from the heartland, and it is truly the beating heart of America and its history. Within three hours of Columbia, there are places that are central to America's destiny...where, today, American history is remembered.

What's the secret to being a good historian? Find out here, in this brief interview with Rich & Nancy Kinder Chair in Constitutional Democracy and Professor of History Jay Sexton.