The Dartmouth Leadership Institute

• Examine leadership decisions through cases, seminars and simulations

• Use strengths assessments and peer feedback to examine your approach

• Practice communication through hikes, rock climbing and service work

• Share responsibility for group tasks and communal lodge living

• Develop a one-page Leadership Blueprint from your reflections

• Record a short video explaining your leadership identity and next steps

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain how personal values and leadership theory inform a decision

• Adapt communication and leadership choices to a group’s needs and circumstances

• Use reflection and peer feedback to identify strengths and next steps

You’ll leave with a one-page Leadership Blueprint and recorded Leadership Statement that capture your leadership approach, areas for growth and next steps.

A group can have a clear goal and still disagree about how to reach it. Listening carefully, explaining a decision and noticing who needs support help a team make progress. Case studies and shared challenges give students specific situations in which to examine those choices.

Reflection turns the experience into something they can use again. Comparing their intentions with feedback from others helps students recognize a strength or a habit they want to change. A personal leadership plan makes that observation concrete enough to try in a school project, community group or another situation that calls for shared responsibility.

For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade.

This academy suits students who want to examine how they work with others and practice leadership in unfamiliar situations. Expect discussion, reflection, shared responsibilities and outdoor activities including hiking, rock climbing and service work. Families with physical mobility concerns should contact the program before enrolling.

Moosilauke Ravine Lodge is Dartmouth’s historic mountain lodge in the White Mountains. Students sleep in shared bunkhouses with round-the-clock residential supervision. Each bunk has a mattress and pillow, and each student has a designated space for belongings. Students bring their own bedding; a sleeping bag works well. There are no private rooms.

Shared bathrooms are centrally located, with sinks, toilets and showers, and lodge staff clean them regularly. There is no Wi-Fi or cell service. Dartmouth students and recent alumni run the lodge and offer informal mentorship throughout the stay.

Free time can include spikeball, frisbee or soccer on the field, reading or music on the screened-in porch, gathering around the fire pit or wading in the river. Evenings may include movie nights, contra dancing or an ice cream trip to nearby Lincoln. Sharing space, following common expectations and relying on one another make communal living part of the experience.

Based on students surveyed after attending the 2025 Dartmouth Leadership Institute.

The Leadership Institute brings together three things that are difficult to find in one precollege program: Dartmouth-designed academic study, leadership practice with faculty and expert instructors, and place-based learning at Dartmouth’s Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. The lodge and White Mountains are not a field trip added to the academy; they are where students test what they have learned about judgment, service, resilience, and responsibility.

That movement from classroom to mountain challenge makes the Institute the signature experience in the Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars portfolio. Fully developed and run by Dartmouth, it offers students an intensive encounter with both Dartmouth’s intellectual culture and its longstanding connection to the outdoors.