The American Academy of Achievement is like no other organization in the world. For more than 40 years, this unique non-profit entity has sparked the imagination of students across America and around the globe by bringing them into direct personal contact with the greatest thinkers and achievers of the age. The annual International Achievement Summit has provided thousands of outstanding students with an unforgettable, life changing experience -- one in which young people whose dreams will determine our collective tomorrow draw inspiration, courage and strength from those individuals who have shaped our world of today. Since 1961, these generation-spanning forums have allowed exceptional students to interact one-on-one with Nobel Prize-winners in the arts and sciences, world-renowned public servants, crusading journalists, intrepid explorers of our planet and outer space, revered humanitarians, world champion athletes, legendary figures of stage and screen, and countless others who represent the pinnacle of achievement in their respective fields. Such personal encounters with greatness can, and do, send an enormously powerful message to students raised in a world that so often seems to value the superficial and ephemeral over the monumental and enduring. These gatherings take on special significance in light of current world events. The sight of students of various lands and faiths coming together to enter into meaningful, reasoned dialogue with eminent leaders in many fields is surely a sign of hope for the future. Without greater understanding between nations, there can be no lasting peace, and this kind of intellectual discourse between individual leaders, both present and future, is essential to establishing such an understanding. It is in this spirit, and to further these ends, that the Academy has established the International Achievement Summit, as well as outstanding programs such as Achievement TV and its Museum of Achievement in Washington, DC. Yet the heart of the Academy experience -- that distinctive feature, found nowhere else, which truly sets it apart -- remains the International Achievement Summit.

Website: http://www.achievement.org/