Close Up Foundation

As the child of an Arizona teacher, I've been helping my mom integrate civic education into her classroom. My search led me to CloseUp's website, which impressed me with its wealth of resources. Their blog, focusing on current issues and methods for incorporating policy discussions in classrooms, has been extremely insightful.
My mom is thrilled with the materials I compiled for her use, thanks to CloseUp. Additionally, I host weekly Sunday dinners with close friends where conversations often turn political. I plan to use CloseUp's resources to guide our deliberations.
CloseUp's tools are valuable not just for educators, but for anyone looking to engage in meaningful civic discussions. Highly recommend!

I originally heard about Close Up through social media and was taken aback by what a positive experience I had working with them. I've contributed to political campaigns, NGOs, and non-profits and can say that Close Up ranks amongst the best of them. High quality mission with even higher quality people. And as a recent college graduate, I've passed along much of Close Up's curriculum to those who now lead the political student orgs that I was previously a part of. Couldn't recommend more getting up close and personal with Close Up!

The Close Up experience is wonderful!! Students are able to enjoy DC and meet other young people from the country - I love hearing stories from the schools I work with about how much the program impacted their students!

My son and classmates just came back home from DC on yesterday. This was a great experience in opportunity for them and he also told me that he learned a lot. Thank you’ll so much again for having them from New Orleans.

I had a great time, so many amazing things. Close up was very kind throughout the experience that we had. I had I great time, I would definitely recommend Close Up to schools. The only problem I had was there was no discipline in behavioral acts, especially Rhode Island.
Thank you Close Up for the most wonderful experience.

Folks, I have got to tell you, this trip was the bottom of the barrel—the worst I've ever been on! I mean, the highlight? The flight home. That's right. The rest of the time, I was so upset I cried in the middle of a metro plaza in front of total strangers. And let me talk about someone who rubbed salt in the wound—her behavior was ultimately out of line. She belittled me constantly, and when I finally stood up for myself, what did she do? Banned me from the basketball game! Can you believe that? And it didn't stop there. I had the misfortune of experiencing the most severe stomach issues—not once, but twice, on a bus, no less! The workshops? It was a snooze fest, utterly exhausting. And the folks running the show, these PIs, were a nightmare—overly controlling with zero downtime. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the food—oh, the food was a disaster. On the last night, I almost broke my jaw on a piece of steak so challenging, I spit it out just in time, and would you believe, there was blood! They even messed up our museum visits. They told us we could purchase tickets to the Air and Space Museum. Every attempt to book turned into some bizarre time warp to April. And the White House tour? Nullified. When you go to DC, that's the main event, and we missed it. Plus, at the Museum of Natural History, we ran in circles for five minutes looking for the cafeteria, only to find it was right where we started! Honestly, this trip was so bad that it left me traumatized. The only other thing I can even remotely call a highlight was visiting the Capitol, which was mediocre at best. What a mess, folks—what a complete and utter mess. And to top it off they threatened to tell my parents after I asked for a refund.

My daughter will be a highschooler this coming year. This was her 8th grade trip with a FL Pinellas county charter school.
We decided to save up and make this trip happen for her.
We are thankful she was able to attend. There were less than 10 students from her class that went.
The teacher seemed like she had attended before since she was very laid back. Our daughter enjoyed that they felt a bit of freedom during this trip where teachers weren't hovering entire time. There was a couple of days that they would be at a specific memorial, museum or mall for a couple hours; teacher would assign buddies and they would stay with the buddy and meet back up at a certain time. She was able to sleep in an all girls hotel room with her friends. Meals were included in cost and she stated that it was a voucher or specific cash amount handed out at most meal times.
Charter bus from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania was also part of it when they traveled to liberty bell. Flight there and back she was also able to sit with her group.
In hearing from my daughter the account of her time; I felt that she was safe, supervised and educated during the entirety of this experience. It is a scary thing to let your 14 year old go across country without you; but this was a good experience and I would encourage other parents to allow their child the opportunity.
Thank you

Several months ago, my junior class participated in the Close Up program, and we still talk about it all the time. It was truly a life changing experience I will never forget.

Since attending Close Up I have become far more engaged in politics. I am even considering choosing a career path that relates to politics - something I never would have thought I would do before visiting Washington D.C.

I highly recommend participating in the Close Up program if you are into US history or love debating, and even if you don't! There is truly something for everyone.