Open discourse on and off-campus.

View upcoming opportunities provided by the Buckley Institute and its partners. Become a Buckley Fellow, apply for summer internship, or join the discourse with our essay contest.

The Washington Fellowship is an exclusive, fully-funded opportunity for a select group of Buckley Fellows to spend a week in Washington D.C. meeting with government officials, members of Congress, judges, think tank scholars, journalists, and the people who make the nation’s capital run.

Taught by experts in their field, our multi-day seminars allow students the opportunity to have intensive and fruitful academic engagement with topics and thinkers often neglected in their Yale classrooms. Through these multi-day seminars, the Buckley Institute helps fill the gaps in the Yale curriculum.

Each year, the Buckley Institute sponsors two essay contests: one for Yale undergraduates and one for American high school students. The winners receive monetary awards and an invitation to our annual conference.

This prize recognizes a Yale faculty member who actively fosters intellectual diversity for students in and out of the classroom. Nominations will be accepted until March 9, 2023.

This highly competitive summer internship program links talented Yale students with enriching summer opportunities and a living stipend. We've sponsored Yale students at National Review, the Manhattan Institute, Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and other notable institutions.

“My favorite experience was the Disinvitation Dinner in NYC. This was what opened my eyes to the essence of the Buckley Institute in the first place.”

— Noah Riley ’25

“I actually have sorority friends who are super liberal but were really excited to come to the Ted Cruz event. And I think that is an exciting part of Buckley, that you can just get people who are interested in politics, liberal or moderate, to just have a place to actually hear these ideas that I never heard before.”

— Julia Zrihen ’24

“The Lincoln seminar was really interesting, and I feel like I’ve appreciated it more as time has passed.”

— Manav Singh’ 25

“I saw these Buckley Program speakers coming through and they clearly represent a totally different worldview. I would just go to these talks and I would meet these incredibly thoughtful people who would be able to defend positions that I had never heard really defended properly before.”

— Alex Hu ’23

“The Buckley Program’s willingness to invite speakers with a variety of viewpoints, even if they identify with the same political party, is intellectually valuable… These types of conversations are helpful for me to construct my own opinions and apply them to the real world.”

— Yale Student’ 25

“It was at the Buckley Program that I found the persuasive and thoughtful defenders of conservative positions. I didn’t get that elsewhere on campus.”

— Alex Hu ’23

“As a liberal, I find it essential to hear counterarguments in a space where they are protected and not shut down by the Yale community immediately, even if I rarely end up changing my mind.

— Yale Student ’24

“The exposure I’ve had to the issue because of Buckley opportunities—a summer internship, talks with leading politicians such as Governor Chris Sununu, and dinners with heterodox thinkers like Bari Weiss, to name a few—has helped me find and become more confident in my voice.”

— Libby Snowden ’24

“I think that the overall intellectual and political climate on campus is great, but this is clearly the result of the presence of the Buckley Institute and its programing. It serves as a reminder of the diversity of political and social viewpoints and absolutely encourages debate and discussion on campus.”

— Felse Kyle ’26