Thanks to the generosity and support of countless TFAS supporters, alumni, faculty and friends, TFAS fostered future leaders through more than 30 academic programs throughout the year. In 2025, TFAS immersed over 4,200 students and professionals in rigorous academic and professional experiences.
D.C. Academic Internship Programs
Live, Learn, Intern, Connect
This spring and summer, more than 300 students embarked on an unforgettable experience in the nation’s capital through the TFAS Academic Internship Program. Students completed internships, took courses at George Mason University, attended guest lectures and site briefings and connected with TFAS alumni and supporters across D.C. in their transformative eight-week experience.
The program equipped aspiring leaders with the skills and experience needed to thrive both professionally and personally. Classes at George Mason University challenged students to think critically about the moral and practical foundations of free-market economies and apply these principles to today’s political and economic challenges.
2025 Impact
- A record number of students, nearly 70, received future job offers from their internship sites.
- 94% of students agreed the program helped them better articulate their beliefs to others.
- 96% of students expanded their professional networks.
- 92% of students agreed that the program was a transformational experience.
- 92% of students agreed that the program provided an opportunity for civil discourse.
Summer Law Fellowship
Over nine weeks this summer, the TFAS Law Fellowship engaged law students in a rigorous academic and professional experience that combined legal coursework, hands-on internships and direct access to leaders shaping law and public policy at the highest levels. Twenty-eight law students from top schools interned and clerked at organizations, including public interest firms, congressional committees, government agencies and law firms throughout Washington, D.C.
Center for Excellence in Journalism
Student Journalism Association
In 2025, the number of TFAS campus publications doubled, rising from 15 to 30. Through the Student Journalism Association, TFAS helps young journalists make an impact on their campuses and nationwide.
2025 Impact
- 30 campus Publications
- 748 members
- TFAS student journalists published more than 1,574 articles
- 256% increase in student members since program inception
Campus Transparency Fellowship
TFAS launched its inaugural Campus Transparency Fellowship to support collegiate journalists producing high-quality investigative reporting at their colleges and universities.
This year, the Fellowship empowered 18 outstanding student journalists to uncover underreported stories and promote open discourse on campus through monthly in-depth investigative stories. Students from Yale, Duke, NYU, Stanford, Tufts and Brown are reporting on critical issues at their colleges, including identity-based and viewpoint discrimination, curricular malpractice, unjust campus discipline and administrative overreach.
Media Accelerator Fellowship
TFAS launched its second annual Media Accelerator Fellowship, dedicated to training early-career journalists who embody integrity, intellectual rigor and a commitment to the principles of liberty. Through monthly sessions, Fellows sharpen their reporting skills and develop specialized beats. This fall, Fellows traveled to Annapolis, Maryland, for a retreat focused on beat reporting, source cultivation and career advancement. The immersive retreat offered Fellows the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue, build lasting connections and reflect on the journalist’s responsibility in advancing the principles of liberty.
Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship and Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowships for Excellence in Journalism
The 32nd Annual TFAS Journalism Forum + Awards Dinner honored this year’s Novak and Rago Fellows in New York City. Novak Fellows are exploring topics including ideology on college campuses, how “Gen Z” compares to previous generations and America’s religious revival. The Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowships for Excellence in Journalism provide a nine-month internship with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial team. This year marks a milestone with the selection of three Fellows for the first time since the program’s founding in 2018.
Professional Programs
Woodhouse Public Policy Fellowship
The Woodhouse Public Policy Fellowship welcomed the 2025—2026 class this fall, with 20 Fellows accepted out of nearly 100 applicants. This cohort is made up of emerging leaders in the conservative movement, working in think tanks, Congress and in the administration.
Fellows kicked off the year with an opening welcome reception, followed by a panel on the history of the conservative movement featuring TFAS Senior Scholar Dr. Donald Devine; AEI Director of Domestic Policy Studies Matthew Continetti, Novak ’08; and University of Florida and TFAS professor Dr. Samuel Goldman.
Inaugural Austrian Economics Seminar
From Sept. 26-28, TFAS hosted its inaugural Austrian Economics Seminar in Old Town, Alexandria. The intensive weekend immersed select young TFAS alumni leaders in the ideas of the Austrian school of economics and its relevance to today’s world.
Among the participants were young professionals working in the current administration, on Capitol Hill, at leading media outlets, policy organizations and attending graduate and law programs across Washington, D.C., and beyond.
TFAS International
TFAS Santiago
More than 60 students from 21 countries studied at the Universidad de los Andes (UANDES) in Santiago, Chile, through TFAS Santiago 2025. Students engaged in rigorous coursework and discussions at UANDES to explore political and historical developments throughout Latin America and to understand how to apply the principles of free markets and free societies to institutions in their home countries.
TFAS Prague
This summer, 84 participants from more than 35 countries came together for three weeks to gain a deeper understanding of liberty, limited government and free-market principles at TFAS Prague.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
- Walking tour of Prague’s historic sites
- Trade game exercises and a model EU Commission simulation
- Workshop session with Barbora Maronkova, head of the NATO liaison office in Vienna to OSCE
- Alumni insights and Q&A with Vladimir Vano ’99, ’00, associate fellow for economy and business at GLOBSEC
- Closing ceremony address by Jakub Kulhanek ’07, Czech ambassador to the United Nations
The European Journalism Institute
Co-hosted by TFAS and The Media Project, 28 journalists from 16 countries studied at Anglo-American University at the European Journalism Institute. These young professionals reflected on the ethical responsibilities of journalism in free societies, considering the importance of independent, fact-based journalism as a foundation of liberty.
2025 Impact
- 100% of EJI students said they improved their ability to write about people and faith with context, nuance and sensitivity.
- 90% of EJI participants reported growth in their ability to develop visual storytelling.
- 90% of EJI participants highlighted increased confidence in interviewing about religion.
- 94.3% of TFAS Prague students and 93% of TFAS Santiago students said the program equipped them to advance the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic freedom.
- 90.6% of TFAS Prague students and 93% of TFAS Santiago students said the program improved their understanding of how free enterprise promotes human prosperity.
High School Programs
Students
TFAS’s high school division, the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE), celebrated 50 years of educating students and teachers about how economic freedom has created unprecedented human prosperity worldwide.
This past year was a significant milestone for FTE. 1,190 high school students, the most in FTE’s history, learned to apply economic reasoning to help them succeed in today’s evolving society and to understand why economic freedom is essential for human flourishing. They attended one of 30 weeklong student programs, including Economics for Leaders, Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy and Environment & the Economy, offered on university campuses across the country.
2025 Impact
- 94% of students completing an FTE program agree that human prosperity and social cooperation develop spontaneously in societies that protect private property rights and encourage voluntary trade.
- 86% of students completing an FTE program say they would recommend the program to a friend.
Teachers
This year, 1,605 high school educators attended 52 economics training programs. These TFAS-trained teachers will reach approximately 187,785 students this academic year alone. Educators expanded their knowledge of the institutions that make economic freedom possible. They leave FTE trainings equipped to teach free markets, the rule of law and protection of private property. The FTE ready-to-use lessons cover a range of topics, including international trade, the federal budget, the realities of socialism and more.
Feedback shows the power of FTE teacher training programs:
- 92% of attending teachers strongly agree FTE programs improved their ability to teach economics.
- 94% of attending teachers report that their students have a better understanding of economic freedom as a result of using FTE materials.
- 97% of teachers completing an FTE program say they would recommend the program to colleagues.
Liberty + Leadership Podcast
Season four of the Liberty + Leadership Podcast kicked off the year with 25 episodes, featuring TFAS alumni, faculty and friends. Ambassador Paula Dobriansky highlighted the global fight for freedom and resilience in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the TFAS Annual Conference in Naples, Florida, alumni Catherine Shea ’24 and Caleb Davis ’24 reflected on how their TFAS courses and internships provided them with an invaluable D.C. experience and discussed the lasting impact TFAS and its supporters have in developing principled leaders of the future.
Lord Daniel Hannan, TFAS America 250 Visiting Fellow and member of the U.K. House of Lords, emphasized TFAS’s commitment to engaging world leaders on limiting executive power and upholding constitutional liberty.
Special Events
2025 Annual Conference
More than 120 TFAS alumni, supporters and friends united for the TFAS Annual Conference in Naples, Florida, to celebrate and strengthen TFAS’s mission of advancing freedom and cultivating principled leaders. The conference featured dynamic speakers, including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, U.S. Rep. David Kustoff ’89 (R-TN), and The Babylon Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann, all of whom shared insights on leadership, free markets and the future of liberty.
TFAS Scholarship Awards Dinner
The 35th Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner celebrated TFAS alumni and students, reflecting the growing enthusiasm for TFAS’s mission to develop principled leaders in business, government and public policy. The evening drew a record-setting crowd of more than 425 supporters and raised over $376,000 for TFAS D.C. programs, underscoring the growing enthusiasm to develop principled leaders committed to the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic freedom.
32nd Annual TFAS Journalism Forum + Awards Dinner
On Nov. 11, TFAS hosted the 32nd Annual Journalism Forum + Awards Dinner in New York City.
Generous sponsors and supporters raised more than $250,000 for TFAS’s Center for Excellence in Journalism. The evening honored two distinguished recipients for their unwavering commitment to truth and rigorous reporting: John Tierney and Mary Anastasia O’Grady.
Brian C. Anderson, editor of City Journal, introduced the new TFAS Journalism Impact Forum, a new series of afternoon panels to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of student and alumni journalists. Panelists offered candid perspectives on the state of journalism.
“The next phase of journalism will belong to those who can reconcile abundance with authority, harness new tools without surrendering to them, and remember that the press at its very best is devoted to uncovering reality itself,” Anderson said to the young journalists in the room.
TFAS Alumni
More than 400 TFAS alumni connected throughout the country and around the world at receptions, dinners and gatherings.
2025 Alumni Events
Alumni gather for the TFAS Volunteer Open House.
• Santiago
• Dallas
• Phoenix
• Warsaw
• Bucharest
• Washington, D.C.
• San Diego
• Prague
• Austin
YOUNG ALUMNI READING GROUPS
Nearly 50 young alumni explored thought-provoking texts, “In Search of Monsters to Destroy” by TFAS professor Christopher J. Coyne and “National Economic Planning: What is Left?” by Don Lavoie. Led by TFAS professors, these virtual reading groups foster rich discussions and help alumni stay engaged in lifelong learning.
Alumni Giving Day
On April 30, the second annual Alumni Giving Day united donors and alumni to support the next generation of courageous leaders in their pursuit of individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic freedom. Thanks to the generosity of more than 126 donors, TFAS exceeded its goal by 153% and raised more than $53,798 through encouragement to pass the TFAS experience on to future leaders. Throughout 2025, TFAS alumni donated $313,727 for TFAS students and programs.
TFAS is grateful for the support of our alumni, supporters, faculty and friends who make the TFAS experience possible. With your support, TFAS developed countless courageous leaders in 2025 and will continue to teach the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic freedom for years to come.
To learn how you can support the development of courageous leaders equipped to protect and advance the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic freedom in their communities and throughout the world, please visit TFAS.org/support.