Reaching the National Stage for America’s 250th Birthday
Twenty students from a starting field of more than 8,000 have advanced to the Presidential 1776 Award national scholarship competition final on June 9.
Macon Harrell, a high school senior from Oxford, Miss., answers a question about the Federalist Papers during the semi-final round of the Presidential 1776 Award competition in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2026. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education
Macon Harrell and Summer Brondstetter will follow two very different paths after high school, but a common passion led them both to the nation’s capital: civics.
Harrell, a senior at Mississippi’s Oxford High School, has visited all 50 states, stopping at national historic sites to supplement what he’d already learned in school, read about on his own, or observed in documentaries.
Aaron Gifford has written for several daily newspapers, magazines, and specialty publications and also served as a federal background investigator and Medicare fraud analyst. He graduated from the University at Buffalo and is based in Upstate New York.
