High school online elective courses for credit will return in the spring. Courtesy | Pexels

A new Hillsdale for-credit online course for high schoolers will debut next year.

Enrollment for the fall 2025 semester will open in March 2025 and will now feature American Political Thought as well as three previously offered high school courses — American Government, American History I, and American History II. 

High school students have been taking online courses for elective credit since 2023, according to Director of Online Learning Jeremiah Regan.

“The for-credit distance learning classes further the mission of the college by providing excellent civics education to American high school students, better preparing them for citizenship and for college than a typical high school class,” Regan said.

The courses are designed for students holding a 3.4 GPA or higher, according to the website.

“The college created these courses to offer true historical and political teaching about America to students for whom this type of instruction is otherwise unavailable,” Regan said.

Bradley Birzer, professor of history, and Wilfred McClay, Victor Davis Hanson chair in classical history and Western civilization,  partnered to teach these courses. 

“We want young people to understand their country so that they can better participate in it and in the activity of self-government which is central to the American way of life,” McClay said.

The professors made filming day a special occasion, according to Birzer.

“We had lunch, beer, and great conversations in advance of filming,” Birzer said. “Filming was a blast. Bill is the senior scholar, of course, but he was so gracious with his thoughts and his time.  I learned a lot from him.”

Birzer said the teaching-to-a-camera format was initially challenging. 

“I was pretty nervous at first as I’m used to radio but not the camera,” Birzer said. “As it turns out, the filming crew was simply fantastic. In fact, I think I gained a number of awesome friends from the filming itself.”

To make filming easier, Birzer said he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

“There’s no doubt I greatly admired the whole crew,” Birzer said. “So, I really wanted to make their jobs as easy as possible — I really crammed right before each lecture.”

Freshman Kaiser Himmelberg took the three original courses: American History I, American History II, and American Government.

“I was very well versed in American history,” Himmelberg said, “but I now know a lot more of the ‘Federalist Papers.’”

With this knowledge of the nation’s foundational documents, Himmelberg said he now feels much more confident about having discussions about his nation’s complex and multi-faceted history.

Himmelberg said the classes were difficult at first, but he persevered, and with the help of his professors, he ended with As and Bs as final grades and elective college credits.

“The professors had office hours where you could meet with them through Zoom,” he said. “Normally if they weren’t pressing, I would just ask them at the end of class, and they would just answer it — they were very helpful.”