2025: I Am... The American Dream
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025 - Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025
An in-person three-day conference for high school students where students connect with other students from across the country, learn from student leaders and engaging speakers, tour a college/university campus, and identify a challenge in their school community and develop an action plan for change.
Location: The DoubleTree by Hilton Washington DC-Crystal City
Hosted by Alexandria City Public Schools
MSAN’s core values include beliefs that students’ voices must be centered and research and collaboration drive innovation. MSAN member districts have access to a variety of opportunities to elevate student voices, build student leadership capacity, and partner with students for impactful change including MSAN’s annual Student Conference.
"...when we came together with our own district to put together our action plan, that made me feel like I can make a huge change in the world."
Student Conference Attendee
Conference Resources
- Draft Agenda
- Chaperone Information
- Transportation
- Required Pre-Conference Reading and Material
- Action Plans
- MSAN Pre-Conference Handbook Including Consent Form in:
Registration Information
- Each district team should consist of 6-8 students and 2-3 chaperones. Registration costs for up to 10 attendees from a district are $100/person. If a district would like to send more students and chaperones, a registration fee of $425/person will be charged for anyone over the initial 10. If you have any questions about how many students and chaperones can attend from your district, please contact Connie at the MSAN office at connie.showalter@wisc.edu.
- Registration is transferable, but not refundable.
- As soon as possible, please email Connie at connie.showalter@wisc.edu the exact NUMBER of students and the exact NUMBER of chaperones you will be sending so that we can begin making arrangements.
Registration Instructions
Registration is open to MSAN member districts only
- Each district team should consist of 6-8 students and 2-3 chaperones.
- Each MSAN member district receives ten (10) discounted registrations of $100/person.
- Additional attendees can be registered at a cost of $425/person.
- If you have any questions about how many students and chaperones can attend from your district, please contact Connie at connie.showalter@wisc.edu.
Process
- Please use district/work email addresses when registering.
- Please do NOT enter student email addresses. Please enter chaperone/staff email addresses instead.
- Each school district has a unique discount code (case-sensitive), which can be used up to ten times to receive the $100/person discounted registration rate: MSAN school district discount codes
- Each district must designate a registration contact person to manage all attendee registrations and track code usage for your district.
Other Important Information
- The last day to register is Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
- Registration is non-refundable but transferable. If a substitution is needed, please contact Connie Showalter at connie.showalter@wisc.edu by Wednesday, October 29, 2025.
Registration forms
- Each student attending must complete this STUDENT REGISTRATION FORM (PDF).
- Each chaperone/staff attending must complete this CHAPERONE REGISTRATION FORM (PDF).
After all student and chaperone registration forms are complete, please submit them to the district staff person who will manage the registration process and complete the online registration for your district via the MSAN website.
Register all students and chaperones/staff that will attend using this:
If you do not receive a confirmation email, your registration was not successful.
College Tours
This year, students and chaperones will tour Howard University.
Conference Location
The DoubleTree by Hilton Washington DC-Crystal City
300 Army Navy Drive
Arlington, VA 22202
703-416-4100
Lodging
- Reservations should be made by emailing Connie Edmondson at connie.edmondson@hilton.com. Connie Edmondson will ensure guestrooms are grouped together by school district.
- The cost per room is:
$182 + 14.25% tax/night for standard double (two double beds)
$182 + 14.25% tax/night for standard king (one king bed and one sofa bed)
Hotel reservations MUST be made by Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025.
Other Information
All meals during the conference will be provided (starting with dinner on Wednesday, Nov. 12, and ending with breakfast on Saturday, Nov. 15).
MSAN Student Conference Hosts
Each year, the conference location changes as a new MSAN member district serves as the student conference host each year.
- 2000 Cleveland Heights-University Heights and Shaker Heights City School Districts, OH
- 2001 Ann Arbor Public Schools, Ann Arbor, MI
- 2002 Evanston Township High School District 202 and Oak Park & River Forest High School District 200, IL
- 2003 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Chapel Hill, NC
- 2004 Princeton Public Schools, Princeton, NJ
- 2005 Cambridge Public Schools, Cambridge, MA
- 2006 Green Bay Area Public Schools, Green Bay, WI
- 2007 Arlington Public Schools, Arlington, VA
- 2008 Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison, WI
- 2009 Evanston Township High School District 202 and Oak Park & River Forest High School District 200, IL
- 2010 Bedford Central School District, Mount Kisco, NY
2011 Columbia Public Schools, Columbia, MO - 2012 Paradise Valley Unified School District, Phoenix, AZ
- 2013 Amherst–Pelham Regional Schools, Amherst, MA
- 2014 Farmington Public Schools, Farmington, MI
- 2015 Verona Area School District, Verona, WI
- 2016 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Chapel Hill, NC
- 2017 Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, University Heights, OH
- 2018 The Public Schools of Brookline, Brookline, MA
- 2019 Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, Middleton, WI
- 2020 Virtual
- 2021 Virtual
- 2022 Virtual
- 2023 Sun Prairie Area School District, Sun Prairie, WI
- 2024 East Lansing Public Schools, Lansing, MI