Academy of Achievement - International Achievement Summit

International Achievement Summit

The International Achievement Summit was first hosted in 1961. The meeting was originally called the annual "Salute to Excellence" and was later renamed the "Annual Achievement Summit". This annual meeting gives exceptional graduate students the opportunity to interact one-on-one with Nobel Prize-winners in the arts and sciences, public servants, prize-winning journalists, explorers, humanitarians, financiers, athletes, and entertainers. The Academy invites leaders in these categories to attend the Summit and address the students at a series of symposiums and roundtable discussions. The Academy also organizes dinners and other social events where the students are able to meet with honorees or to listen to them speak on various topics. Approximately 30 previous awardees and 20 new ones interact with 200 domestic and international graduate students in an informal setting over the course of four days. The summit ends with a formal dinner where that year's honorees are officially presented with their awards and inducted into the Academy.

Until 1999, the meeting was held in a different U.S. city each year. In 1999, the event became the "International Achievement Summit", when the Academy held its first international meeting in Budapest, Hungary. Subsequent Summits have been held in London, England (2000), Dublin, Ireland (2002), Washington, D.C. (2003), Chicago, Illinois New York City (2005), Los Angeles, California (2006), Washington, D.C. (2007), Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (2008), Cape Town and Singita Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa (2009), Washington, D.C. (2010), and Washington D.C. (2012).