Our Programs
Explore our diverse programs designed to cultivate leadership, character, and service. From the immersive Normandy Passage to Music Retreats, we offer unique experiences for students, educators, and veterans.
Student Leadership Scholarships
DLA covers lodging, instruction, on-the-ground transport, and program costs for scholarship students. The goal is simple and serious: identify young people with potential for leadership and give them direct access to the lessons of Normandy, without money being a barrier.
The Student Leadership Scholarship is not a tour. It is an invitation to carry a legacy. Students leave with a deeper understanding of sacrifice, a clearer sense of duty, and a concrete charge: to lead from the front in their own lives, informed by the history they have walked through.
The DLA Student Leadership Scholarship is our commitment to making Normandy accessible to the students who need it most, not just the ones who can afford it.
Each year, DLA fully sponsors 8–16 students for a seven-day immersion at our charity house in Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town liberated in Normandy. Scholarship recipients live, learn, and train on the actual ground where ordinary young men faced extraordinary decisions in June 1944.
Over the course of the week, students:
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Walk the beaches, fields, and villages where the campaign unfolded.
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Receive focused history instruction tied to specific units, names, and events.
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Participate in structured leadership training that demands discipline, teamwork, and personal responsibility.
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Engage in guided reflection to connect what happened here to the choices they will face at home, in school, and in their communities.
The Normandy Passage
The goal of The Normandy Passage is not to create a “memorable trip.” It is to mark a line in a young person’s life: before and after Normandy. Fathers and mentors are deliberately integrated, so what is learned on French soil can be reinforced at home. Graduates leave with a clearer understanding of what courage and duty look like in practice, and a concrete expectation to carry that legacy into their own schools, families, and communities.
The Normandy Passage is DLA’s flagship leadership crucible in Normandy—a multi-day, on-the-ground experience that moves far beyond tourism or classroom learning. Designed for students and their fathers (or veteran mentors for at-risk youth), the program places participants in Sainte-Mère-Église and the surrounding battlefields where the Normandy campaign unfolded, and uses that ground as the framework for serious leadership development.
Across the Passage, days are structured around the DLA pillars: lead from the front, plan for chaos, preparation, empathy, and total commitment to mission. Participants walk beaches, fields, and villages tied to specific units and names, then step into scenarios, physical challenges, and guided discussions that force them to make decisions, take responsibility, and support their team. History lessons are led by trained historians, while a Special Operations veteran cadre oversees the leadership training, standards, and after action reflection.
Adult Programming
These programs are less physically demanding than youth courses but no less serious. Adult participants are invited to step back from daily noise, confront what courage and duty looked like here, and leave with clearer priorities and a stronger internal compass, having experienced Normandy as both a high-end journey and a deliberate reset for how they lead.
DLA Adult Programming offers high-end, history-rich experiences in Normandy designed for adults who want depth, comfort, and real growth in the same itinerary. These programs are structured as intensive retreats that blend personal and professional development with curated European travel, exceptional lodging, refined meals, and seamless logistics.
Guests stay near Sainte-Mère-Église and the surrounding battlefields, with every detail handled by DLA so they can fully engage. Days combine guided visits to key WWII sites with focused sessions on leadership, decision-making, and responsibility, using the Normandy campaign as a case study for modern life and work. Evenings slow down into shared meals, local wines, and unhurried conversation with historians, veterans when available, and fellow participants, creating space to process what’s been seen and apply it to current challenges.
Adult Music Retreats
DLA Adult Music Retreats are crafted for guests who want the best of Europe—exceptional music, gourmet food, and historic ambience—without losing the depth and meaning of Normandy. These retreats are built as high-end escapes: thoughtfully planned travel, refined accommodations, and curated experiences in and around Sainte-Mère-Église and the surrounding region. DLA handles the logistics from arrival to departure, allowing guests to relax into the rhythm of the trip rather than worry about the details.
Each retreat weaves together live performances, fine dining, and significant venues. Evenings feature carefully programmed concerts, classical, choral, or acoustic sets held in historic churches, châteaux, or landmark spaces tied to the story of Normandy. Meals highlight regional cuisine and wines, paired with conversation that connects the setting to the history underfoot. While these retreats do not follow a formal leadership curriculum, they retain DLA’s hallmark reverence for place. Guests leave having enjoyed an elevated cultural experience in one of the most important landscapes of the 20th century well-fed, deeply moved, and more connected to the stories that unfolded there.
Educator Workshops
Evenings at the charity house create space for collaboration and curriculum design. Educators share best practices, develop unit plans, and leave with ready-to-use materials, assessment ideas, and a network of peers. The outcome is straightforward: teachers return home not only with a deeper personal understanding of Normandy, but with the tools to make that history live in their own classrooms and shape the next generation of leaders.
DLA Educator Workshops are designed for teachers who want to move beyond textbooks and bring the reality of Normandy into their classrooms with authority and confidence. Held in and around Sainte-Mère-Église, these workshops place educators on the actual ground where the campaign unfolded and pair that experience with practical tools for teaching World War II, leadership, and civic responsibility.
Across several days, participants walk beaches, drop zones, and villages with historians formally trained in WWII Normandy history. Each site visit is paired with concrete classroom applications: primary source analysis, framing difficult topics, building inquiry-based lessons, and connecting the decisions made in 1944 to the ethical and civic questions students face today. Sessions also address trip-planning, risk management, and how to prepare students—intellectually and emotionally—for travel to sites of war and remembrance.
Transformative Leadership Retreats
Designed for students and professionals seeking growth through historical understanding and personal reflection.
Connection
Connect with fellow leaders through shared experiences and reflections.
Community
Build a supportive community dedicated to personal and professional improvement.
Challenge
Engage with challenges that test your limits and inspire growth.
Change
Return with renewed purpose and commitment to lead with integrity.