Before the United States was born, geography shaped how people lived, worked, and fought over this land. From the Appalachian Mountains to the Great Plains, the natural landscape influenced settlement, culture, and history.

From English common law to the Fourteenth Amendment, birthright citizenship has shaped who belongs in America — and who is excluded.

If linear thinking is solving a puzzle, lateral thinking is flipping the table and building something entirely new out of the pieces. It’s how we leap from problems to possibilities—and invent the future in the process.