We are an educational nonprofit whose purpose is to educate high school and college students around the country about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations.

We offer students and their organizations a variety of resources, including but not limited to leadership training and support, guest speakers, discounted literature and conference tickets, and thought provoking online articles and opinions.

The SSA also offers major long-term benefits both to the major secular national organizations and to their local affiliates:

Our independence of any national organization allows us to move beyond the rivalries of the past and create opportunities for the various secular national organizations to work with us and hopefully each other in educating and training students. While some students are comfortable with an atheistic outlook, others identify as secular or religious humanists, and yet others prefer the emphasis of skepticism. The SSA acknowledges these differences and seeks to provide channels through which all of these students can explore their particular interests and inclinations through involvement with similar organizations once they graduate.

To any minimally astute observer of the freethought movement, it is apparent that our lack of numbers inhibits our ability to educate the public about atheism, free inquiry, critical thinking and scientific reasoning. The key to resolving this problem is building a strong youth and student movement. It's not enough though to involve students and then lose track of them when they graduate. The SSA is committed to finding solutions to this problem by developing programs to maintain involvement, communication and community. Pursuant to this effort, we wish to develop tight ties with local and national groups to assist us in this effort. We hope to position the SSA as a significant means by which local and national organizations grow their pools of subscribers, activists, writers, donors and talent.

We are housed by the Institute for Humanist Studies in the Humanist Center.