It is nearly impossible to put into words my feelings
about the United States Senate Youth Program (http://www.hearstfdn.org/ussyp/index2.html
). I was fortunate enough to be selected to be a Delegate to
the USSYP Washington Week from an East Coast state, which included
an all-expenses-paid seven day trip to Washington, DC in addition
to a $5,000 college scholarship. Upon my return, when people
asked how it went, it was without hesitation that I replied,
“It was the best week of my life.” Without a doubt,
it truly was.
While a $5,000 scholarship is certainly useful
in today’s world of rising college tuitions, the most
valuable element of this honor was the Washington Week. From
the train (or plane for those who were further away) to the
luxurious hotel accommodations right down to dessert, everything
was paid for by the Hearst Foundation, which sponsors the program.
The Hearst Foundation truly knows no boundaries when it comes
to USSYP. After we met with President George W. Bush the morning
of his first prime-time press conference, the Hearst Foundation
had two enormous screens set up where dinner was being served
so that none of us would miss the press conference. Throughout
the week, the Foundation tries to intermingle delegates amongst
the speakers, guests, and Foundation members. It was always
a pleasure to sit with one of the Foundation members, both to
thank them and to tell them more about myself, which was a genuine
interest of theirs since they were literally investing in my
future.
No day during this week was without several distinguished
speakers. From breakfast with Helen Thomas, to lunch with Assistant
Secretary of State Richard Armitage, to dinner with various
Senators, no meal was complete without an address from and a
very open question and answer period with the honored guest.
Since all 104 delegates were treated as honored guests of the
Senate itself (who chartered the program), the speakers were
always very honest with us and never treated us as if were “just
kids.” Also noteworthy was the sheer number of significant
current political figures who spoke to us—who also happened
to be previous USSYP delegates. Senator Susan Collins, 10th
Circuit Federal Court of Appeals Justice Robert H. Henry, US
Attorney Chris Christie, and Presidential Advisor Karl Rove
all can claim their status as USSYP alum.
Another interesting facet of the Washington Week
was that whenever a speaker or guest was from a delegate’s
home state, the Foundation would have those delegates either
introduce and close for the speaker or sit them with the guest.
The other delegate from my state and I were lucky enough to
be able to introduce and close for the Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Health, who ended up as one of USSYP’s most memorable
speakers. This gave the delegates a chance to interact with
some of today’s most significant individuals in politics
and the guests an opportunity to meet with tomorrow’s
leaders.
The Washington Week was also comprised of many
trips around Washington, including the many memorials, the Capitol,
the White House, Arlington Cemetery, and the Pentagon (where
we met with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld). However,
the most amazing part of the program is the other 103 delegates.
I have never met, nor will I ever again, a group of such talented,
articulate, motivated, ambitious, interesting, and unique individuals.
They truly make the program the life-altering experience that
it is.
If you, too, would like to become a USSYP recipient,
there are certain criteria that you must meet and several application
steps to tread. First and foremost, you must be either a junior
or senior in high school who is also serving in an elected capacity
in a student government, civic, or educational body (all specifics
on this criteria can be found at the website) in the current
school year. Before I went in March, I thought that everybody
there except for me would be their student government president;
however, I was mistaken, as a wide array of educational and
governmental interests were represented, from regional officers
for the Junior Statesmen of America to student representative
to local Boards of Education. Secondly, and most fundamentally,
you must be a United States citizen (this includes Washington,
DC and certain Department of Defense Educational Activities,
both of which also are represented by two delegates exactly
like the fifty states, adding up to a total of 104 delegates).
Besides these two basic criteria, each state’s
Education Department is allowed to choose their delegates in
whatever manner pleases them best. Most states make applications
(biographical information, a resume, transcript, test scores,
teacher recommendations, principal recommendations, essay) available
through high school guidance counselors; most deadlines are
in the early Fall, since the final deadline for states to send
delegate information to the Hearst Foundation is the first week
in December. After an application, the majority of states then
select finalists to be interviewed either by Education Department
personnel, any mix of political, education or government professionals.
The Hearst Foundation sets no guidelines at all for the state
delegate selection process. Some states also employ the school
selection-testing-interview process, in which each school in
the state selects one representative to take a test on national,
regional, state and local politics and government (a Massachusetts
delegate told me there was a question on the origin of a town’s
name on Cape Cod). The top scorers on this test are then interviewed,
and two delegates are selected from among the finalists.
Whichever selection method your state uses, if
you are selected as one of the two delegates from your state
(or one of the two alternates, who receive nothing except the
title) you will be notified by the Hearst Foundation (if not
your state) in mid-December. They send you a huge packet detailing
(as much as they can, most of the schedule is tentative up until
you get there) the Washington Week and all the preparations
that the week entails. Sure enough, a few weeks later your plane
or train tickets will appear in the mail, all paid for by the
Hearst Foundation.
When inquiring about this scholarship, most of
my peers mistook it for something akin to the National Youth
Leadership Forum, the National Student Leadership Conference,
Presidential Classroom, the National Youth Leadership Conference,
or Close-Up, all of which are one-week, paid programs that take
place in Washington, DC. Do not let this similarity fool you—USSYP
is the king of all one-week DC programs because essentially
the Hearst Foundation is paying you to attend Washington Week.
Since it was chartered by the United States Senate (yes, that
Senate) in 1962, and is continuing to be backed by the generosity
of the Foundation, USSYP is one of the most prestigious scholarships
out there simply because of its selectivity and the quality
of the program itself. How else are you going to meet the President?
Send him a letter requesting his presence? And how else are
you going to ask the likes of Sandra Day O’Connor, Richard
Armitage, and Donald Rumsfeld about today’s most pressing
issues? E-mail them a note? I think there’s a much better
chance in both cases if you simply request an application for
USSYP.
