The United States Senate Youth Program announced Jan. 11 that high school students Ananya Kachru and Annie Jin Wang will join Senators Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy representing Connecticut in the nation’s capital during the 56th annual USSYP Washington Week, to be held March 3 to 10.
Kachru, of Woodbridge, and Wang, of Cheshire, were selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the 104-member national student delegation who will also each receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
The USSYP was created in 1962 and has been sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearst Foundations since inception. The impetus for the program as stated in Senate testimony is “to increase young Americans’ understanding of the interrelationships of the three branches of government, learn the caliber and responsibilities of federally elected and appointed officials, and emphasize the vital importance of democratic decision making not only for America but for people around the world.”
Kachru attends Amity Regional High School and serves as a representative to the Connecticut State Student Advisory Council on Education. She is also the student liaison to the Amity Board of Education and a Principal’s Council representative. Additionally, Kachru co-authors the weekly “Student Happenings” newsletters, and helped spearhead the formation of Club Council. She is co-captain of her school’s debate team, and also debates with the International Public Debate program. She co-founded the Amity Academic Decathlon Team, and is co-president of the National Chinese Honor Society. Outside of school, she collaborates with the Ms President US organization to empower girls through public service.
Wang attends Cheshire High School and serves as the vice chair of the Connecticut High School Democrats. She has committed over 500 hours as the president of the Cheshire High School Young Democrats Club, which received the Best Chapter in the Nation award in 2015. She also serves as editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Rampage, and has been elected secretary of her class for all of her four years at Cheshire High School.
Chosen as alternates to the 2018 program were Willa Doss, a resident of Greenwich who attends Greenwich High School, and Mounisha Anumolu, a resident of Woodbridge who attends Amity Regional High School.
While in Washington the student delegates attend meetings and briefings with senators, members of the House of Representatives, Congressional staff, the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, leaders of cabinet agencies, an ambassador to the United States and senior members of the national media. The students will also tour many of the national monuments and several museums. They will stay at the historic Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C.
Each year the merit-based program brings 104 of the most outstanding high school students — two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity — to Washington, D.C. for an intensive week-long study of the federal government and the people who lead it. The overall mission of the program is to help instill within each class of USSYP student delegates more profound knowledge of the American political process and a lifelong commitment to public service.
Delegates and alternates are selected by the state departments of education nationwide and the District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity, after nomination by teachers and principals. The chief state school officer for each jurisdiction confirms the final selection. This year’s Connecticut delegates and alternates were designated by Dianna R. Wentzell, the state’s Commissioner of Education.
For more information, visit www.ussenateyouth.org.