Arnav Dharmagadda, a junior at Russell High School (Greenup County) was selected from among the top student leaders in Kentucky to be part of the national 104-student delegation of the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP), who also will each receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
Dharmagadda is a representative on the Commissioner’s Student Advisory Council. He has served his community through extracurricular organizations, like Student Y Club, and was a founding member of the Building a Stronger Foundation in Education initiative, serving as student-teacher enriching educational opportunities for local students.
Dharmagadda also has taken on career responsibility through a fellowship and renewed internship at Teach for America’s Reinvention Lab. In this position, he influenced the next generation of classrooms and developed himself as a leader. He plans to study political science, economics, public policy, or a related field at the undergraduate level and then pursue a law degree before working in government or the nonprofit sector.
The U.S. Senate Youth Program was created by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962 and has been sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearst Foundations every year. The merit-based program brings 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 weeklong study of the federal government and the people who lead it. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the 2022 program will be held online through a comprehensive and highly interactive virtual education and leadership forum.
During the program week, the student delegates will attend online meetings and briefings with senators, the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, leaders of cabinet agencies, among others.
