Haddonfield Memorial High School principal Tammy McHale announced that Lily Anne Cheatham was one of two New Jersey students chosen to be a part of the United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP). She will join Senator Robert Menendez and Senator Cory Booker in representing New Jersey during the 60th annual USSYP Washington Week, to be held online March 6 to 9, 2022.
Cheatham was selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the national student delegation who also will each receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
The USSYP was created by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962 and has been sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearst Foundations since its 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.”
Each year this extremely competitive, merit-based program provides the most outstanding high school students – two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity – with 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.
During the program week, the student delegates will attend online meetings and briefings with Senators, the President, a justice of the Supreme Court, and leaders of Cabinet agencies, among others.
Cheatham, a senior at Haddonfield Memorial High School, serves as the president of the Senior Class. She is also president of her school’s Model UN team and gun violence prevention club and has won the Widener Leadership award and the Princeton Prize in Race Relations for her work on Student Council. In addition to these leadership positions, she is the historian of the National Honor Society chapter at her school, and a member of the National French Honor Society and National Art Honor Society. Academically, she ranks in the top 1% of her class. In the future, Cheatham hopes to study international relations with a concentration in human rights issues in college.
Now more than 6,000 strong, alumni of the program continue to excel and develop impressive qualities that are often directed toward public service. Among the many distinguished alumni are Senator Susan Collins, the first alumnus to be elected U.S. Senator; Secretary of Transportation and former Mayor of South Bend Indiana, Pete Buttigieg; former Senator Cory Gardner, the second alumnus to be elected U.S. Senator and the first to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; and many others.
For more information please visit: www.ussenateyouth.org.
