Cherry Hill East senior Grace Yoon was selected to be one of two student representatives to represent New Jersey for the 62nd U.S. Senate Program next month.
From March 2 to 9, Yoon will be in Washington D.C., hearing from senators; members of the president’s Cabinet; officials from the departments of state and defense; and directors of other federal agencies, according to the program’s website.
“Overall, I’m really excited to be able to meet all of the delegates from all of the 50 U.S. states,” Yoon said, “because they’re all accomplished individuals with all their own background stories and experiences.”
The student said she is especially inspired by Congressman Andy Kim and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, and hopes to meet them both during the program.
“I really look up to representative Andy Kim a lot,” she explained. “His character, also that he’s Korean American, just his character and what he fights for, I think that’s a really big part of what motivates me to work in politics.”
To apply for the U.S. Senate Program, Yoon had to be nominated by her school, submit a video and write two essays. One of them shared her passion for multicultural education and advocated its promotion of school safety, tying it to a summer project she did researching those issues in Kentucky.
“To me, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is this ability to sit down and talk to other people and hear their perspectives, without feeling the obligation to always agree, but always feeling the obligation to listen as well,” Yoon noted. “Because we can’t always seek to agree on different topics, but we can always agree to listen and hear the story.
“I think that’s something that’s really overlooked.”
Multiculturalism and DEI are also initiatives that evoke passion in students at East, Yoon maintains.
“At East, we take so much pride in our diversity and our ability to be inclusive of all different identities,” she observed. “Whether that leads into policy and politics or within club or school activities, I think that’s something really heavily talked about within my school community and within youth as a whole, because it’s so prominent.
“Especially for us – as the up-and-coming generation of government leaders, business leaders and change makers.”
Yoon hopes to bring questions she has about the national government to the program.
In her school community at East, she is the co-founder and co-captain of the speech team, co-captain of the mock trial team, president of the writing club, a member of Amnesty International and captain of DECA, a debate club.
To learn more about the U.S. Senate Program, visit https://ussenateyouth.org/.
