Aaralyn Camp will meet with U.S. officials – including the president – during the U.S. Senate Youth Program Washington Week in March.
A senior at Cherry Hill High School East has been selected to join senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim in representing New Jersey at the 63rd annual U.S. Senate Youth Program Washington Week.
Aaralyn Camp – along with Union County’s Sriya Tallapragada – was selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of a 104-person national delegation that will attend meetings and briefings with senators, the president, a Supreme Court justice, members of the president’s cabinet and other officials throughout the week of March 1. Each delegate will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
“I am incredibly excited about this opportunity, as I have always been deeply fascinated by politics,” Camp told The Sun. “Being selected to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate Youth Program is a tremendous honor, and I am grateful for the chance to contribute to such a distinguished initiative.
“This week in Washington promises to offer invaluable insight into the inner workings of the political landscape,” she added. “I am also eager to connect with individuals from across the country who share a similar passion for politics and embody the hope and ambition that define our generation.”
Camp is a student representative on the board of education at East, co-secretary general of Model UN, an officer of Mock Trial and vice president of the French Honor Society. Her leadership extends to the arts as well; she is an officer in Belles of East, the school’s auditioned vocal ensemble.
Camp is president of East Musicians on Call, a club dedicated to raising funds for elementary music programs, and serves in the same role for the Cum Laude Society and Tutoring, which promotes academic excellence and intellectual curiosity in her fellow classmates.
Outside of school, Camp is the outreach director for A Little More Love, a local nonprofit that offers care for terminally ill patients at local facilities. She plans to pursue a degree in political science and later attend law school, with the goal of becoming a champion for equity and reform.
The Senate Youth Program was founded in 1962 by the sons of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst and senate leaders of the day – Mike Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey among them – a response to the divisiveness that followed the McCarthy era of Communist witch hunts in the 1950s. The founders outlined a plan to encourage America’s most talented young people to consider public service as an important, life-long and noble pursuit.
The extremely competitive, merit-based program each year chooses two outstanding high-school students from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity. Each student’s $10,000 college scholarship is intended to encourage course work in government, history and public affairs.
The Hearst Foundations has fully funded the youth program since its inception, without government money. Program delegates and alternates are selected by state departments of education nationwide after their nomination by teachers and principals. The chief state school officer for each jurisdiction confirms the final selection. This year’s delegates and alternates were designated by Kevin Dehmer, acting commissioner of the state’s Department of Education.
In addition to outstanding leadership abilities and a strong commitment to volunteer work, the student delegates rank academically in the top 1% of their states among high-school juniors and seniors.
There are currently more than 6,200 alumni of the program, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the first alumnus to be elected senator; Pete Buttigieg, secretary of transportation in the Biden administration and the first alumnus to be appointed a cabinet secretary; and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the first alumnus to be elected governor.
