HAVEN – Haven High School senior Jaron Caffrey, 18, is one of two Kansas high school students chosen to participate in the United States Senate Youth Program.
During March 3-10 in Washington, D.C., the students are expected to meet the President, a Supreme Court justice, an ambassador, and Senators. They also will meet leaders of Cabinet agencies and members of the national media. Visits to national monuments and museums are on the schedule, too.
The other Kansas student is Sandhya Ravikumar, Lawrence Free State High School.
A U.S. Senate resolution created the Senate Youth Program in 1962. It is fully funded by The Hearst Foundations, providing transportation, meals, and lodging at the Mayflower Hotel for all 104 students in the program. That includes two students from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity. Each student also will receive a $10,000 scholarship for undergraduate college studies.
Caffrey plans to pursue double majors in political science and economics at Washburn University, Topeka.
Students face a rigorous process to participate in the Senate Youth Program. They are nominated at the school level and must complete an exam and write a short essay. Finalists are interviewed by phone.
The chief state school officer confirms the final selection, and Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson designated Caffrey and Ravikumar and named two alternates: Phillip Pyle, Eudora High School, and Benjamin Wright, Abilene High School.
Caffrey is senior class president at Haven High, vice president of Student Council, and co-president of the Haven Kansas Association of Youth.
During 2016, he volunteered on the State Senate campaign of Ed Berger, Hutchinson. Caffrey accompanied Berger on the daily campaign trail and walked streets in the door-to-door campaign. “We would meet and greet with people,” Caffrey said, calling the experience eye-opening. Berger won the race.
Caffrey volunteered, too, on the 2016 re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Manhattan. Currently, Caffrey is a volunteer for the gubernatorial campaign of Wichita Republican Ed O’Malley.
Caffrey, son of Paul and Tammy Caffrey, Mount Hope, is interested in a career in the government sector.
Ravikumar plans to study political science and physics in college. She is the director of Youth Outreach for the Kansas Women’s Environmental Network and founded a STEM outreach program at her high school for underrepresented minorities.
Among alumni of the Senate Youth Program are two current Senators: Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Cory Gardner, R-Colorado.