SALEM, Utah — Two Utah high school students will be heading to Washington D.C. in early spring after competing to be selected as United States Youth Senators.
Aingeleah Ford, a senior at Salem Hills High School, has a passion for our country.
"Trying to promote future leaders for our county and integrating Gen Z, especially right now into our legislative system and our government," said Ford.
She gets the chance to go experience an educational program alongside 103 other chosen student leaders from across the U.S.
"I've always been so astonished and interested in government. I've taken this into a lot of practices in my life. I've attended things like Girls State that taught be about legislation and how to actually run for Congress," said Ford.
In September, she began competing to be selected as one of two youth senator delegates for the state of Utah through the U.S. Senate Youth Program.
"We were chosen by the Utah State Board of Education. They had a completion," Ford said. "First I was chosen from my school as one of two delegates to participate in the state competition, and then we did things like extemporaneous speeches, timed essays."
Knowing that her hard work paid off is just the beginning of the excitement to come.
"I got an email, it was just a simple email, I just saw the tagline, the subject of it, and I was just so excited, I was screaming," Ford said. "I came home and showed my parents because I worked really, really hard for this position... I studied three hours a day just to win the state competition."
Each delegate is also awarded a $10,000 scholarship. The United States Senate Youth Program's goal is to provide an educational experience to students interested in public service careers.
"It's essentially trying to give more civic opportunities for and engagement for youth in our country," said Ford.
She is already preparing for Washington Week, where all 104 youth senators meet for the youth program.
"Talking with a bunch of extremely qualified people who I am very interested in talking to — senators, legislators and even the president," said Ford.
She's looking forward to heading to D.C. in March 2025 and working alongside the other chosen student leaders.
"That passion that I have for our government at its core and our country at its core, and I believe that these people that I know through the youth senate program, they are so amazing, and they are our future leaders," said Ford.
