The problem with youth and politics, some might say, is their ideals don’t match the reality of policy-making. But this March, one Sumner High School student will have the opportunity to see firsthand how the sausage is made.
Tristan Hanon, a senior, was chosen as one of two delegates from Washington state to travel to the country’s capital from March 6 to March 13 and participate in the 48th annual U.S. Senate Youth Program. Hanon received a $5,000 scholarship from the Hearst Foundations for being selected.
The program is geared toward high school juniors and seniors serving as elected officials in student government or other organizations.
Hanon filed his initial application at a youth leadership camp last summer, completing two essays describing his major leadership and community service activities.
He was selected as a semifinalist and in November he met with a board of Washington state principals who interviewed him about what policy issues he would encourage the president to change. He then took a test on current events and constitutional law that consisted of multiple choice questions, quote identification and an essay for which Hanon wrote about the issue of separation of state and church.
“I know I would have done extremely well (on the test) if I had studied the Constitution immediately beforehand,” Hanon said. “In the interview I was a little bit nervous, but I felt I connected with the interviewers. I was very nervous about the test. Of course, the other guys I was competing against were selected from a large pool of candidates, so I was going against the cream of the crop.”
In Washington, D.C., student delegates will attend meetings and briefings with senators, the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, cabinet members, federal agency leaders and senior members of the national media. Delegates see sights such as the capitol building, the White House, the Supreme Court and the Pentagon.
Hanon is president of the Sumner High chapter of FFA. In October, his team went to the organization’s national convention in Indianapolis, Ind., where Hanon and his colleagues snatched up several awards.
FFA involvement has peaked Hanon’s interest in agricultural issues like biofuels and sustainable energy, specifically in finding ways to create biofuels from nonfood sources. He reads articles on the subject whenever he comes across one, he said.
Agricultural energy policy will be the subject of an essay Hanon will write to be published in a U.S. Senate Youth book that will be given to senators.
Hanon plans to continue his agricultural studies into college. He has been accepted to Washington State University, which offers an agricultural economics degree which he plans to pursue. Beyond college, Hanon would like to apply to the law program at Cornell, which is known as the agricultural Ivy League school, he said.
