WJTV-TV Jackson
Mississippi students selected for U.S. Senate Youth Program
By Malaysia McCoy
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) announced that high school students Katherine Marie Farthing and Iris Jiani Xue will join Senator Roger F. Wicker and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in representing Mississippi during the 62nd annual USSYP Washington Week. The event will be held March 2-9, 2024.
Farthing, a Madison native, and Xue, a Southaven native, were selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the 104 national student delegation. Each delegate will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
Farthing is a senior at Madison Central High School, and Xue is a senior at The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS).
The USSYP was created by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962 and has been sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearst Foundations since inception.
Chosen as alternates to the 2024 program were Charles Mitchell Frugé, a resident of Oxford, who attends Oxford High School, and Evelyn Anne O’Gwynn, a resident of Brandon, who attends Northwest Rankin High School.
Delegates and alternates are selected by the state departments of education nationwide and the District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity, after nomination by teachers and principals. The chief state school officer for each jurisdiction confirms the final selection. This year’s Mississippi delegates and alternates were designated by Dr. Raymond Morgigno, Interim State Superintendent of Education.
During the program week, the student delegates will attend meetings and briefings with senators, the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, and leaders of cabinet agencies, among others.