Harrison senior selected for United States Senate Youth Program

Jake Busch, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read

Jan. 16—A senior at Harrison High School has been selected for a highly competitive program focused on the federal government.

Jack Lakis will spend a week in Washington, D.C., learning about the federal government and its leaders in March as part of the United States Senate Youth Program.

Lakis, of Kennesaw, is one of two Georgia delegates chosen to represent the state in the national program that consists of 104 high schoolers — two from each state, two from the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity.

Established by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962, the USSYP is fully funded by the Hearst Foundations, which also award each delegate $10,000 for undergraduate study and encourage continued coursework in public affairs, government and history.

"The overall mission of the program is to help instill within each class of USSYP student delegates more profound knowledge of the American political process and a lifelong commitment to public service," according to a press release announcing Lakis's selection.

Lakis told the MDJ he is the first Cobb County student in over a decade to be selected as a delegate, as well as the first student from Harrison High School selected by the program.

Lakis serves as the student body secretary of Harrison. He is the Georgia state lead in Project TEAL, an organization dedicated to promoting civic education, where he oversees curriculum, policy and efforts to lobby at the Georgia General Assembly, according to the release from the USSYP.

The release also notes that Lakis recently founded Atlanta's chapter of the History Retold Project, promoting inclusive, civics-based classrooms.

At Harrison, Lakis founded Political Converse, an organization supporting student engagement with current events and government in a nonpartisan atmosphere.

Lakis plans to major in political science or international politics before continuing to law school, and he hopes to become a Supreme Court clerk and to one day serve as a Supreme Court justice, according to USSYP.