Dubuque Senior High School student Sibani Ram was recently selected as one of two Iowa students to participate in the 56th annual United States Senate Youth Program to be held March 3-10 in Washington, DC.
Ram joins Robert Nishimwe from North High School in Des Moines as representatives on the 104-student delegation participating in Washington Week. The Iowa delegates were selected by a committee at the Iowa Department of Education.
As a Senior student, Ram is active on a school, community and state level. She is currently chair of the State of Iowa Youth Advisory Council Education Committee and is active in Model United Nations. She is involved in several community fundraising efforts such as Music and Memory, where she helped raise over $12,000. In addition, Ram has won several awards for her writing, including the Iowa Juneteenth essay contest, being published in the Chicago Tribune as a young book critic, and winning the Iowa Reading Council State Poetry contest.
In addition to the all-expenses-paid program week, each delegate receives a $10,000 undergraduate college scholarship with encouragement to continue coursework in government, history and public affairs.
Each year, the program brings more than 100 of the most outstanding high school students (two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity) to Washington, DC. The goals of the program include deepening the understanding of America’s political process and strengthening the students’ resolve to pursue careers in public service.
In addition to outstanding leadership abilities and a strong commitment to volunteer work, the student delegates rank academically in the top one percent of their states, among high school juniors and seniors.