Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today welcomed student delegates and their military officer mentors from the 63rd United States Senate Youth Program to the Pentagon, capping off a weeklong visit to Washington.
Created in 1962 by Senate Resolution 324, the USSYP annually brings 104 high-achieving high school students — two from every state, Washington and the Department of Defense Education Activity — and their 17 U.S. military officer mentors to the nation’s capital. The students spend an intensive week learning about the federal government and those who lead it.
Hegseth greeted the students and mentors shortly after they arrived at the Pentagon Library and Conference Center.
“I congratulate you all for being here, and I thank the members of the military who support the program as well, continuing to give back in uniform [while] demonstrating what that kind of leadership looks like so that everybody here sees what that pathway looks like,” Hegseth told the room full of student delegates and their mentors.
He added that there are several other paths to service beyond the military, and he believed the many people in the room would one day be leaders at the state, national and international levels.
“That’s important, but build the building blocks of who you are, what you believe [and] what’s most important to you first, because that core is what will provide the foundation for any other kind of service that you [give],” Hegseth said.
Alliyah Regala, a senior student council president at EJ King Middle High School on U.S. Fleet Activities, Sasebo, Japan, said that seeing leaders like Hegseth and others in person during the week helped her to more thoroughly humanize those public officials beyond how they are portrayed in the media.
“Seeing [Hegseth] in person made me realize that … he’s just another American who loves his country and wants to continue to serve his country,” Regala said, adding that, despite any differences she might have with Hegseth or other public figures, she appreciates the common ground of service to the American people that they all share.
Emily Wheeler, a junior and music honor society president at Stuttgart High School in Germany, shared a similar sentiment.
She said you can hear “a lot of divisive opinions,” and it’s likely a really hard job to be secretary of such a diverse department with so many different people.
“But when he walks out and talks about what being secretary of defense means to him, you can tell it’s out of love of God and love of country; you can tell that he’s a patriot,” she added.
The USSYP military officer mentors go through a competitive selection process and then spend the Washington Week portion of the program helping the student delegates gain a better understanding of DOD’s mission and the overall importance of public service. Many of them said they appreciated Hegseth taking the time to speak with the students.
“[Hegseth] really connected with the delegates, and that’s what we’re all about here in Washington Week — ensuring that the best and brightest hear from our leaders in the administration at the time,” said Army Maj. Catherine Grizzle, a USSYP mentor who also served in the program in 2022 and 2024.
She added that the notion of merit, one of Hegseth’s key focus points in his Jan. 25, 2025, message to the force, also applies to the USSYP and her own career in the Army.
“These junior delegates were … selected based on merit, based on their success, [and] based on the way that they’re adapting in their communities and getting involved in public service; and that really [transfers] to my career as a military officer in terms of the operational definition … of merit,” Grizzle said.
Another USSYP military mentor, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Vikram Kanth, also said he sees meritocracy as being applicable to his career.
“I was selected as one of the first maritime cyber warfare officers in the Navy, so — from my perspective — merit has been ever present,” Kanth said, adding that he sees merit as the “throughline” for people he knows in the Navy who are talented and deserving of the success that they are having.
Kanth also said he appreciated how Hegseth’s remarks reached out to the student delegates.
“I think [Hegseth’s remarks] were very effective in conveying a strong message to the delegates — this program is for them,” he said.
Ultimately, that’s all we can ask from this program: that the student delegates are exposed to all the different parts of our government and that it inspires them to serve in whatever capacity they want, he added.
In addition to visiting the Pentagon, the student delegates spend Washington Week each year routinely meeting with Senate leaders, the president, a Supreme Court justice, a foreign ambassador to the U.S., senior officials from the State Department and other agencies, as well as senior members of the national media.
The USSYP has been fully funded by the Hearst Foundations since the program’s inception.
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