Back to School Reading: 2015 Yearbook Hot Off the Presses
The annual United States Senate Youth Program yearbook, which hit the shelves this summer, makes great September reading for anyone interested in government, education, leadership and public service. The USSYP yearbook is distributed in hard copy as a lifetime keepsake for the student delegates, featuring beautiful photos and comprehensive summaries of the fantastic speaking events that took place during Washington Week last March. The books are also sent to all Senators, the President, all of the speakers for that program year and many friends of the program, inside and outside the beltway.
The 2015 yearbook contains the notable and quotable moments from the keynote speeches given by our Senate Co-Chairs and the many other speakers who generously gave of their time. Two Senators, one from each party, serve as the program’s acting Co-Chairs each year and each agrees to speak to the students at a separate keynote dinner event during the week.
2015 Republican Co-Chair Senator Johnny Isakson spoke at the National Archives rotunda at a dinner held in front of the nation’s founding documents. He shared heartfelt advice that would serve those entering college, as well as seasoned professionals. Democratic Co-Chair Senator Joe Manchin’s message: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care” was inscribed in nearly every Senate Youth Program leather moleskin during his keynote evening and struck a chord with all who heard his impassioned call for public service. A full roster of Washington Week 2015 speakers is listed at the end of this blog.
“In the United States of America, you can be anything you want to be, if you’re only willing to dream it, and make the commitments that are necessary to succeed in life.” Senator Johnny Isakson
The reverential backdrop of the National Archives Rotunda was the setting for the Republican Co-Chair keynote dinner featuring Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, one of the Senate’s most senior and universally respected members. Senator Isakson, who is currently chairing two full Committees in the 114th Congress, began his remarks by congratulating the delegates and reviewing the impressive events and individuals they had been attending and meeting. “This program is all about opening your eyes to the opportunities that are available to you,” he said. “And if you wonder if you could do such things one day, I will tell you, in the United States of America, you can be anything you want to be, if you’re only willing to dream it, and make the commitments that are necessary to succeed in life.” The room erupted in rousing applause, and with the founding documents glowing faintly in their cases behind him, the senior Senator from the Peach State enumerated a list of “six essential pieces of advice that can make a difference in your life and our country.”
The first is to never stop learning. He pointed out that when you graduate from college it is not the end of your education, “The ceremony is called ‘Commencement’ not ‘Terminal’”, he joked. Secondly, he counseled, life is all about relationships: you must have respect for your fellow human beings. Noting that every single person has something to contribute, he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, “Always judge a man by the content of his character, never by the color of his skin.” Third, the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics advised, you must lead an ethical life and treat others as you would like to be treated, tossing out a favorite quote by Mark Twain, “When confronted with a difficult decision, do what’s right. You’ll astound a few and you’ll amaze the rest.” The fourth piece of advice he offered is to love. “Love your country, your family, friends and schools,” he said, “But remember this from the last speech given by Will Rogers: Love people and use things. Don’t ever use people and love things.” He spoke of faith as the fifth essential item, saying there was no right or wrong pathway to faith, only that “You will need a deep and abiding faith to you get you through difficult times.” Lastly, he offered, “Be willing to dream, for in America you have the opportunity to be whatever you dream you want to be, if you prepare through your ethics, through your respect for your fellow man, through loving your fellow man, through respecting the institutions that have gotten you here, and learning every single day.” Senator Isakson then opened the floor to take many questions from the eager delegates who thoroughly enjoyed their evening with a true statesman and southern gentleman.
“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Senator Joe Manchin, III
Senator Joe Manchin, III, of West Virginia won the hearts and minds of the 2015 delegates with a very personal speech that revealed much about his boyhood in the small rural town where he grew up “between the creek and the railroad tracks.” As the keynote speaker for Washington Week’s opening night dinner, the Democratic Co-Chair transported the students to the three bedroom garage apartment he shared with his four siblings and his parents. “I grew up a privileged child in a small coal mining town – privileged because I was given unconditional love and a lot was expected from me,” he began. Starting work at age 10 in his father’s small furniture store, he relayed the wisdom gleaned from his grandparents that shaped his life and philosophy as he progressed through a career as state senator, governor and eventually U.S. Senator for the Mountain State. “My grandfather told me to keep myself strong mentally, physically and financially if I ever wanted to be able to help anyone else, and I learned the meaning of real service to others from my grandmother, Mama Kay.” It was his grandmother who, in providing a safe haven, work and meals for those in need, showed her young grandson a template for government to serve as a helping hand. She also told him these indelible words: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”
The moderate Democrat, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Commerce, Armed Services, and Veterans’ Affairs Committees is known for being a dealmaker interested in bipartisan solutions to major challenges such as balancing the federal budget. He shed light on several other issues he is passionate about including climate change and energy use, ways to improve early childhood health and education and finding new pathways to building connections and comity among Senators on both sides of the aisle. Creating a public service corps modeled somewhat on the Peace Corps was another idea he spoke of, harkening back to his core values. He spoke frankly to the delegates about the perceived price of being involved in public life and the intensive scrutiny it engenders. ”Wouldn’t this be a heck of a place to live if everyone was afraid of that risk and wouldn’t serve?” he reflected. “It’s such a small price to pay for democracy, such a small price.”
Washington Week 2015 Speakers in Order of Appearance:
Monday
Robert H. Henry, former Chief Judge, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Julie Adams, Secretary of the Senate
Elizabeth MacDonough, Senate Parliamentarian
Don Ritchie, Senate Historian
Vanita Gupta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
Becky L. Monroe, Senior Counsel, Civil Rights Division
Senator Joe Manchin, III of West Virginia
Tuesday
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator
Douglas Frantz, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Christopher Painter, State Department Coordinator for Cyber Issues
Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group
Jay Heimbach, External and Corporate Relations, World Bank Group
David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States
Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia
Wednesday
Major Garrett, CBS News, Chief White House Correspondent
Ambassador Bjorn Lyrvall of Sweden
Senate Reception, with 80 Senators visiting in person with USSYP delegates
Thursday
Secretary Jeh Johnson, Department of Homeland Security
President Barack Obama
Senator Susan Collins of Maine
Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado
National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center performance
Friday
Brian Lamb, Founder and Executive Chairman of C-SPAN
Robert O. Work, Deputy Secretary of Defense
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer