MEDIA CONTACT: Meghan Frick, GaDOE Communications Office, mfrick@doe.k12.ga.us
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March 1, 2021 – The Georgia Department of Education today announced the students selected as Georgia's delegates and alternates to the 2021 United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP).
Mr. Zae Brewer (Lithonia High School, DeKalb County Schools) and Ms. Faith Kristen Townsend (Johnson High School, Hall County Schools) were selected as this year's delegates. Mr. Avery Fulmer and Ms. Tiffany Pham were selected as alternates.
“It is so important for our students to engage in activities that expand their civic knowledge and skills – after all, being a citizen is the one responsibility we all share," State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “I am extremely proud of these students who have been selected to represent Georgia through the United States Senate Youth Program, and know they will be outstanding ambassadors for our state."
Each year, the USSYP brings the most outstanding high school students – two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity – to Washington, D.C. for an intensive weeklong study of the federal government and the people who lead it. Due to the pandemic, the 2021 program will be the first-ever fully virtual Washington Week. Zae and Faith will join a 104-student delegation and will each receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study. The USSYP was created by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962, and has been sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearts Foundations since inception.
In addition to outstanding leadership abilities and a strong commitment to volunteer work, all USSYP student delegates rank academically in the top one percent of their state's high-school juniors and seniors.
Zae Brewer is a senior at Lithonia High School, where he serves as president of the student body. During his high school years, Zae has served as class president, class vice president, and student representative. He has helped register his peers to vote, volunteered at phone banks for political candidates, held food and donation drives for underserved people, and volunteered to help social causes. After majoring in political science and possibly serving in the Armed Forces, he hopes to become a federal government worker, small business owner, and local political official. Zae believes this will lead him to his dream and lifetime goal of becoming a United States Senator from Georgia.
Faith Townsend is a senior at Johnson High School, where she serves as National Honor Society president, Beta Club president, and a participant in the Governor's Honors Program as a science major with a chemistry concentration. Her goal is to be offered an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy for a Nuclear engineering major. If not offered an appointment, she plans to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology to pursue a nuclear engineering degree and a commission into the U.S. Navy through the N.R.O.T.C. program. Faith has committed herself to leadership, scholarship, and service so that she may be a better Naval officer and protector of liberty and the Constitution.
Mr. Avery Fulmer is a resident of Dacula who attends Hebron Christian Academy.
Ms. Tiffany Pham is a resident of Jonesboro who attends Elite Scholars Academy School.
