The College Student Congress is a transformative two-week summer program tailored for undergraduates, meticulously designed to cultivate essential personal character skills vital for future leaders in the realms of public policy, politics, diplomacy, and contemporary leadership. The summer program in public policy selects fifty-one rising college seniors, representing each state and the District of Columbia, to learn about the dynamics of the policy process through an experiential and immersive curriculum. Students engage with lawmakers, academics, government relations experts, policy advisors and other leaders to explore the challenges of formulating comprehensive public policy.
A key component of the summer program is the public policy project, administered in partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration. Through this project, participants will have the opportunity to research and develop a bipartisan solution for a policy challenge currently facing the nation. Previous topics have included healthcare, the national deficit, national security, immigration, criminal justice reform, net neutrality and others.
First, students self-identify and subdivide as leaning more or less towards conservative or liberal ideology on the four topics. Then, students proceed to create a partisan policy proposal for their given topic. This results in a conservative and liberal proposal for each of the topics. The challenge presented to participants is to negotiate, combine elements of their partisan proposals and present a single, bipartisan policy proposal on their topic.
Throughout this process, students are advised by PhD students and hear from experts in order to explore the depths of their unique topics. Students are challenged to interact with peers who hold different beliefs than they do, to civilly and openly engage in a dialogue about their differences, to learn to listen to one another and, ultimately, to come together in the spirit of cooperation in order to achieve progress for the common good. All the while, students develop and hone their leadership, negotiation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
Additionally, students have the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. to see the real public policy process in action. Students meet with politicians, visit government agencies, engage in conversations with private sector players, and explore possible bridges between their academic and professional lives. Previous events in D.C. have included:
In addition to the rigorous and exciting academic elements of the summer program in public policy, many students find the opportunities to participate in team-building, leadership, and social activities invaluable. Students might enjoy an educational trip to Henry Clay’s Ashland Estate or the Kentucky Derby Museum. Or a laid-back tour of Woodford Reserve Distillery or West Sixth Brewing. Moreover, students participate in a leadership workshop designed for current elected officials at the national headquarters of the Council of State Governments. Over the course of the two-week summer program, students create friendships and lasting bonds with diverse peers from across the country.
The 2024 College Student Congress will take place in Lexington, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. from May 13th – May 23rd, 2024. Applications are due by January 5, 2024.
The summer program in public policy is hosted on the campuses of the University of Kentucky in Lexington and American University in D.C.. Students will be housed in residential dormitories.
