2026 USSY Program
The United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) Washington Week will be held March 7-14, 2026. Two students from each state will be selected to attend the online program and each student will receive a $10,000 undergraduate college scholarship. All student leadership qualifying positions are subject to the judgement of the state selection administrator and will be verified and confirmed.
Please read the application carefully, as it has changed from previous years!
CHANGES to the application for the 2026 program:
- Applicants must agree that they will cite all works, not plagiarize, and will only use Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the boundaries of the requirements of the program for Wisconsin. Applicants are encouraged to ask teachers and caregivers for help and support, should do research online, and may use AI to form ideas. However, applicants may not copy directly from a source without citing it. Citing sources is key; consider that if the information does not come right out of your head as an opinion, you need to cite the source (in other words, you do not automatically know everything there is to know about the Second Amendment - you learned it somewhere. Cite the source!) The #1 reason that students do not make the Top 10 is not citing their sources. Applications that do not cite the sources used are automatically discarded.
- Principals are no longer required to write a letter of recommendation. They are, however, required to fill out the survey found here (PDF of questions can be found here). This is to ensure there is only one applicant per high school, and to acknowledge the statement of the use of citation and AI in the application. Students still need one letter of recommendation from an adult overseeing the program that qualifies the applicant for the program, and MAY send a second letter of recommendation if they want.
- School ranking has been removed from the application. However, gender and race/ethnicity have been added. This is to ensure correct useage of honorifics with our applicants, and for data purposes only.
Please note that the Top Ten applications selected for a virtual interview will be required to submit a 3-4 minute video "portfolio" outlining their work as a youth civics leader.
Application Portal
The application for Wisconsin students applying for the U.S. Senate Youth Program can be accessed here. If the link is not live, applications are not yet being accepted for the next program. The application portal opens in mid-August every year.
Applications are accepted online only. If you are unable to process the application online, please contact the program administrator for Wisconsin immediately at DPI.USSYP@dpi.wi.gov.
Please read the entire application before beginning, using the available PDF of all the questions . We strongly suggest that students have a trusted adult read over the application, especially the essays, before submitting.
This is an extremely rigorous selection process; remember that grammar, punctuation, and citing resources are all taken into account in the assessment of the applications.
Application Considerations
Incomplete applications will be discarded; make sure to fill out all sections completely and according to directions.
Applicants must obtain ONE letter of recommendation (NOTE that this is different from previous years!). The letter must be from a teacher or adult who oversees the program that qualifies you for this program. It must be sent to DPI.USSYP@dpi.wi.gov directly from the oversight adult email address. It may be brief and to the point. Applicants may have one additional letter of recommendation sent to that address, but the oversight letter is required. Administrators will receive a short reply within one business day of receipt; if they do not receive a reply email, the letter has not been received. It is the applicant's responsibility to ask for the letter, to ensure the person has time to write it, and to follow up that it has been sent.
In addition (NEW for the 2026 program), instead of a letter of recommendation from the school administrator, the principal/lead administrator for the applicant's high school must fill out the form found here. It is simple and straightforward, and the applicant can provide a copy of the questions to the administrator beforehand with this PDF of the questions. This MUST be completed for an application to be considered complete. Note that the administrator will be stating that to the best of their knowledge, the applicant has not plagiarized or used AI in a manner that is not allowed.
Make sure to keep short and long essays within the word limit, and to cite resources. It is suggested that applicants use a word processor with spell-check and a grammar function, as well as having a trusted adult proofread the essays. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word count are "counted" in the application process. *New in the 2026 application: the applicant MUST agree that they have not plagiarized
ALL materials, including the administrator letter, must be received by the due date and time. The application portal will be disabled at that time, and no late submissions are accepted.
Important Note
The timeline for determining delegates and alternates is very tight. Therefore, there is no time to return incomplete or incorrect applications. Incomplete student applications are discarded in the first round of review.
Due to the large number of applications and the limited resources on our end, individual feedback cannot be given to students on their applications.
The most common reasons for discard are:
- Failure to complete the entire application, including the required essays.
- Applicant does not cite the sources for the information they use in the required essays.
- Student not holding an elected or selected office during the current school year, as required by the Hearst Foundation, who funds the program.
- Letter/survey from administrator is not sent.