WASHINGTON - As part of an intensive program on government, two Arkansas students dined within sight of the U.S. Constitution, dropped by the White House and checked in with the International Space Station crew last week.

Abhilasha Gokulan of Little Rock and Adam Williams of Jonesboro will return to Arkansas today after a week of behind-the-scenes tours of national monuments and meetings with ambassadors, a Supreme Court justice and President Barack Obama. They are delegates in the 52-year-old U.S. Senate Youth Program.

Created by a Senate resolution in 1962, the program is sponsored by the U.S. Senate and funded by the Hearst Foundation.

Each year 104 students - two from each state and the District of Columbia, and two selected by the Defense Department - travel to Washington for the week long program. Each student also receives a $5,000 scholarship. No taxpayer dollars are used for the program, according to the foundation.

Gokulan, 17, is a senior at Little Rock Central High School. She is the student representative for the Arkansas Science Olympiad board of directors, co-president of Model UN and was secretary of state for Arkansas Girls State. She wants to study international relations and business.

Williams, 17, is a junior at Valley View High School and president of the Teen Advocacy Board Civic Organization.

Neither of them has picked a college yet, although Williams said he likes Stanford University.

The students met with Obama in the East Room of the White House and spent an hour peppering Justice Antonin Scalia with questions in the Supreme Court chamber.

They also visited several national monuments and museums, including the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, as well as Mount Vernon, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Arlington National Cemetery.

On Thursday, students met with the head of NASA and got a chance to speak with astronauts.

While waiting to meet with Arkansas’ U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman, the Arkansans said the trip gave them a more in-depth idea of how government functions and opened their eyes to new ways to become involved.

“Back in Arkansas you only get a secondhand experience [of] what happens in Washington, you only see it on the TV or in the newspaper,” Williams said. “To actually go to Washington and see these people and see what they say and how they feel about different stuff, it’s just a great insider experience.”

Williams said he’s always been interested in politics, even memorizing the names of the presidents in order as a child, but he’s not sure yet if he wants to run for office or work as an official’s staff member.

“This program has just been great about showing the different aspects of government and the different parts of government that I can maybe become involved in,” he said.

Williams said he was excited about meeting the president Thursday.

“Just to be in the same room as the president of the United States is something I’ve just always dreamed about,” he said.

“I love diplomacy, and I’d love to work for the U.N. in the future,” Gokulan said. “This is something right up my alley.”

Her favorite moment of the week was meeting the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, the first woman to lead the organization.

“She has been a pioneer, and she was just very sweet, very personable,” Gokulan said.

Gokulan said she was amazed by the access delegates had.

“We had dinner in the [National] Archives rotunda, which is incredible. Just eating there with all those famous [documents], the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, it’s phenomenal the amount of exposure we’re getting,” Gokulan said.

In Arkansas, delegates are selected on the basis of their applications, an intensive exam created by the Hearst Foundation and interviews with a panel of former Arkansas educators, Arkansas program coordinator Maggie Herrick said by phone. Delegates often rank among the top 1 percent of students in their states academically.

The exam tests students’ knowledge of national and international politics and policy. The interviews, held in Little Rock, ask students about current state and national political events, Herrick said.

“It’s a thorough exam of the different branches and how they operate,” Herrick said. “It’s very focused.”

Arkansas Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell makes the final decision, she said.

Past Arkansas delegates have gone on to have distinguished careers in state and national politics, and private industry, Herrick said.

Thomas F. McLarty III, a 1964 delegate, was President Bill Clinton’s first chief of staff.

David Martin, a 1976 delegate, is president of Martin-Wilbourn Partners, a Little Rock advertising and marketing agency. He previously led the state’s largest such firm - Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods.

Martin said the 1976 trip cemented his goal of being involved in politics. He went on to earn degrees in business administration and political science, and has worked extensively with campaigns and public opinion research.

“It was a significant experience for me at that age to have that much access and insight into Washington,” he said.

Chad Griffin, a 1991 delegate, is president of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., the nation’s largest gay-rights group.

J.R. Dallas of Fort Smith, a 1975 delegate, led the Arkansas Air National Guard 188th Fighter Wing in Fort Smith for five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the state House in 2010.

Dallas said by phone Thursday that he didn’t know what to expect when he attended the program.

“It was just a phenomenal environment in which to be in with a bunch of kids and see that, yeah, something was expected of us,” Dallas said. “It just made me want to be an Air Force officer just much more than I did as a [younger] high school student.”

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 03/16/2014