(FRANKFORT, KY) – Patrick Bogdan Graboviy, a junior at North Oldham High School (Oldham County), and Ethan Cameron Morgan, a senior at Marshall County High School, will join Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul in representing Kentucky during the 64th annual U.S. Senate Youth Program Washington Week, to be held March 7-14.
Graboviy and Morgan were selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the 104-student delegation that will attend meetings and briefings with senators, the president, a justice of the Supreme Court, leaders of cabinet agencies and other officials throughout the week. Each delegate will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study.
The program, created by Senate Resolution 324 in 1962, is sponsored by the Senate and fully funded by The Hearst Foundations. The program brings the most outstanding high school students from around the nation to Washington, D.C., for an intensive weeklong study of the federal government and the people who lead it.
Each year, this extremely competitive merit-based program provides two outstanding high school students from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity with an intensive week-long study of the federal government and the people who lead it. The Hearst Foundations have fully funded the program since inception; as stipulated, no government funds are utilized.
Patrick Graboviy
As a student board member elected to the Kentucky YMCA Youth Association, Graboviy represents thousands of Kentucky students who participate in the organization’s civic education programs, such as the Kentucky Youth Assembly and Kentucky United Nations Assembly.
He also is the nonvoting student board representative on the Oldham County Board of Education, where he shares student input into board decisions. He is a member of the Louisville Ukrainian Task Force, where he supports the Ukrainian community by organizing rallies, hosting cultural events and raising donations for humanitarian relief. He also assisted refugee families with legal and resettlement resources.
Graboviy tutored a middle school student, providing individualized support in math, English language arts and science, and was an English tutor for three Ukrainian children displaced by the war, providing language instruction, mentorship and cross-cultural support to help them explore English opportunities. He has served as a U.S. Senate page and was selected for the Kentucky Governor’s School for Entrepreneurs. He also served on the Kentucky Student Voice Team.
After graduation, Graboviy plans to pursue a dual degree in public policy and business administration. His career aspirations are in civic service. His goal is to serve as a Kentucky state representative, become the House speaker and later serve in the U.S. Senate.
Ethan Morgan
As Marshall County High School student council president, Morgan hopes to create real change through public service. He works toward that goal by facilitating student grievances through tactful conversation and meetings with the administration, coordinating weekly emails to council members, setting council meetings, and writing and proposing bills for the administration to adopt.
Morgan also serves in such leadership roles as chair of the student delegates to the Marshall County Board of Education and vice president of the National Honors Society. He volunteers his services to Special Olympics as a broadcaster, announcer and coach at youth baseball camp and the Miracle League of Western Kentucky. He has volunteered for the Salvation Army and donated his services to a soup kitchen, a coat drive and cemetery restoration.
Morgan is a Governor’s Scholar participant and member of his school’s Gifted and Talented Program, designated in leadership. He is a Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy ambassador, a senior delegate of the Marshall County High School Media Arts Advisory Council, a student news anchor at West Kentucky Community and Technical College and he plays baseball for the school.
Morgan has been accepted to the Honors College at Murray State University. After earning his degree, he plans to attend law school to prepare for a career in public service or the media.
Chosen as alternates to the 2026 program were Ayesha Zulfigar Hamid, who attends Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Fayette County), and Joel Daniel Shalom, who attends duPont Manual High School (Jefferson County).
Delegates and alternates are selected by the state departments of education nationwide and the District of Columbia and Department of Defense Education Activity, after nomination by teachers and principals. The chief state school officer for each jurisdiction confirms the final selection.
For questions about Kentucky’s delegates, alternates or state election process, contact Rosalind Turner. For general information about the U.S. Senate Youth Program, email Program Director Wendy Wilk or call (800) 425-3632.
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