2025 COLLEGE STUDENT CONGRESS REPORT

2025 Henry Clay Center College Student Congress Report

As the Interim Director and the Director of Operations and Programs of the Henry Clay Center, we are pleased to report that we have just completed the 2025 Henry Clay College Student Congress. Your continued support, guidance, presentations, and financial assistance have allowed us to provide the 50 participating students with a career-changing program and experience. The program enhanced their knowledge of national public policy issues and demonstrated that citizens with differing opinions can, through fact-based civil discourse, achieve forward-focused policy solutions. The knowledge and insights gained during the Student Congress will shape their visions for the future, influence their career aspirations, and strengthen their capacity for regional and national leadership.

We want to sincerely thank you for your continued commitment to the goals of the Clay Center Student Congress that ensure the continued success of the Clay Center’s major program. The growing national recognition of the Clay Student Congress program is evidenced by the 280 applications received from all but one state and the District of Columbia. Applications were submitted by students attending Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale, major public research universities, and leading public and private liberal arts colleges across the nation.

All the 2025 class applicants offered impressive credentials and made the selection process challenging and difficult, although it was enjoyable to view such an array of talented young students. As in the past, applicants provided information regarding their home state, the college or university they were attending, as well as information regarding their academic record. Their applications also included details about their campus and community activities, their leadership experiences, and a brief essay about their reason for applying to the Clay Center program.

COLLEGE STUDENT CONGRESS: Lexington / University of Kentucky
May 19 – May 24

The Lexington week of the Student Congress took place from May 19 through May 24. Students arrived on May 19 and were welcomed the following day, May 20, at Ashland, the historic home of Henry Clay, by Henry Clay Center Co-Chairs Bill Giles and Robert Clay, as well as Dr. Ron Zimmer, Director of the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration. They also received a special welcome from Lexington Mayor, Linda Gorton. During the welcoming remarks, students were congratulated on their selection for this year’s program, particularly notable given the exceptional quality and quantity of applicants, and were encouraged to fully engage in every aspect of the week. They were told that such active participation would have a transformative impact on their future careers.

Additional greetings were shared by Linda Breathitt, Board Member of Ashland (The Henry Clay Estate), and Jim Clark, Executive Director of the Estate, who offered reflections on Henry Clay and the rich history of Ashland. Their remarks were well received and provided meaningful context for the week’s program, emphasizing the importance of Henry Clay’s legacy, particularly his dedication to resolving national policy conflicts through civil discourse and fact-based compromise.

The welcoming comments stressed the vital importance of programs like the Henry Clay Student Congress, given the divisions and severe partisanship sweeping across our country. The speakers also shared their thoughts about the importance of the program’s primary focus on civil discourse in addressing and solving our nation’s conflicts and disagreements. The speakers also indicated that if we are going to maintain our democracy and all the benefits that each of us receives every day from our freedom, we must engage in our communities as well as in our national policy issues. This indicated that the program is designed to assist them in effectively achieving such engagement.

The students were also challenged to commit themselves to offering original ideas and thoughts regarding the policy issues they would be focusing on during the week. They were encouraged to use the experience of the upcoming week to gain a richer understanding of the importance of, and strategies for, achieving civil discourse and compromise regarding contentious national issues.

During the week, the students were divided into four public policy groups and were charged to develop policy positions on the topics chosen for the week, including: 1) Immigration Policy, 2) Trade and Tariff Policy, 3) Defense Alliances Policy, and 4) International Health and Environmental Standards Policy. After finalizing their policy positions, the students participated in a “compromise” exercise, which resulted in a set of policy recommendations presented to a panel of judges on the final day of the Lexington portion of the Student Congress. The excellent panel, which included Linda Breathitt, Brad Cowgill, Richard Dawahare, and HCC Board member, Jim Gray, challenged the students with questions about their analysis of the policy issue, their assessment of policy options, and the implications of their policy recommendations. For the first time, the Compromise Competition was streamed live. It is available for viewing on the Clay Center website. www.henryclaycenter.org

The students’ grasp and understanding of these critically important national issues, the originality of their proposed policy positions achieved through civil discourse, and their ability to communicate their rationale for their policy positions impressed the panel of judges and the attendees at the week’s culminating presentations.

While in Lexington, the students also benefited from presentations regarding the policy process by University of Kentucky’s Martin School faculty, including Dr. Cory Curl, and ways and means of meeting with and communicating with colleagues by staff of the Council of State Governments. There was a special presentation regarding emerging policy issues associated with artificial intelligence by David Kloiber, Henry Clay Center Board Member, and an enthusiastic discussion of the importance of engaging in public policy issues and the green energy revolution by Adam Edelen of Edelen Renewables.

Among the speakers to address the students was Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who urged the students to consider the evolving role of government in these times. The Senator’s participation was made possible by the efforts of Board Member Rob Givens, Director of the Senator’s Kentucky operations. Because of tornado and flooding recovery efforts, Governor Andy Beshear (D) was unable to meet with the students despite many scheduling efforts by Board Member Jim Gray, Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth. Secretary Gray did serve as a judge at the Compromise Competition.

The program also included a special presentation regarding the “Art of Compromise” by former Kentucky Legislator and Board Member Sannie Overly and Angela Evans, Fayette County Attorney and former Lexington-Fayette Councilmember. The students also heard from Ed Owens, CEO, Kentucky Public Pensions Authority, on the importance of public policy performance assessment and accountability. The students also enjoyed a reception and a networking event at the King Alumni House sponsored by the Martin School, the Patterson School, and the UK Rosenberg Law College.

A closing dinner to conclude the Lexington week was held at the Spindletop, the University of Kentucky’s faculty, alumni, and staff club. At the dinner, Board Member David Adkins, CEO and Executive Director of the Council of State Governments, delivered an inspiring message about the importance of engaged citizenship. He challenged them to enter the arena now.

COLLEGE STUDENT CONGRESS: Washington, D.C.
May 25 – May 29

After completing the Lexington, Kentucky portion of the Student Congress, the students traveled to Washington, D.C. for the second part of the program. The D.C. portion was designed to provide the students with exposure to the federal public policy process, as well as to the players and organizations involved in developing, approving, and ultimately implementing federal public policy.

The students arrived in D.C. on May 25, the Sunday before Memorial Day. Memorial Day activities included a visit to Mount Vernon, where they had a tour and discussion of the history of Mount Vernon as well as special insights regarding the nation’s first President. Following an afternoon of visiting various sites on the National Mall, the students enjoyed a reception at the Army/Navy Club, hosted by Douglas Kiker, Henry Clay Center Board member.

The second day of the D.C. program started with a visit to the U.S. Supreme Court. The students were welcomed by Scott Harris, Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court, and Roman Martinez, a former Clerk. The hosts discussed how the Court decides which cases will be heard and how draft positions are researched and written by the Clerks assigned to each Justice. They also discussed how the Chief Justice decides who will write the Court’s opinion and a dissenting opinion, if a dissent is to be provided to the public.

After the Supreme Court visit, the students moved to the Hall of the States, where they met with staff from state associations (National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Association of State Budget Officers) and learned of the role of state government association staff in Washington, D.C., in ensuring that state governments’ interests are considered in the formulation and implementation of federal policy.

Following the state association meetings, the students proceeded to the German Embassy. They met with Markus Teglas, Minister Counselor in the Embassy’s Political Department. Markus held an active discussion session with the students about issues of concern to Germany, U.S.–German relations, the war in Ukraine, as well as emerging U.S. and German relations with China.

On Wednesday, May 28, the students were guests of the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Center’s staff discussed the role of the organization in encouraging and formulating bipartisan solutions to national policy issues. Given that the Bipartisan Policy Center promotes civil discourse in the pursuit of policy compromise, the visit was particularly informative for the Clay Congress students.

The day’s program also included a presentation by Dr. Robert Schmuhl, Notre Dame Professor, regarding his book titled The Glory and the Burden: The American Presidency, which provided a historical perspective on the presidents and their policies. The day concluded with a session hosted at the offices of Greenburg-Traurig, LLP, organized by Board member, Rob Mangas, and representatives of “K Street” lobbying organizations.

The last day of the Clay Congress program in Washington, D.C., began with a panel discussion by four College Student Congress alumni regarding their careers and how the Congress experience positively impacted them. The students also heard from Robert Costa, National Correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning and Chief Washington Analyst for CBS News, regarding his experience with CBS and his impressions of the national political and policy environment.

The final program event was highlighted by a discussion with Wolf Blitzer, co-anchor with Pamela Brown on CNN’s Situation Room. Pamela Brown’s mother, Phyllis George Brown, was one of the Center’s founding Board members.

The farewell event of the 2025 Clay Congress was an award recognition and celebratory dinner at the Congressional Golf Club, hosted by Henry Clay Center Board member H. Mac Riley. It was an exciting, almost electrifying evening with the announcement of the winning policy compromise team—The Immigration Policy Team—and the awards for the “Best Compromisers.”

The program also included reactions to the entire experience by each student. Several attendees indicated that the comments shared by the students encouraged them about the future. With the emergence of future leaders that we experienced during the two weeks, and the evening’s sharing of thoughts about what lies ahead, I feel very positive about this country’s future.

A highlight of the evening’s events was the Henry Clay Center’s third Distinguished Service Award, presented to Board member Douglas Kiker for his commitment to and sustained support of the Clay Center and all its programs.

Overall, the students were great, the program worked well, and the support of the Henry Clay Center Board and others continues to be critical to this increasingly nationally recognized and vitally important program. Thank you for your continued support, ideas, and involvement in the Henry Clay Center. It is critical to the continuation of this program, and it is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Merl Hackbart           &           Abby Didawick

Interim Director                      Director of Operations and Programs

Henry Clay Center                  Henry Clay Center