Mat-Su student selected as youth delegate

A Matanuska-Susitna Borough high school student has been selected as one of two delegates to the U.S. Senate Youth Program by state Education Commissioner Mike Hanley.

Lucas Arthur, a junior at Mat-Su Career & Technical High School, serves as his school’s student body president. He is a two-time state Science Olympiad champion, a state Tsunami Bowl champion, and a National Science Bowl competitor. He is recipient of his school’s Spirit of Youth award, too.

Arthur says he’s excited about the trip to the nation’s capitol, and was surprised to receive the honor. Arthur says he’s got his sights set on the stars, as far as career goals go

“For me, always the most interesting thing has been astrophysics. So I’d like to pursue a double major in astrophysics and economics and see where that takes me.”

Arthur says he benefits from Mat-Su schools in many ways.

“In addition to my classes, I am able to take or participation in a number of extracurricular activities, that really, I can put in as much time as I have or as much as I want to, and I can reap the benefits of that time and do as much as I want and continue to learn and make myself competitive. ”

He’s got his college sights set on CalTech in Pasadena or Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ketchikan High School senior Kiera O’Brien will serve as the second delegate. She is her school’s senior class secretary, is the student director of her school pep band, represented Alaska at Girl’s Nation, and coordinates her church’s Operation Christmas Child program.

The two delegates will spend a week in March in Washington, D.C., where they will hear policy addresses by senators, cabinet members, and meet a Supreme Court justice. They each will receive a $5,000 scholarship.