Adam Kauth, a sophomore at Iola High School, is busy and bright. In the classroom, he works hard to make good grades. In athletics, he’s quarterback and a safety on the junior varsity football team, plays basketball and participates in track.
Kauth applied that same energy and talent to work on world peace recently at a National Youth Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C.
The challenge, a nuclear threat posed by North Korea.
Kauth was one of 25 students on a defense team who advised the president — elected from among students at the forum — on what to do after U.S. intelligence agencies detected nuclear materials on an out-bound North Korean ship.
Among advisers for the defense team were Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency personnel.
“At the end, the North Koreans pulled back,” Kauth said. Mission accomplished.
The forum’s focus was based on actual world events and required students using critical thinking, leadership and public speaking skills to tackle the complexity of national decision-making.
He found the role-playing as exciting as it was educational, Kauth said, and the remainder of the nearly week-long program was a whirlwind of activities, during which he learned much about the federal government and how it functions.
“We learned what it really is like to be a part of the government,” he said.
A speaker he recalled was Eric O’Neill, “a real U.S. spy,” who worked in the CIA for 22 years including time in Russia. Among his tutorials was a congressional visit, with the only disappointment being that members of the Kansas delegation were all away on vacation.
Kauth and 384 others high school students — including just one other from Kansas —also enjoyed touring the nation’s capital.
“We got to see the Washington and Lincoln monuments, the White House and the Library of Congress,” Kauth said, as well as other places that he marked as particularly memorable, the Netherlands Embassy, Korean War Memorial and the Newseum.
Another favorite experience was watching the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
Kauth never learned how he was selected for the trip, he said, except that it resulted from an anonymous nomination made by an IHS teacher. Principal David Grover said he wasn’t surprised at Kauth’s nomination, citing his involvement in school activities and scholastic achievement.
From the experience, Kauth earned an hour of college credit.
THE FORUM’S purpose was twofold, to acquaint the high school students with the how the government functions and also give them tools to develop as young leaders in their schools and communities.
Grover said he was impressed with the forum’s thoroughness. Usually such events result in generic news releases that give sparse details of the student’s involvement, he said. This time detailed email accounts arrived at Iola High daily that told about Kauth’s activities.
In addition to the national security forum Kauth attended, NYLF has programs on law and crime scene investigation, medicine and collegiate success. Since 1992, more than 50,000 students have attended NYLF programs.
