Help please--has anyone heard of the Congressional Student Leadership Conference?

[panader0]

My daughter, a great student, has been selected to attend one of the many conferences held around the country. They are also called Lead America. It sounds like a good thing, but I thought I would ask the esteemed members of DU for advice. Anyone know anything about this group? Also, it's quite expensive. If she ends up going, I'll probably have to sell some land.

[Wickerman]

1. Don't know anyone who's been to one

but when we looked into it for one of the girls it seemed like a pay to play thing. Good deal if you have the money, does it really do a lot for the kid? Maybe they make some connections, have something on their resume that tells Admission folk that you have money...

edit - way to go with the smart kid!

[barbtries]

2. my son has been invited as well

i can't afford it. period.

[Xithras]

3. My daughter was invited last year.

She was really jazzed at the invitation, but I ended up shooting the idea down. I did a bit of research around the internet and found out that the group is really a for-profit tour company that tosses a conference and a speech by a public servant in to make it look more educational. It IS fun and it IS a great experience for the kids, but no more so than if you'd just booked a tour yourself and took a vacation to DC. Since they charge substantially more, it's not worth the money.

Google them and you'll find hundreds of conversations and websites about peoples experiences with the program. They almost always boil down to "fun, but not worth the huge price tag".

On Edit: Oh, and the nomination isn't exactly the prize they make it out to be either. Apparently these people just send recommendation forms to schools across America every year, and ask teachers to recommend a few students in their classes. The teachers, most of whom know little about the program, typically just list a few of their better performing students.

Tens of thousands of kids across America get these letters every year, and every parent who's kid has good grades will see the letter at least once. Your child got a letter because a teacher put her name on the list, not because any national group has recognized her for anything.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Looks like a scam.

Lots of kids get the invite.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/07/12/1645132.php

Some pro comments, but looks like a lot of dough for very little in return.

[pnwmom]

5. Don't pick a program because they picked her. If you're interested in finding

a good summer program, there are many -- you could ask at her school or even google for summer programs at her grade level. My daughter went to 3 different programs over 4 summers and had a great time.