2023 USSYP Yearbook - Flipbook - Page 18
SENATE OFFICERS
Sonceria Ann Berry and
Elizabeth MacDonough
(LEFT) Secretary of the Senate Berry with Alabama
delegates Stanley Stoutamire, Jr. and Ella Duus
(RIGHT) Senate Parliamentarian MacDonough
“Your government
needs caretakers.
New people with
new reservoirs of
talent to participate
in the care of the
living creature of
government.”
Senate Parliamentarian
Elizabeth MacDonough
S
enate officers provide the cornerstone and continuum of the legislative body, and the delegates
met two of these groundbreaking public servants. Ann Berry served as a senior Senate staff
member for more than four decades before being elected the first African American Secretary of
the Senate in 2021, and Elizabeth MacDonough serves as the first female Senate Parliamentarian. Both
passionately encouraged the students to continue their commitment to public service. “Our government
is a living, breathing creature,” Ms. MacDonough said, “Most anyone can make government function, but
it takes commitment, ideas, inspiration and innovation to make it thrive.” Secretary Berry advised not to
“focus so much on a specific destination as on the journey itself. The journey is the choices you make,
large and small, the people you encounter, famous and familiar, heroes and villains alike.” She described
her staff colleagues as “The unsung heroes of our republic, drawn not to fame and glory but to the quiet,
professional, essential mission of supporting our institutions of government on good and bad days alike.”
Strengthening personal connections is key. “A lot of our job is listening,” Ms. MacDonough explained.
People inherently “want to be heard.” “Nothing will help you bond with someone more than sitting around
in a quorum call at four o’clock in the morning, and maybe on your third day in a row at four o’clock in the
morning.” They both hoped that Washington Week would expose attendees to the wide range pf public
service pathways. “You may come away from this visit with a new or revised vision of what you want your
educational focus or career path to be, and if that means federal service, well, that will be wonderful,” the
Senate Parliamentarian concluded.
16 | UNITED STATES SENATE YOUTH PROGRAM 2023
