2026-06-09T16:31:29.148Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/09/politics/trump-youth-civics-1776-presidential-award
- 本周将有20名高中生通过总统1776奖角逐最高15万美元的奖学金。
- 该赛事是特朗普政府为纪念美国建国250周年推广爱国主义活动的一部分。
- 参赛学生表达了复杂的参赛心情，部分人质疑当他们与政府领导人政见不合时，爱国主义意味着什么。
AI生成的摘要已由CNN编辑审核。
今年早些时候，来自北卡罗来纳州罗利的16岁少年尚特·贾瓦利在刷Instagram时，偶然发现了一个赚大学学费的鲜为人知的途径：特朗普政府正为美国建国250周年举办全国性公民学大赛。
他报名参赛，成为约8000名争夺最高15万美元奖学金的高中生之一。
经过多轮角逐，他成为总统1776奖大赛的20名决赛选手之一。该大赛是特朗普政府为该国重大周年纪念活动策划的项目，也是其在年轻人中推广爱国主义的主要举措之一。
贾瓦利和其他接受CNN采访的参赛者表示，他们参赛的理由很微妙，同时也对大赛与唐纳德·特朗普总统的关联以及爱国主义本身的概念抱有自己的看法。
“我觉得‘爱国主义’这个词有点含义复杂，至少对我来说是这样，很难称得上是爱国，”贾瓦利说，“当你在很多问题上与政府领导人意见相左时，真的很难理解这到底意味着什么。”
大赛将于周二在肯尼迪中心开幕，月底将在CBS电视台播出，前三名获奖者将获得白宫参观机会。
但这种期待中的兴奋伴随着复杂的情绪和棘手的疑问：在特朗普时代，当Z世代对国家未来越来越悲观之际，年轻人的爱国主义究竟意味着什么。
特朗普公民学大赛中的部分学生只为奖学金，而非政治立场
https://www.cnn.com/
这场公民学大赛吸引了来自全美各地、背景各异的青少年——有像贾瓦利一样的移民子女，也有在家接受教育的学生和历史爱好者。
来自康涅狄格州的15岁少年安加德·辛格表示，作为印度移民的儿子参赛“既特别又触动人心”。
“我参赛只是为了获取真正的知识，”他说，“因为这些知识是永恒的，比如哲学、我们宪法中的权利——这才是真正的奖励。”
1776奖的构想始于特朗普第一任期，当时他成立了一个以教育为核心的1776委员会，作为对《纽约时报》“1619项目”的回应，他称该项目是“有毒的宣传”。
在第二任期内，特朗普重新启动了该委员会和大赛，他希望终结自己口中全美学校中存在的“激进灌输”。
大赛由他领导的教育部主办。在部长琳达·麦克马洪的带领下，该部门巩固了政府的意识形态盟友，并将推广公民教育作为一项核心举措，尽管该机构的大部分职能已被削弱。
麦克马洪强调了学校中的公民教育，去年秋天向非营利组织和大学的公民与历史项目发放了逾1.5亿美元的拨款。该部门还发起了“美国250公民教育联盟”，成员包括推广古典基督教教育、学校选择和保守派政策的团体。
该机构将这场公民学竞赛宣传为培养更多爱国美国人的途径：“总统1776奖体现了美国教育的核心信念：有知识的学生才能成为爱国公民，而爱国公民对共和国的未来至关重要，”教育部官员、古典教育倡导者默里·贝塞特今年早些时候在一篇博客文章中写道。
特朗普及其政府在大赛中无处不在——在一些参赛者的心中更是如此。
来自密西西比州的高三学生梅肯·哈雷尔是决赛选手之一，他表示起初他担心评委如何解读历史，担心他们会回避美国历史上的“黑暗篇章”。特朗普曾发布多项行政命令，批评人士称这些命令试图篡改历史，忽视美国历史上关于奴隶制和少数族裔斗争等棘手问题。
哈雷尔最终还是决定参赛，并表示他的担忧并未成真。“令人惊讶的是，我认为这场竞赛并没有粉饰我们国家的现状，”这位18岁的少年说。
据贾瓦利透露，竞赛的部分内容是常规的——比如关于美国独立战争关键战役或《联邦党人文集》概念的选择题，但其他部分则不尽然。
在地区赛中，参赛者被要求佩戴随身摄像机互相拍摄视频，还获得了正面绣有“1776”字样的免费帽子——他说这让他想起了一些特朗普品牌的周边商品。
过去几周，参赛者每天都要花数小时为决赛做准备。
来自密歇根州大急流城的16岁少年罗文·科兹明斯基，曾与佛罗里达州的一位朋友线上共同备战，这位朋友曾参加过早前的比赛。来自西雅图的17岁学生萨默·布隆德斯特特表示，随着比赛推进，她越来越投入，有时每天会和父亲一起学习两到三个小时。
许多接受CNN采访的参赛者都谈到了与其他选手之间的情谊，他们花了很多时间用闪卡互相提问备考。
贾瓦利说，拿到决赛资格后，他一直在纠结同学们会不会误以为他支持本届政府。
“我脑子里确实闪过一个念头：‘好吧，如果我参加这个活动，别人会怎么看我？’但我认为，奖学金以及这个比赛本身的主题，足以让我克服这种顾虑，”他说。
“老实说，我不知道这场比赛在宣扬爱国主义方面算不算成功；很多人都在谈论这些原则，并积极参与其中，但再说一遍，我看到参赛者们——包括我自己在内——的一大动力是经济因素，”他说。
其他人则没有这种矛盾心理。
“这不是一个政治问题，这是一个美国问题，”来自西雅图的布隆德斯特特说，她表示自己是总统的支持者。“让每一个参赛的人都明白，这是世界上最伟大的国家——明白宪法为何有效、政府为何存在——这才是世界上最珍贵的礼物。”
来自密歇根州的科兹明斯基承认，他认为特朗普的教育部做了很多“有争议”的事情，但他认为这场比赛是其中做得对的一件事。
“我认为他们在某些其他政策目标上未能达到预期，但我认为，能够表彰取得如此成就的学生——不管是哪位总统任内——这都是一项巨大的成功，”他说。
学生分享对爱国主义的看法
https://www.cnn.com/
但全美各地的年轻人对是否为国家感到自豪存在分歧。
根据2025年6月的盖洛普民调，近年来仅有41%的Z世代成年人感到“极其或非常自豪”能成为美国人，而千禧一代的这一比例为58%。许多年轻人在新冠疫情期间长大成人，同时面临高昂的大学学费和房价，这让他们备受打击。
年轻人普遍对特朗普持负面看法——根据5月的CNN/SSRS民调，77%的18至34岁受访者不认可他处理总统工作的方式——同时也对当下的民主运行状况感到不满。塔夫茨大学公民学习与参与信息与研究中心（CIRCLE）2025年的一份报告显示，仅有16%的Z世代受访者认为，民主制度对年轻人而言运转良好。
“他们并非不喜欢民主制度本身，他们普遍支持民主政府的原则，但他们看不到这些原则得到了践行，”CIRCLE的研究员鲁比·贝尔·布斯说。
布斯表示，她的研究显示Z世代在政治参与方面仍有“韧性”。“他们不会仅仅因为不喜欢当前的制度就放弃；他们会努力改变它，”她说。
1776奖并非特朗普支持的唯一面向年轻人的竞赛。今年晚些时候，政府将举办一场体育赛事“爱国者运动会”，总统将其宣传为“一场前所未有的为期四天的体育盛会，汇聚最优秀的高中运动员——每个州和领地各选出一名男运动员和一名女运动员”。
目前有各种无党派公民学倡议活动，旨在激励年轻人了解美国建国历史并培养民族自豪感。由国会监管的非营利组织“美国250”运营的“美国捐赠”（鼓励年轻人参与志愿服务）和“美国实地考察”（面向小学生的竞赛）分别吸引了900万和逾1万名参与者。
由史密森尼学会等主要文化机构支持的青年主导公民学联盟“由我们创造”发起了“公民季”活动，预计将在43个州举办300场线下活动，惠及超过2万人。
“由我们创造”的另一个项目名为“致美国的信”，邀请Z世代反思国家对他们而言意味着什么。
在目前已发布的数十封信中，高中生和20多岁的年轻人都在探讨美国的承诺以及他们对国家历史的复杂情感。
和贾瓦利与辛格一样，16岁的安娜莉丝·黄也是移民子女。她被“致美国的信”活动吸引，以此表达自己对这个国家的复杂情感——这种情感曾让她与祖父产生分歧。祖父从中国移民到厄瓜多尔，后来定居美国。
在她的题为《新爱国主义》的信中，她描述了一种与特朗普所宣扬的截然不同的爱国主义。特朗普曾呼吁教导孩子们“热爱我们的国家，尊重我们的历史，始终尊敬我们伟大的美国国旗”。
“我之所以是爱国者，并非因为我无条件支持美国的一切行动，”黄写道，“而是因为我始终不懈地致力于让这个国家变得更好。”
These teens are vying to win Trump’s civics contest. Some have mixed feelings about patriotism and the president
2026-06-09T16:31:29.148Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/09/politics/trump-youth-civics-1776-presidential-award
- Twenty high school students are competing this week for as much as $150,000 in scholarship money through the Presidential 1776 Award.
- The contest is part of the Trump administration’s effort to promote patriotism for America’s 250th birthday.
- Students expressed mixed feelings about participating, with some questioning what patriotism means when they disagree with government leaders.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
Earlier this year, Ishant Jawali, a 16-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, was scrolling on Instagram when he stumbled upon a little-known way to win money for college: The Trump administration was putting on a national civics contest for America’s 250th birthday.
He signed up, becoming one of about 8,000 high school students entering for the chance to win a scholarship worth up to $150,000.
After rounds of contests, he is one of 20 finalists for the Presidential 1776 Award competition,one of the Trump administration’s main efforts to promote patriotism in young people as part of its programming for the country’s big birthday.
Jawali and other contestants who spoke to CNN expressed nuanced reasons for participating, along with their feelings about the contest’s connections to President Donald Trump and the idea of patriotism itself.
“I feel like it’s a bit of a loaded word, at least to me, like it’s hard to be patriotic,” Jawali said. “It’s hard to really understand what that means when there’s so many things that you disagree with the leaders of our government about.”
The contest, which begins Tuesday at the Kennedy Center, will be broadcast on CBS at the end of the month and includes a White House visit for the top three finishers.
But the anticipatory rush has come with mixed feelings and thorny questions about what it means for young people to be patriotic in the age of Trump, at a time when Gen Z is increasingly pessimistic about the country’s future.
Some students in Trump’s civics contest want the scholarships, but not the politics
https://www.cnn.com/
The civics contest has drawn teens from across the country and with varied backgrounds — from the children of immigrants, like Jawali, to homeschooled students and history buffs.
Being in the contest as the son of Indian immigrants was “remarkable and emotional,” said Aangad Singh, 15, of Connecticut.
“I’m just doing this for the actual knowledge,” he said. “Because that knowledge is permanent, like the philosophy, the rights our Constitution — that is the real reward.”
The idea for the 1776 Award dates to Trump’s first term, when he created an education-focused panel called the 1776 commission as an answer to The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which he dismissed as “toxic propaganda.”
In his second term, Trump reestablished both the commission and the contest as he seeks to put an end to what he has called “radical indoctrination” in schools across the country.
The contest is run by his Education Department, which under Secretary Linda McMahon has bolstered the administration’s ideological allies and made promoting civics a key initiative, even as much of the agency has been dismantled.
McMahon has emphasized civic education in schools, doling out just over $150 million last fall in grant awards for nonprofits’ and universities’ civics and history programs.The department has also launched the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, made up of groups that promote classical Christian education, school choice and conservative policies.
The agency has touted the civics competition as a way of producing more patriotic Americans: “The Presidential 1776 Award reflects a belief central to American education: that informed students become patriotic citizens, and patriotic citizens are essential to the future of the Republic,” Murray Bessette, an Education Department official and classical education proponent, wrote in a blog post earlier this year.
Trump and his administration loomed large over the contest — and in some contestants’ minds.
High school senior Macon Harrell, a finalist from Mississippi, said at first he was concerned about how history could be interpreted by the judges and that they would avoid “dark parts” of the nation’s past. Trump has issued several executive orders that critics say attempt to rewrite history and ignore difficult questions about America’s past, including about slavery and the struggles of minority groups.
Harrell decided to participate and said his concern has not been borne out. “I don’t think that this competition, shockingly, has sugarcoated what our nation is,” the 18-year-old said.
Though some aspects have been conventional — multiple-choice questions about subjects like key battles of the American Revolution or concepts in the Federalist Papers — others have been less so, according to Jawali.
At his regional competition, contestants were given wearable cameras to make videos of one another and free hats with the year “1776” stitched on front — which he said reminded him of some Trump-branded merchandise.
Contestants have spent hours a day over the past several weeks preparing for the final round.
Rowan Kozminski, 16, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, studied for the competition virtually with a friend in Florida who competed in the earlier rounds. Summer Brondstetter, 17, of Seattle, said she became more invested as she progressed through the contest, sometimes studying with her dad for two to three hours a day.
Many who spoke to CNN described the camaraderie they felt with other students in the competition, logging hours quizzing one another with flashcards.
After clinching a finalist spot, Jawali wrestled with whether his peers might mistake his participation for support for the administration, he said.
“I definitely had a thought in the back of my mind, like, ‘OK, what does it say about me if I’m doing this thing?’ but I think that money, and also the sort of topic, was enough for me to overcome that,” he said.
“I don’t know if the competition has been super successful in selling patriotism, to be honest; it’s a lot of people talking about the principles and being engaged about that, but again, like a big motivation that I saw amongst the people, and I guess amongst myself, was financial,” he said.
Others felt no such conflict.
“This is not a political issue. This is an American issue,” said Brondstetter, the student from Seattle, who said she is a supporter of the president. “Everyone walking away from the competition knowing this is the greatest country of the world — why the Constitution works, why government exists — that is the most important gift in the world.”
Kozminski, the student from Michigan, acknowledged that he thought Trump’s Department of Education has done a lot of “contentious” things, but said he thought the contest was one thing it got right.
“I think that they have missed the mark on certain other policy goals, but I think this is a big success to be able to celebrate students that have this level of achievement — regardless of what president it’s under,” he said.
Students Share Thoughts on Patriotism
https://www.cnn.com/
But young people across the US are divided over whether to feel pride in the country.
According to a June 2025 Gallup poll, only 41% of adults who belong to Generation Z have been extremely or very proud to be Americans in recent years, compared with 58% of millennials. Many young people have been rattled by the trials of growing up during the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the high price of college education and housing.
Young people overwhelmingly take a dim view of Trump — according to a May CNN/SSRS poll, 77% of respondents aged 18-34 disapproved of the way he is handling his job as president — and how democracy is functioning today. Only 16% of Gen Z respondents said the system is working well for young people, according to a 2025 report from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, at Tufts University.
“They don’t dislike democracy as a system, they generally support the principles of a democratic government, but they’re not seeing those principles being lived up to,” said Ruby Belle Booth, a researcher at CIRCLE.
Booth said her research shows Gen Z still has a “resilience” around their political participation. “They are not going to give up just because they don’t like the system; they’re going to work to change it,” she said.
The 1776 Award is not the only Trump-backed contest aimed at youths. Later this year, the administration will hold a sporting event, the “Patriot Games,” which the president has billed as “an unprecedented four-day athletic event featuring the greatest high school athletes — one young man and one young woman from each state and territory.”
Various nonpartisan civics initiatives to inspire youth to connect with America’s founding and promote pride are taking place. America Gives, a program to encourage young people to volunteer, and America’s Field Trip, a contest for schoolchildren, both run by America 250, a congressionally overseen nonprofit, have drawn 9 million and over 10,000 participants, respectively.
Made By Us, a youth-led civics coalition backed by major cultural institutions like the Smithsonian, has launched “Civic Season” and is expected to reach over 20,000 people with 300 in-person events happening in 43 states.
Another Made by Us project, called Letters to America, asks Gen Z to reflect on what the country means to them.
In the dozens of letters posted so far, high school students and young people in their 20s grapple with the promise of America and their complicated feelings about the country’s past.
Like Jawali and Singh, 16-year-old Annalise Huang is the child of immigrants. She was drawn to the Letters to America campaign to express her complicated feelings about the country that became a flashpoint between her and her grandfather, who immigrated from China to Ecuador before settling in the United States.
In her letter, “A New Patriotism,” she described a very different kind of patriotism from what Trump has touted. The president has called for teaching children to “love our country, honor our history and always respect our great American flag.”
“I am a patriot not for my unwavering support of America’s actions,” Huang wrote, “but rather my relentless devotion to make this country better.”