"This whole experience has really inspired me to become a doctor," says the 17-year-old West High senior.

A doctor? So you're not a fan of the Washington rhetoric?

"It's exactly that," Jin says. "Just so many of the people we spoke with, it was almost every response was so vague and circular. Even in front of a group -- we weren't reporters -- they weren't able to tell us point blank what they thought about an issue."

Yeah, that's Washington.

w=8.20 But Jin, a Close-Up correspondent who lives in Salt Lake City's Capitol Hill neighborhood, says she still had an amazing experience during a weeklong trip to the District of Columbia as part of the U.S. Senate Youth program, which also awarded her a $5,000 college scholarship.

Getting into the program required a rigorous application process. Jin says she went through interviews, an extemporaneous speaking test, a written exam and other hurdles to be chosen as one of the two Utahns for the program. Davis County's David Christensen also won a spot for the elite program sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

While in Washington -- it was Jin's first trip to the nation's capital -- Jin got a tour of the White House and a group photo with Bush after the group quizzed the commander in chief on a few topics. She also met with Utah's senators, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett; Vermont's independent Sen. Bernie Sanders; and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

"We were supposed to meet with Barack Obama," Jin says, "but I guess he was busy running for president like every other member of the Senate."

At another event, Jin also got to introduce White House deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, who graduated from Utah's Olympus High and also was part of the Senate Youth Program when he lived in Utah.

"It was really interesting," Jin says of meeting Rove and sitting next to him for a while. "We made some small talk."

Overall, Jin says one of the best parts was meeting students from across the country. "I've done other programs, but just having two people from other states was just amazing," she says.

Jordan School District's Pam Su'a, the state coordinator for the program, says being involved in this allows students to learn a great deal about their government and have experiences few high school students do.

"It really kind of changes your focus, from 'I'm a high school senior' to 'I'm graduating soon. What am I going to do for a career, how can I be involved in society,' '' Su'a says.

She lavished praise on Jin and Christensen, saying they got high marks in the challenge to get into the program like other students who have come before them.

"We really have the best and the brightest," Su'a says. "We just always have such great students."

After high school, Jin wants either to attend Harvard, where she's been accepted, or head to Princeton, where she's still trying to get in, to get degrees in biology and economics.

Jin recommends other students try for the program as well because it can broaden a person's experience with their government and allow them to see up close the people who are making the decisions that affect every American.

"I feel so privileged to be able to do all of this," she says. "It's not an opportunity I'm ever going to have happen again."

tburr@sltrib.com