A 17-year-old Lander homeschooler who beat out 8,000 other students in what was billed as the “Ultimate Civics Showdown” stood beside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on national TV on Tuesday. Miriam Washut won a $150,000 scholarship in the effort.
July 01, 2026
Lander Homeschooler Wins ‘Ultimate Civics Showdown,’ $150,000 Scholarship
Cowboy State Daily • Dale Killingbeck
A Wyoming homeschooler’s national civics victory is more than a feel-good story; it points to the kind of formation that takes history, citizenship, and inherited wisdom seriously. Miriam Washut, daughter of Kyle Washut, president of Wyoming Catholic College, comes from a family closely tied to classical liberal education, and her deep study of America’s founding documents offers a hopeful glimpse of what young people can do when they are invited into the great questions of liberty, virtue, and self-government.
Cowboy State Daily
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