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Kilili announces $1 million grant for Close Up program
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Posted on Feb 09 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C.-CNMI Delegate to Congress Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan said yesterday that the Department of the Interior has awarded the Close Up Foundation $1.05 million for fiscal year 2012. Close Up will use the grant to bring students and teachers from the Northern Marianas and other insular areas to the nation’s capitol for a program of civic education.
“Despite intense competition for increasingly limited federal dollars, Congress, once again, provided funds to Interior for this very worthwhile program,” Sablan said, “maintaining last year’s funding level.
“Without this financial assistance many Northern Marianas students could not afford to come to Washington, meet federal officials, engage in public policy workshops, and debate the issues of the day under the auspices of Close Up,” Sablan added.
“You can see the benefits of the program in the members of Congress who were first inspired to public service because of their Close Up experience, and in congressional staff and emerging leaders in the Northern Marianas, whose participation in Close Up has guided their subsequent civic activity.”
Close Up provides high school students and their teachers an extended program of civic education that includes visits to historically important sites in Philadelphia, New York, and Williamsburg, Virginia. Through study of how their democratic government works, participants are encouraged to become active members of their communities and given the tools to be effective citizens.
Last year, 28 Northern Marianas students and teachers travelled to Washington for Close Up.
“These students will help strengthen our community with the civic and leadership skills that Close Up teaches them,” said Sablan.
In addition to its Washington-based program, Close Up also conducts a three-day Youth Summit on Saipan. Attendees identify issues of importance, develop a set of policy recommendations, and present their “Agenda for Policy Action” to local government officials. Scores of students attended the Saipan event last year, which is also underwritten with technical assistance funds appropriated by Congress.
