CNMI statesmen selected

The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Junior Statesmen Foundation have selected three high school students to represent the CNMI in the 2000 Junior Statesmen Summer School, a competitive summer program conducted in prestigious mainland universities.

Aileen Ada of Marianas Baptist Academy, Lescheweisei Ogumoro-Ulundong of Mount Carmel School, and Louiena Pangelinan of Marianas High School have been named official participants to this year’s summer-long program funded by the interior department.

The scholarship will cover all tuition costs and roundtrip transportation to the summer school of the student’s choice.

This privilege is only awarded to outstanding local high school students chosen based on academic achievement, leadership, and interest in politics or government.

Month-long sessions of the Junior Statesmen summer school are conducted on prestigious university campuses of Stanford (near San Francisco), Northwestern (near Chicago), Princeton University (near New York), Yale (near New York), and Georgetown (in Washington D.C.), according to Karen Prosser of the Junior Statesman Foundation in California.

Ms. Ada will be attending the Stanford Summer School session, Ms. Uludong will be at the Northwestern Summer School session and Ms. Pangelinan has chosen to attend the Georgetown Summer School session in Washington D.C.
Summer school students take college level courses in American Government and Speech, while they develop and polish their leadership skills.

The program will also give students a chance to interact with legislators, other elected officials, judges, reporters, political campaign consultants, and others in the political arena.

Students will also be exposed to debates on controversial political issues.
Participants are being sponsored in part by Katie Black, Continental Micronesia for the reduced airfares, and other donors.

Other students chosen to be part of the summer program include Kana Aikawa, Jing Buom Bae, Leilani Nielson, Luise Pangelinan, Benjamin Taisague, Hannah Borja, Mary Louise Delen-Guerrero, Christine Torres, Kekoa Villaneuva, Leslie Camacho, Mona Lynn Camacho, Jeannette Marie Facey, Dorsha Guerrero, Maribeth Manibusan, Leimalyal Ogumoro-Uludong, Norean Sablan, Vicente Salas II, Catherine Shai, Lei Li, Roman Palacios, Rosmic Calvo, Julie Jane Castro, Sarah Sabino.

DOI offers full tuition and transportation scholarships to the Junior Statesman Summer School to outstanding high school students in the CNMI, Guam, the Republic of Palau, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa (three scholarships per insular area).

In the past nine years, 129 students from the CNMI, 192 students from Guam, and 100 students from Palau have attended the summer school.