Local teen to meet with national leaders in D.C.

Saipan resident Alaysha M. Muna has been selected to participate in the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 7-12, 2004.

NYLC is a unique leadership development program for high school students who have demonstrated leadership potential and scholastic merit. Muna will be one of approximately 400 outstanding scholars from around the country at the conference.

Muna, a senior at Saipan Southern High School, is currently a member of her school’s National Honor Society chapter. She is also a sophomore at Northern Marianas College under the 2+2 program.

Before this, Muna was with the Northern Marianas Academy, where she was sophomore class president and junior class vice president. She was also part of NMA’s Mock Trial team during the 2003 competition.

Muna is a graduate of the Junior Statesmen of America Georgetown Session II-2003. She is also a former host for Teen Talk Live, and an HIV/AIDS-STDS-Teenage Pregnancy workshop facilitator.

Muna is the daughter of Celina Mafnas and Ramon Wesley Muna of As Gonno.

This year’s NYLC theme is “The Leaders of Tomorrow Meeting the Leaders of Today.” Throughout the 10-day conference, Muna will interact with a variety of personnel who operate within the three branches of government, the news media, and the international community.

“We often hear from members of Congress, political appointees and members of Washington’s press corps that it is a privilege to meet and interact with students like Alaysha Muna because they are the face of our country’s future,” said Mike Lasday, executive director of the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, the organization that sponsors the conference. “What these students learn at the National Young Leaders Conference will enable them to build coalitions with one another and exercise their own leadership skills within communities around the country.”

Highlights of past conferences have included welcoming remarks from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and a panel discussion with prominent journalists at the National Press Club, in addition to meeting with senators and representatives or appointed staff members to discuss important issues facing the nation.

To complement the schedule of special meetings and briefings, Muna will also participate in a number of leadership skill-building activities and simulations. In one role-play activity titled “If I Were President,” students act as the president and Cabinet members responding to an international crisis. Students also participate in “Testing the Constitution,” in which they examine actual Supreme Court cases. The conference culminates with the Model Congress, in which scholars assume the roles of U.S. Representatives, and debate, amend and vote on proposed mock legislation.

CYLC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization. Founded in 1985, the council is committed to fostering and inspiring young people to achieve their full leadership potential. More than 400 members of the U.S. Congress join this commitment by serving on the CYLC Honorary Congressional Board of Advisors. In addition, more than 400 embassies participate in the Council’s Honorary Board of Embassies.

For additional information, visit www.cylc.org.