Young voices gather at Close-Up Summit

The 2014 Close-Up Youth Summit, running from Sept. 24 to 26, began yesterday with about 60 students divided into committees to tackle issues prevalent in the CNMI.

Maria Theresa Dizon said her committee on environment, energy, and natural resources decided to focus on the impacts of military testing in the CNMI, listing down the introduction of the brown tree snake and rhino beetle, as well as chemical harm to people and the environment as examples.

“It’s already a problem down [in] Guam. If there is an outbreak it could go up to islands north,” Alvin Arcega said of the possible introduction of invasive species.

Josaiah Trinidad, chairman of the education and schools committee, said their main focus is on teachers in public schools and the quality of education they’re providing.

“It’s hard to get funding, but it’s essential. We feel they are wasting it on unnecessary things like laptops,” said one committee member on improving public school classrooms.

Aurora David, chairwoman of the cultural affairs and immigration committee, said she would like to see contract workers like her parents, who have lived and worked in the CNMI for over 20 years, not be treated as “so-called aliens” when it comes to privileges.

“It should be looked at how they work so hard,” Rory Quirez, another member of the committee, said.

Two other members, Dong Ha Lee, who has lived on Saipan for 10 years, and Justin Youm, who has lived here for three years, are both international students who feel Saipan is “home.” They both noted that as a high school seniors pursuing college, they have met many restrictions and limitations scholarship-wise as international students.

““Students who have studied in the U.S. for more than 10 years have devoted their time and their effort to pursue academics as other citizens. There should be some privileges given as they are given to citizens, especially for those who have the potential to become successful and are willing to come back and contribute to this community,” Youm said.

Rae Camacho, chairwoman of the committee on healthcare, said her group is focusing on the funding for the hospital.

“They are really vague as to what is being purchased and who they are hiring,” she said, noting that her group is taking a close look at the effects of cost-cutting at the hospital.

“We need to identify the debt and what needs to be paid, what needs to be bought, what does not need to be cut out and what does,” she said.

Lou Frances Pua said her committee on law enforcement has a special interest in rehabilitation. She said they would like to develop an “internal halfway house” for the incarcerated, noting that right now there are programs helping the convicted after their release but her group would like to see one developed for prisoners during their jail time.

She said a program like this could help prisoners “find work when they get out so they don’t have to cause crime again.”

Members of the committee on economic development and budget said their discussion focused on agriculture, as they want to bring agriculture to the forefront in the role it can have in the economy.

The students are representative of all the public high schools, with students from Tinian and Rota present as well as some students from private school Grace Christian Academy, according to Department of the Interior’s Sara Walkup, grant manager at Close-up.

Walkup said the students would debate issues during a mock legislative session on Friday morning, with students presenting resolutions to legislators that will visit in the afternoon.

She hopes students come away from the summit knowing what their roles as citizens are.

“They have a responsibility to make sure their elected officials are held accountable to them as citizens, but also that they are making their voices heard,” she said.

Rota teacher Elvira Mesngon, who brought a handful of her U.S. government class to the summit, called the event “a good opportunity.”

“I hope that the legislators will take them seriously,” she added.