3 students awarded Junior Statesmen grant
Three CNMI students received certificates of recognition from the 2004 Junior Statesmen Summer School Program Monday night, enabling them to attend the mainland-based program on a scholarship provided by the Office of Insular Affairs.
In a brief ceremony, Stanford School director Christi L. Omengebar and Office of Insular Affair director Jeff Schorr handed the certificates to Casey Camacho Borja, Tinian High School; Emmanuel Borja, Mount Carmel High School; and Nicole Benjamin, Grace Christian Academy. Casey Borja, who was unable to attend, was represented by his mother Elaine.
Parents attended the ceremony, which was held at Pizza Hut in Middle Road, along with the 37 CNMI students who vied for the Junior Statesmen Summer School Program scholarship.
According Omengebar, 27 students would be attending Stanford University, three would go to Yale, three would attend Princeton, and four would be attending Georgetown University.
Omengebar explained that Borja, Benjamin and Casey Borja, would receive free airfare and tuition for the summer school program. The rest however, would have to raise their own funds to attend the course that would begin next month.
“The Saipan delegation has appropriated $50,000 to help CNMI students who would be attending the Junior Statesmen; the Rota and Tinian delegations have been trying to identify a source of funds to help them. The students need to leave by the end of the month,” said the director.
Of the 37 students, one comes from Rota, eight come from Tinian and the rest come from Saipan. This is the first time in its 13-year history in the CNMI that the program saw an increase of participants from Tinian.
“This is a great program and the students get an opportunity to attend schools like these. It would improve their speech and communication skills and it would help them improve and succeed academically,” Omengebar said.
The scholarships, funded by the U.S. Interior Department, cover all tuition costs and round-trip transportation to the Summer School of the students’ choice.
Month-long sessions of the Junior Statesmen Summer School are conducted at the prestigious university campuses of Stanford, Northwestern, Princeton, Yale and Georgetown.
Two of the scholarship winners—Emmanuel and Nicole—will be attending the Stanford Summer School; Casey will be attending the Princeton University session.
Summer School students take college level courses in American Government and Speech, while they develop and polish their leadership skills.
Highlighting each session is a high level speakers program giving students a chance to meet and question legislators, other elected officials, judges, reporters, political campaign consultants, and others in the political arena.
Each night, Summer School students debate controversial political issues in a simulation of Congress.
For the past 13 years, Interior has offered full tuition and transportation scholarships to the Junior Statesmen Summer School to outstanding high school students in the CNMI, Guam, the Republic of Belau, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
In the past twelve years, 225 students from the CNMI, 269 students from Guam, and 125 students from the Republic of Belau have attended The Junior Statesmen Summer School. Some 36 students from the CNMI have been accepted to the 2004 Junior Statesmen Summer School.
