The six are Jessica Babauta of Kagman High School; Luis Chung, Northern Marianas Academy; Amanda Johnson, Saipan International School; JD Torres, Marianas Baptist Academy; Victorino Untalan, Marianas High School; and Jamie Vales, MBA.
They will compete with one another to get the only slot available for the CNMI.
Except for Vales, all of the nominees met with Sablan yesterday afternoon at his district office on Capital Hill.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity to send the names of these students to the Naval Academy admissions board, and I am very proud that the Northern Marianas has such outstanding students to nominate,” Sablan said.
All the student nominees are hoping they get to be that “one person to be chosen.”
“It would be a great honor to study at the Naval Academy,” Johnson told Variety.
Untalan is also pinning his hope on the academy.
“It’s a better way for me,” said Untalan who was already given a letter of acceptance. He plans to take up an engineering course if chosen.
Torres, for his part, said it’s a great opportunity to belong to the academy.
Babauta said it would be an honor to represent the CNMI in the academy.
Chung said the academy will open doors for new opportunities for anybody who gets to be chosen.
“We know what the college situation here is. Entering the academy would be good for me,” said Chung who wants to become a pilot.
Sablan said his office knew there are a lot of students wishing to enter the academy, and this is why he introduced a bill, H.R. 935, to allow up to three students from the CNMI to be admitted to the service academies.
Members of the U.S. Congress nominate students to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Military Academy at West Point in New York, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The academies make the actual selection from students nominated and upon graduation, they are sworn in as commissioned officers, said Sablan.
“Right now, we are limited to having one student at each academy. That’s why I only nominated students to the Naval Academy this year. We already have a student at West Point and a student in Colorado Springs. Other parts of the U.S. can have more students in attendance. I think that our students in the Northern Marianas should have more opportunity too,” he added.
