Twenty years ago, the Junior Statesmen Foundation partnered with t Interior to offer JSA scholarships to students from the territories. The DOI currently funds four full scholarships for students in each of the eight insular areas.
“The mission of the program is to identify the future leaders of current and former U.S. territories,” according to Karen Prosser who helped develop the scholarship program with the Department of the Interior. “It provides them an opportunity to participate in a JSA Summer School with tuition and transportation fully paid.”
Many more territory students engaged in fundraising to cover the cost of tuition and airfare. Students have found scholarship support from local government grants, businesses, and individuals.
Since 1991, almost 2,000 students from U.S. territories have graduated from Junior Statesman Summer Schools. The fundraising efforts of students in the DOI program have been extraordinary; as Karen Prosser puts it, the success of students from the territories “is a great testimony to their talent, enthusiasm and diligence.”
The 2011 DOI scholars arrived at Princeton a week early to participate in a prep program funded to give students a head-start on their study of government, politics, speech, and debate. Students in the DOI Prep Program spent the week in classes, and wrote papers, took a test, and delivered impromptu speeches. Professor Patrick Johnson and Professor LaTosha Bruce ran the academic program for the students and were extremely impressed by their progress and poise.
Elliot Nguyen, Senior JSA program director, led the residential program for the students from the territories and met with them daily.
Alumni from the territories are active in both local and federal politics and many continue to be actively involved in JSA; in fact, three of the current twelve resident assistants, or RA, working at Princeton this summer originally attended JSA through the DOI prep program. RA Angela Salas, from Saipan, looks back fondly on the DOI Prep Program:
“The prep program gives you an idea of what to expect at JSA…it helped me build relationships with people I would be spending the summer with.
It was scary for me to be 15 years old and fly far away from home. The program was helpful because we were all going through the same thing — through the DOI program, the kids from the territories got to know each other.”
RA Sonam Aidisani, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, adds: “The DOI progam gave us a leg up. We had familiarity with speeches, we had the opportunity to write a paper, it helped us learn to interact with people from different interactions — it was pretty much a preview of what were going to encounter.”
At the end of the weeklong program, the professors were extremely pleased with the students’ progress. Professor Pat Johnson attributed student’s high level of engagement and interest as the main motivator that allowed them to complete their final research papers.
“When I asked questions about our Constitution and democracy, hands were up all over the place offering varying opinions and facts,” Professor Johnson. “I was amazed at how interested the students were in the workings of our government and election process.”
Professor Bruce, who worked on speech skills with the students offered them a piece of advice from her grandfather: “Just do it and get scared later.”
She used this mantra to encourage students face their fears in presenting both impromptu and prepared speeches. Professor Bruce noted that although the program was rigorous, the students were able to demonstrate their ability to be flexible and even noted that, “some of them made progress that exceeded that of many of my college students in Savannah!”
With their prep program completed, these students will go on to complete the rest of JSA Princeton Summer School: an intensive three week program that will develop necessary writing, research, and speaking skills for civic engagement and higher education.
