By Bryan Manabat
bryan@mvariety.com
Variety News Staff
RIYA Nathrani, Peter Perez, Thomas Manglona II, James Feger, and Marianas High School’s POLKSAI Guma Chamorro Club have been named recipients of the 2025 Governor’s Humanities Award for their outstanding contributions to the humanities.
The awards ceremony, hosted by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, was held Thursday at the Fiesta Hall of Grandvrio Resort Saipan.
Nathrani, who holds a doctorate in education, was recognized for her contributions to humanities education, receiving the Outstanding Humanities Teacher Award in a classroom setting.
In 2022, Nathrani represented the CNMI at the White House as State Teacher of the Year and has since gained national recognition for her innovative work in educational technology and artificial intelligence. She is committed to helping Chamorro and Carolinian language teachers design technology-enhanced lessons that make language and cultural learning accessible, equitable, and engaging for all students, ensuring the voices, traditions, and values of the Marianas are preserved.
Perez, co-founder of 500 Sails, received the Outstanding Humanities Teacher Award in a non-classroom setting. The organization has been instrumental in re-establishing canoe culture in the CNMI. Perez led efforts to build traditional Chamorro sailing canoes based on the 1742 “Anson” drawings, reimagined using modern fiberglass materials. His teachings “revive Chamorro words for canoe parts, the marine environment, navigation, and sailing maneuvers — preserving the language and worldview embedded in these maritime traditions.”
Manglona, the founder of Marianas Press, received the award for Preservation of CNMI History, honoring his commitment to documenting and safeguarding stories that define the Commonwealth. Through his journalism, teaching, and institution building, Manglona “has ensured that the people of the Northern Mariana Islands see themselves reflected truthfully and proudly in the historical record.”
Marianas High School’s POLKSAI Guma Chamorro Club was honored for Preservation of Traditional Cultural Practices. For the past two decades, POLKSAI has led youth-driven cultural preservation efforts, inspiring new generations to embrace Chamorro language, values, and traditions through the performing arts.
This year, POLKSAI represented the Marianas at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., sharing their stories of identity and belonging through song and dance on a national stage. “Their enduring commitment to language, dance, and cultural expression ensures that the legacy of the Chamorro people continues to thrive — protected, honored, and passed on to future generations,” the council said.
The prestigious Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities Award went to James W. Feger, developer of Rocball in the late 1970s. Rocball, derived from volleyball and influenced by Aztec traditions, emphasizes the relationship between sport, culture, and human connection. Feger, a longtime physical education teacher at MHS, has made an impact far beyond the classroom, helping define Team Marianas and demonstrating how sport celebrates community, culture, and the human spirit.
In his remarks, Gov. David M. Apatang congratulated the awardees for their commitment “to keep contributing to making our community better and for telling the stories of our way of life in the Northern Mariana Islands.”
“I must ask the Humanities Council to continue its important work. It has done a lot to collect, record, and archive our history — from our beginnings as a Commonwealth, through our struggles and accomplishments. Our stories have been told by those who lived them, and that is how it should be,” Apatang said.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.