Since 1992 the Junior Statesman of America with the help of the Department of the Interior has been inviting students from the U.S. territories to attend the Summer School Program at some of the top universities across the country.
The Northern Marianas has sent 348 students to this program over its 17 year history with the organization.
“The JSA program is geared towards developing leadership and strengthening academic skills in a real college setting. This is a great opportunity for students to explore government and public service and experience college life,” said Sablan.
“I encourage the community and JSA alumni to come out and support JSA and I strongly encourage students, especially high school juniors, to apply for the opportunity,” he added.
“Many of the JSA alumni have become leaders in the community. A shining example is Ms. Roxanne Diaz, who is a public health program analyst at the CNMI Department of Public Health” Sablan said.
Diaz said the public speaking course at the Yale University Summer Program “certainly gave me a taste of what JSA was really about. To realize the leader in me at such a forum did not come easy and ironically marked me for life. The experience gained doing research and debating about issues that were significant to me was JSA’s ‘planting a seed’ moment in my young life that I still credit in both my personal and professional life today.”
