THIS is in response to Ms. Jennifer Angello’s letter to the editor last Friday on the Junior Statesman Program. Being a JSA alumnus, I felt compelled to talk about how big an impact JSA has on a number of CNMI students, including myself. I took offense to the letter because I felt it downplayed JSA’s true intentions for its students, and I was worried that someone who read that letter would think of JSA as “just another ritzy program,” which it truly isn’t.
The Junior Statesman of American program has been active for almost 70 years, and has graduated more than half a million students from the U.S., its territories, and even foreign countries. To be accepted into such a program is an honor, and being able to attend a JSA summer school is a privilege. So this program is much more than getting CNMI money to go to some “fancy university” in the states for a month.
For three summers in a row, I lived and learned at three prestigious colleges, all of which rank in the top 25 colleges in the U.S.—Northwestern University near Chicago, Illinois; Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; and most recently at Stanford University in California. Now tell me: how many teen-agers has anyone known from the CNMI who have attended such colleges as those, along with Princeton University and Yale University (the other two campuses where JSA is held), while they were still in high school? Not many. That’s the beauty of JSA–it gives high school students a real taste of what it’s like living on a huge college campus, living in a dormitory with a roommate, attending classes taught by experienced college professors, and getting a feel of college life in general. The JSA program is thought to be even more rigorous than regular college life, because it’s one semester’s worth of college class lectures, discussions and exams completed within one month.
Besides being in class 6 hours a day, students also have to attend nightly debate workshops (which sometimes last until 10 o’clock), where the students’ grades are based on the quality and quantity of speeches they give on current topics. Instead of sleeping in late on Saturday mornings, all students have to wake up and be in their classrooms by 8 a.m., so they can take exams. Also, students attend Speaker’s Programs, where politicians, news anchors, writers, and scholars are invited to speak to the students on their take on the U.S. government on other current issues, and meet with them on a personal level.
A JSA student’s day schedule is packed from morning to night. I personally had my share of homesickness (especially when the cafeteria food wasn’t that good), but it was overcome by meeting and becoming friends with some of the most interesting teenagers from around the world. I still have friends from California to New York, from American Samoa to Germany, that I still keep in touch with, and when all the studying, speech writing and speaking is done. I cry at every JSA graduation, wishing I could repeat the JSA experience over and over again.
In addition to the three full scholarships from the Department of the Interior to pay for tuition and airfare, the CNMI government is generous enough to provide a separate fund in the budget for JSA scholarships. Many businesses, large and small, and even individuals in the community are also generous enough to assist the students every year financially or otherwise, because the government and many others realize that a JSA education is a valuable investment in the CNMI’s future. I just wish every single student could attend a JSA summer school and see for themselves what an opportunity it is. I, along with other JSA graduates from the CNMI, are grateful to the local government, businesses and individuals, for giving us the opportunity to broaden our horizons and open our minds. And honestly, I think A grade from a class taken at Stanford University on a high school transcript will wow Admissions officers a little more than an “A” grade taken from a local community college. No one has the right to say anything negative about the JSA program until they’ve experienced it for themselves.
I congratulate all the CNMI students who will be attending the Summer School this year for desiring to go, and for their families for supporting them. JSA all the way!CHRISTINE DLC. TORRES
Capitol Hill, Saipan
