Winter Congress

Washington, D.C.
Feb. 5-7, 2010
Northeast
DoubleTree Crystal City

Feb. 12-14, 2010
Midwest, Ohio River Valley, Southeast
Marriott Crystal Gateway

Feb. 26-28, 2010
Mid-Atlantic
DoubleTree Crystal City

Sacramento, CA
Feb. 6-7, 2010
Northern California
Sheraton Grand Sacramento

Long Beach, CA
Feb. 13-14, 2010
Hilton Long Beach

Dallas, TX
Feb. 20-21, 2010
Texas
Crowne Plaza Dallas

Portland, OR
Feb. 20-21, 2010
Pacific Northwest
DoubleTree Lloyd Center

Communications Boot Camp for JSA Alumni

DAVE VIOTTI: Happy New Year! One of our goals for 2010 is to provide networking and professional development opportunities for our alumni. Later this month, we're hosting a day-long Communications Boot Camp in Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University with one of the leading communications coaches in the world, Richard Greene (www.richardgreene.org). Richard is the author of Words that Shook the World and renowned coach to world leaders, celebrities, and corporate executives. He will share his secrets to effective communication with our alumni and current JSA student leaders on January 30th from 9am to 5pm. It's a great chance to reconnect with JSA and to hone your communication skills. You can register here. We encourage you to bring other JSA alumni and friends. Proceeds from the event will support JSA (the Communications Boot Camp is a professional development opportunity that you may be able to expense at your company). Stay tuned for more alumni events across the country throughout the year.

Alex Evans Elected President of Junior Statesmen Foundation Board

BY DAVID COLE: A changing of the guard at the Junior Statesmen Foundation -- the non-profit group that runs JSA Summer School and provides adult supervision to the JSA year-round program -- transpired in the second week of December, as a new slate of board of director officers was elected to two-year terms.

Alex Evans has been elected president of the foundation and his term will run through December 2011. Additionally, Marty Barash was re-elected as vice president, while Sue Thurman was elected treasurer and Jerry Newfarmer was elected secretary. Ted Green, the foundation's president for the last eight years, has moved into the immediate past president role.

Most recently, Evans served as the foundation's treasurer; earlier he had been the vice president. Evans is the president and co-founder of EMC Research of Oakland, Calif. and is a resident of Orinda, Calif. He served on the city council of Richmond, Calif., from 1995-2001. He was speaker of the Junior State in 1978-1979 and attended JSA Summer School in 1977.

Barash has served as vice president of the foundation since 2008. A partner in Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP of Los Angeles, Barash joined the Junior State when he was 13 years old and attended summer schools in 1983 and 1984. While in college, he served as a counselor at summer schools and at the Junior Statesmen Symposium.

For the last two years Thurman has been the foundation's secretary and for the last year served as chair of the board's marketing committee. She is a co-founder of The PBN Co., a Washington, D.C.-based public affairs company with offices in London, Moscow and Kiev.

Newfarmer, the president of the Junior Statesmen Summer School class of 1957, is the chief executive officer of Management Partners Inc. of Cincinnati. A trustee since 1971, most recently he chaired the board's audit committee and earlier served as president of the board of trustees for three years.

Green is a project director at Woodward & McDowell, the public affairs firm based in Burlingame, Calif., and Los Angeles. Green was in JSA as a high school student, served as a summer school counselor and also worked on the foundation's staff in the 1980s.

Additionally, the board of directors elected Marc Franklin of Costa Mesa, Calif., as the chair of the audit committee; he is a former two-term president of the board of trustees. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman was re-elected as chair of the board development committee.

What's Up With the "Donate Now" Button?

Annually, thousands of JSA alumni and friends donate their time, talent, and treasure to support the program. Please contact Matthew Randazzo, Chief Growth Strategy Officer, if you wish to volunteer, reconnect with the program, or make a gift to JSA. mrandazzo@jsa.org or 800.317.9338. Read More

This Month's JSA Poll

YES OR NO: Should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid resign from the U.S. Senate for remarks made about Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential Election? 

RNC Chair, Michael Steele and other prominent Republican leaders have called upon Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV), to resign for remarks he made during the 2008 Presidential Election in which he stated that the country was ready to embrace the candidacy of Barack Obama because he was "light skinned" and had "no negro dialect unless he wants one."  Senator Reid expressed regret for his "poor choice of words" and issued an apology for his "improper comments." President Obama accepted his apology and considers the matter closed. 
 
Republicans, however, say that Reid should follow the example of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who resigned in 2002 over controversial remarks he made at a birthday party for then Senator Strom Thurmond. Lott stated that the US. would have avoided "all these problems" if Thurmond had been elected President in 1948.  Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform.
 
What do you say? Answer Now

NE JSA Governor Selected for Prestigious U.S. Senate Youth Program

BY JEFF DUNN: Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that Dan Hoffmann, the Northeast JSA Governor from New Rochelle H.S. in New York, will be one of two students to represent the state of New York in the 48th Annual United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) that will be held March 6 - 13, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

The program, which is funded by the Hearst Foundation, is an extremely competitive merit-based program that brings 104 of the most outstanding high school students -- two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Agency -- to Washington, D.C. for an intensive week-long study of the federal government and the people who lead it.

Dan applied for the program after being nominated by his school principal in September.  As part of the application process, Dan had to submit his school transcript, standardized test results, a statement about his leadership qualities, and an essay on a significant issue before the U.S. Congress. 

In October, Dan was invited, along with several other semi-finalists from throughout the state, to Albany for a personal interview.   Dan was one of two semi-finalists to be chosen by New York’s Commissioner of Education, Richard Mills for the program.

Dan will receive a $5,000 undergraduate college scholarship and an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. While in Washington the student delegates will attend meetings and briefings with Senate leadership, a Justice of the Supreme Court, leaders of cabinet agencies, an Ambassador to the United States and top members of the national media.

This students chosen to participate in this year's program rank in the top one percent of their class. He will become a part of a distinguished group of Senate Youth Program alumni that include delegates Senator Susan Collins of Maine; Chief Judge Robert Henry of the U.S. Court and former Presidential Advisor, Karl Rove.

MidAtlantic Alum to Join Teach for America

ALUMNI PROFILE: Spencer Gottlieb, a former NJR Chief of Staff in the Mid Atlantic JSA, was recently chosen to teach secondary mathematics with Teach for America  in Nashville beginning this summer.  Gottlieb based his decision to teach students in low-income communities upon the same principles that inspired him to join JSA.

"JSA and the Foundation's summer programs ingrained in me a very clear definition of what it means to be persistent, resilient, and committed to a cause," Gottlieb said.  "Those are also the ideals that Teach for America values most."

Gottlieb credits JSA with helping him acquire and develop the skills that organizations like Teach for America value most in their teaching candidates -- organizational and leadership skills, perseverance in the face of challenges, and the ability to influence and motivate others.

"We have discovered over time that successful teachers exhibit a significant degree of leadership," according to Teach for America's website. "And leaders come in many forms with varied experiences."  Gottlieb was able to point to his eight years of JSA experiences to demonstrate the skills that Teach of America looks for in its candidates.  He was not only a four-year member of his JSA chapter at Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, NJ, but also worked as a residential advisor at numerous Junior State summer programs including the Stanford and Georgetown Summer Schools as well as a number of Symposia including the 2008 Junior Statesmen Symposium at the Democratic National Convention.

Teach for America recruits outstanding recent college graduates to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools.  Gottlieb, who will receive his B.S. in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University in May, learned of his acceptance to its teaching corps in December.  

Karen's Corner

BY KAREN PROSSER: Happy New Year, dear reader,
Loved the Holidays and I am thankful for so many cards and holiday letters. 

Congratulations to Ed and Ursula Meese who recently celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in Jamaica with their son, Mike, and daughters Dana and Ramona and a passel of grandchildren.  Ed is a proud graduate of the 1948 Junior Statesmen Summer School held at the Montezuma School sixty-two years ago!  He has been a lifelong supporter of Junior Statesmen and has served on the Board of Trustees for decades.  Mike Meese is an alum of the 1976 Summer School and two of his children, Allyson and Brian are both Junior Statesmen Summer School alumni—Allyson attended Princeton and Brian is a Georgetown grad.  Mike met his wife, Ramona, in high school in their JSA chapter.  Dana Meese is an alumna of the 1983 Summer School and has two small children. 

June Thurber Paine, a JSA alumna, long time JSA Teacher-Advisor, and a Member of the Junior Statesmen Foundation and the Montezuma Foundation Board welcomed her first grandchild recently.  Her son, Ryan Thurber-Dean (Junior Statesmen Summer School alumnus) and his wife, Jessie, are the proud parents of little Finnegan.  

Eric Dozier, a 1974 Junior Statesmen Summer School alumnus now lives in Elk Grove, CA.  Eric is an amazing photographer as well as the proud dad of 6th grader, Mark Anthony. 

Received an invitation to Micah Ali's 32nd Birthday Party celebration in Long Beach, CA.  Micah is member of the Compton (CA) School Board.  The party is a big political event co-sponsored by County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Assemblyman Tony Mendoza.  Micah is a graduate of the Junior Statesmen Summer School and was a big Southern California leader in the late 1990s.  Happy Birthday, Micah.

Amy Prosser, 1984 Junior Statesmen Summer School alumna, is back in California after a lengthy sojourn in New York City where she worked as a recruiter for a high-powered law firm.  After a successful run as the lead in the play, Rabbit Hole, Amy has decided to do some regional theatre acting. Good luck, Amy. 

If you'd like to share an update for the next issue of Karen's Corner, send your news to Karen at kprosser@jsa.org