Four years ago I got a call asking if I would speak to some high school students at the RNC Convention in New York City. The caller told me I would be on a panel with Mike McCurry, President Clinton’s press Secretary.  Immediately I was worried that this panel was mismatched.

The group was the Junior Statesman Symposium at the RNC. The Junior Statesman Foundation is the partner to the Junior State. The Junior State is a non-partisan, student-run civic education organization. It was started in California seventy-four years ago but has since been formed in other states.

The Foundation supports the activities of the Junior State and conducts several summer school programs at prestigious campuses like Stanford, Georgetown, and Yale.  They also offer several week-long programs that encourage civic responsibility among high achieving high school students.

I had the chance to go to the Summer School programs at UC Davis (now at Stanford) and Georgetown when I was 25 years younger and 200 pounds lighter. I can say it changed my life.

They have added the weeklong symposium at both the RNC and DNC Conventions. This is the only high school education event at these venues.  In New York, the students got to:

-Attend state delegation breakfast meetings;

-Participate in a daily Junior Statesmen Speakers Program where students met and asked questions of convention delegates, party leaders, political pundits, bloggers, and members of the media;

-Serve as official convention guests with the opportunity to attend official convention activities both outside and inside the Madison Square Garden. Some had better passes than me, a delegate!

-And of course, see Mike McCurry and me on a panel.  We had some tough questions from the audience, and I mean tough questions, from this group of smart (and I mean smart!) future leaders.

Like I said earlier, I was worried this was a mismatch. Turns out it wasn’t a mismatch, as Mike McCurry did pretty well for his position.

Now the good part is, they are sponsoring this program again in Minneapolis August 31-September 5, 2008. They have rooms approved, have facilities, and if I or FR Publisher and former Junior Stater Jon Fleishman say so, you can get $250 off the $2,250 tuition price. If you want to help sponsor someone, let me know as well, or call Jeffrey Dunn at 1-800-344-5353.

Haven’t heard yet if McCurry is up for a rematch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.