HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Applications are being accepted for the Guam Telephone Authority Youth Leader program until Aug. 31, telecom provider GTA announced recently in a news release.
The program was established in 2019. It's designed to highlight high school juniors and seniors who have exhibited exceptional leadership qualities, have positively impacted the community and have demonstrated academic excellence.
Youth leaders will participate in workshops that GTA organizes and will have opportunities to volunteer for community events, GTA said in the release.
“The program was established so that we can highlight our youths and really just focus on youth empowerment,” Michele Catahay Perez, GTA community relations manager, told The Guam Daily Post. “Youth empowerment has been at the forefront of our community initiatives for quite some time because it's something that's meaningful to us, it's something that we really invest in. This is one of many ways that we support our community and just really try to elevate and provide the resources."
According to the feedback provided by participants from the previous year, the program provided them the chance to build connections with fellow participants, derive motivation and experience personal development.
“Being a GTA youth leader means to be the motivation, the inspiration and, most importantly, being the person that others need in their lives for them to go beyond their limits,” said Anherutowa Calvo, a participant from last year’s program.
The company will grant accolades to the finalists and designate the most outstanding male and female candidates as the 2023-2024 GTA Youth Leaders. According to the release, Cheyunne Ahn from Southern High and Mark Wang from St. John's School were chosen as the top two youth leaders last year.
The top two leaders will win mobile phone service with the latest iPhone or Android device for one full academic school year, a $1,000 tuition scholarship and up to 160,000 air mileage points for approved competitions in the arts, sports or academics.
To be eligible for the program, each student must have at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA and be a Guam resident, be a high school junior or senior, and be enrolled in a local high school for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Winners will be announced in late September, GTA said in the release.
