Ms. President US Kicks Off Fourth Year CCM Awards Two CT Public School Students from Danbury and Southington $1000 Scholarships

Ms President US kicked off this year’s programming October 2nd with a virtually held session, allowing it to continue the program in a COVID-19-conscious manner. The girls came together to talk about Ms President US’s mission and learn background history on women and the suffrage movement. Guest speaker Kim Mellin, co-director of the Wilton Historical Society, began with a brief presentation on the suffrage movement and women’s activism throughout the years. Ms. Mellin’s presentation was followed by Avni Gupta, a Ms President US high school mentor who also spoke about the suffrage movement, emphasizing the lesser known women who were crucial to the goal of allowing women to vote. Following the presentations, participants went into breakout rooms, each group with a Ms President US high school mentor facilitating and playing an introduction game. By the end of the ninety minutes, the participants unanimously concluded that more women should participate in government roles, and acknowledged that this desire for change began long ago, and there is still much work to be done.

Irelynn Janell is a junior at Danbury High School and the 1st Miss Danbury’s Outstanding Teen 2021. Irelynn will be competing in the Miss Connecticut Outstanding Teen pageant in April. On November 14th 2019 Irelynn’s Father passed away in her arms at the Regional Hospice facility in Danbury. Irelynn has made it her mission to advocate for Hospice care and the families it serves. This past spring Irelynn published a journal where she told her story and where people could write their own emotions. She donated these books to Regional Hospice. Ire

lynn also developed “The 48 Movement”! Irelynns father was

48 when he passed away from esophageal cancer. Her Father was a big collector of Air Jordan sneakers, having had well over

100 pairs. Irelynn gave away 48 pairs of Air Jordan’s to people who would appreciate not only their value but that also valued her story about Joe!

DANBURY & SOUTHINGTON

Two Connecticut Public School students from Danbury and Southington were awarded $1000 #LoCoolGov scholarships from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) at the 2020 CCM Virtual Convention. The scholarships are sponsored by Post University. In an effort to engage Connecticut’s youth with local government, we ask students from Connecticut public middle schools and high schools to consider the topic of what is cool about local government?

Katherine Pano Lalvay, an eighth grader from the Broadview Middle School in Danbury, won for her submission, “Danbury is My Home.” Victoria Dabrowski, a ninth grader from Southington High School, won for her submission “The Spirit of Southington,” which is a dress that she had made.

Socially distanced awards were held at the Post University offices in Downtown Waterbury at the refurbished Howland-Hughes building on Bank Street, with Shawn Whisenhant representing the University, and Joe DeLong, Executive Director and CEO of CCM.