Sean C. Morgan
Megan Moser, eighth grade, will travel to Washington, D.C., in March to participate in the World Leadership Forum.
She joins a select group of students from March 8-14 to earn high school credit while studying leadership and exploring some of the United States’ most prominent monuments and institutions.
From Capitol Hill to the Smithsonian Institute and colonial Williamsburg to the National Museum of American History, Moser will examine the characteristics of American leadership during times of national challenge and prosperity.
Forum delegates, sixth through eighth grade, will also participate in small-group discussions and exercises to experience first-hand how successful leaders develop strategies, make decisions, build consensus and foster change.
Moser was nominated based on outstanding scholastic merit, civic involvement and leadership potential.
“The reason I nominated her is she’s a great student, very mature, and she’s very focused on her studies,” Sweet Home Junior High teacher Colleen Henry said. “I was so impressed with her when she was a seventh grader. She was the first one that popped into my mind. She’s a very smart student, but she doesn’t take that for granted. She works extra hard and participates 100 percent in all of her assignments.”
The program will help her develop her leadership skills and get her out of Sweet Home where she can see much more, meat other leadership and academically minded students.
“It’s good to see the world and how your education can help change the world,” Henry said.
“I get to go, and I get to stay for a week and interact with students from around the country,” Moser said.
They will debate policies and current events, her mother, Catherine Moser, said. They will look at events ranging from the Civil War to Vietnam and the American civil rights movement.
Moser is looking forward to seeing Washington, D.C.
“I’ve been down the West Coast and to Canada, Mexico and Hawaii,” she said. “Someone told me it would take more than a week to get to see the Smithsonian.”
Moser has been especially interested in government and politics and has ideas about the way things should be.
“I think that with the way the president is elected, it should be more of the popular vote rather than the Electoral College,” Moser said. “I would love to be the first woman president. That would be awesome, but I think I might have to stick with something lower on the totem pole.
“I think it’s very interesting. I like fighting for people. I just like serving the people and giving them what they want. Some people don’t get everything they need in small towns and poverty-stricken areas.”
Moser also has considered becoming a lawyer or even a judge, she said. “I like having the final say,” mischievously adding, “But that doesn’t happen at home.”
The program is coordinated by People to People Student Ambassador Programs to fulfill the vision Dwight D. Eisenhower had for fostering world citizenship when he founded the organization during his presidency in 1956.
Moser is trying to raise $4,000 for the trip. Donation jars are in lace at Santiam Feed and Les Schwab Tire Center, and Wells Fargo has an account set up for Moser. Riverside Christian Church is helping, and Ted and Rogene Stock have donated $300 so far for the trip.