Jamestown High School Senior Manalis Espinosa at Mount Vernon
Jamestown High School Senior Manalis Espinoza was recognized at the Jamestown School Board meeting for a recent honor she received as a member of the Puerto Rican / Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute.
The Institute’s purpose is to foster the leadership skills of Hispanic students and to introduce them to New York State’s legislative process.
High School ELA teacher and PR/HYLI Advisor Norma DeJoy said Manalis was one of her Zoom students during COVID, “After eleventh grade, she went onto excel, just as Mr. (Dana) Williams says, in every area – in academics, in music, and in community service. So, I have my Zoom picture up there and Manalis was Student of the Year. Manalis is in the orchestra and she plays percussion in the band. She’s in Honor Society and she does a whole lot of community service and was recognized for that as well.”
DeJoy said Manalis is also part of the PRHYLI program at JHS, which competes against other schools, debating bills at the state capitol. She said the program has been still remote this year, “The kids research legislative bills. So we start with four bills, we gotta do research on those bills, they need to debate both sides of an issue for every single one of those bills. So we meet and do that research work.”
DeJoy said Manalis had the highest position in the state at the state debate as Speaker of the House, responsible for calling on students to debate, “Or call when they were out of order, and boy did she love to do that (audience laughter). She had her gavel right by her side. So this is what’s happening over here. She is seeing a screen, three screens actually, of students, little tiny students, and we’re talking about 500 to 700 students that she was managing as Speaker of the House. It’s very impressive. A whole lot of pressure and she did not break once. She was tough as can be.”
DeJoy added Manalis was one of nine students with the PRHYLI program who won a trip to Washington D.C. She said Manalis plans to become a teacher after graduation.
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