Philipsburg – On October 21st and 28th, 2022, the Honorable Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson visited the winners of the Second Annual Justice Sector Essay Contest (JSEC) at their respective schools to award certificates and prizes. As a part of the program, the winners have won a field day at their chosen department with the respective department heads, a customized Justice Sector Essay Contest t-shirt, and gift certificates courtesy of Klass Electronics. At each institute, Minister Richardson was accompanied by the respective department head, her support staff, and Klass Electronics representative Mr. Roger Mahtani. They were welcomed by the principals of each institution and other faculty staff. The secondary institutions visited were Learning Unlimited (LU), Milton Peters College (MPC), St. Dominic High School (SDHS), and the St. Maarten Academy.
Minister Richardson stated as she addressed the winners, “I just want to express my profound happiness that you participated in the second annual Justice essay contest. The objective is to spike the interest of our youth to recognize the wide array of careers and opportunities that are within the Ministry of Justice. We want you to start to think about it and if you were in a capacity, what would you do to contribute to our community, operating in the best and safest way for all inhabitants. This is your start and you’ve done a phenomenal job. That’s why your essay won. So a huge congratulations to you, your teachers, and overall your school for this huge win and recognition.”
The students and the department heads are Jamie Lynch (LU) who will be spending her day with the Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson; Jason Yang (LU) with Chief of Police Carl John; Siddhant Vaswani (LU) with Public Prosecutor Hieke Buist; Aryan Notani (LU) with Courthouse Director Richelda Emmanuel; Heland Mo (LU) with Senior Legal and Policy Advisor of the Department of Judicial Affairs; Valeria Arello Torres (LU) with President of the Victim Support Services Board Cassandra Richardson; Johanna Millet (MPC) with IBP Management Team member Alexandra Yeung; Daveho Bazil (MPC) with Youth Delinquency Department Director Dientje Muller; Lehar Marata (SDHS) with Court of Guardianship Director Kimberly Brown; Alana Carazo Graves (SDHS) with Coast Guard Captain Roberto Levenstone; and Sarai Willemsberg with Prison Director Steven Carty. This exercise will allow the students the opportunity to experience the role and daily operations of the organization they chose to write about. All institutions congratulated this initiative and expressed that they look forward to even more students joining the JSEC 2023.
“I’d like to thank all of the 33 participants and 11 winners who took part in the second annual JSEC. This is five more participants and five more winners than in 2021. This reflects how much our youth are more and more interested in pursuing careers within the criminal justice system. As Minister of Justice, I continue to see the need for fostering justice professionals within our society and that begins with our youth. I take this time to also thank and commend Klass Electronics for their efforts in collaborating with the Ministry of Justice by awarding gift certificates to the essay contest winners. Thank you for recognizing the positive influence such an initiative can have on our youth. As such, I look forward to the students learning and getting to know the justice sector on a more intimate level,” stated Minister Richardson.