Mariah Thomas, here with your Daily Roundup … and the past couple weeks, the Valley has been awash with our own being tapped for prestigious opportunities.

Last week, I wrote about Brad Hall, the president of Blackfeet Community College, who earned selection as a fellow through the Aspen Institute where he’ll work on developing and implementing an idea aimed at helping families and children over the course of the next year and a half.

And today’s newsletter brings you news of Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, who was picked for the Rodel Fellowship — the nation’s “premier leadership development program for elected leaders.”

Each year, that fellowship brings together 24 state and local-level leaders, divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. They gather for seminars over a two-year period to read and discuss foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution’s preamble and writings by Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. The program places an emphasis, Sprunger said, on understanding these texts and bringing together leaders interested in working for “the common good.”

Sprunger is Montana’s first Republican to join the Rodel Fellowship lineup. Past participants from the state include former Gov. Steve Bullock, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and former state Rep. Jenny Eck, who led the Democratic minority in the statehouse from 2017 to 2019.

But that doesn’t mean the program hasn’t also turned out high-profile Republican leaders. The program’s alumni coffers boast figures like U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who has been in the national limelight following the murder of Charlie Kirk on Utah Valley University’s campus two weeks ago.

Sprunger said she received the call that she’d been selected for the fellowship while on a trip to Croatia with the International Republican Institute’s Women’s Democracy Network. She was working on how to build pipelines for women in leadership in eastern European countries and said the timing of receiving the call to participate while there was “perfect.”

Beyond international affairs, Sprunger said recommitting to understanding shared values with those across the aisle feels especially important today.

“Obviously with the violence that’s occurred between Pennsylvania, to Minnesota and Charlie Kirk — whose content I watched — it felt like, gosh, what a powerful time to participate in something that brings us back to our roots and finding common good,” she said.

The texts she’ll study are ones written by those who “believe in the democratic process,” something Sprunger views as important. She said her goal is to represent the people, rather than remaining beholden to a party.

“That has been one of my priorities along the way,” she said. “I always say that the main letter behind my name is an ‘M’ for Montana.”

Plus, taking opportunities like this one is something Sprunger sees as a chance to improve her leadership in the state legislature. She said many of her colleagues also participate in such opportunities when they arise, pointing to Rep. Randyn Gregg’s visit to Israel as an example. Sprunger looks forward to networking with her own fellowship class, along with alumni of the program, and hopes the experience will help her become a “leader Montana deserves.”

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To find out more about Lovey and other pet adoption opportunities at the Humane Society of Northwest Montana go to: www.humanesocietypets.com. To donate to the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, visit the organization’s donation page here.