The Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association (PRSSA) is a Puerto Rican non-profit student organization dedicated to promoting statehood for Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1979, and remained active for two years, becoming inactive 1981–1993, active again 1993 to 1997, inactive once more 1997 to 2007, when it was reactivated once again. PRSSA promotes the participation of pro-statehood students in the political process, serves as a pro-statehood student think tank, leads a grassroots approach to lobby the United States Congress, and provides professional development to its members through informational and internship programs. History First generation PRSSA was founded in August 1979 by then-law student Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's future Secretary of State, and then-college student Luis Fortuño, Puerto Rico's future governor. The organization was constituted to promote the discussion of Puerto Rico's political status dilemma in mainland United States colleges and universities, promote statehood for America's largest territory and facilitate absentee balloting in the islands' elections for the estimated 15,000 young voting residents of Puerto Rico registered in college campuses throughout the states and Washington, DC. McClintock served as the association's first president from August 1979 to June 1980, when he graduated from the Tulane University Law School. McClintock was responsible for establishing the PRSSA throughout stateside colleges and universities during his tenure. PRSSA grew to over 500 members and 35 chapters throughout the United States. McClintock also organized the first PRSSA Convention in the now defunct Cerromar Hotel in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico. The three-day convention featured then-congressman and future Senator Paul Simon as keynote speaker, as well as then-Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, statehood patriarch and former Governor Luis A. Ferré and McClintock's predecessor as Secretary of State, Pedro Vázquez, as speakers. Fortuño, a Georgetown University undergrad, succeeded as the second president from 1980 to 1981. He then organized the PRSSA's absentee voting campaign for the 1980 Puerto Rican general elections. The approximately 1,500 absentee votes garnered by the PRSSA were an important factor in the reelection of Governor Romero Barceló by a 3,000-vote margin. Among founding PRSSA leaders, Tulane University student Pedro Pierluisi went on to become Attorney General and Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, George Washington University student José Rodríguez Suárez went on to become Puerto Rico's Under Secretary of State under three Secretaries of State, Baltasar Corrada del Rio, Norma Burgos and Kenneth McClintock, and José Jaime Pierluisi became Governor Pedro Rosselló's Economic Advisor prior to