JSA – Junior State of America

Current and newly-elected Northern California leadership students celebrate an election victory

Ohio Governor Jordan Dicken gives her final address to students in the Ohio Senate Chambers

The Junior State of America held its annual Spring State conventions across the country in April, marking the end of a great academic year of intelligent debates, educational simulations, and passionate civic activism. This year’s Spring State conventions were held in Oakbrook, Illinois, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Orlando, Florida, Santa Clara, California, Columbus, Ohio, Redmond Washington, Meriden, Connecticut, and Phoenix, Arizona.

The convention theme, “The future of Freedom: Rights, Revolution, and Renewal,” centers around the ever-changing world that we live in, and both the domestic and foreign influences that affect the freedom billions around the world enjoy.  The debates which took place across all ten conventions included: Resolved, that drone warfare is a violation of human rights, Resolved, that the Federal Assault Weapons Ban be reinstated, and a discussion group about the 21^st Century American Identiy.

The Spring State conventions also had an impressive lineup of keynote speakers, who shared their knowledge of politics,

the media, and foreign affairs with the students. Of particular note were US Rep. John Mica (R-FL 7^th District), US Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL 11^th District), and Journalist, Author, and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, Dr. Fareed Zakaria. “Dr. Zakaria was a great speaker because he discussed major issues we all wonder about, such as terrorism, and explained them in a way we all understood. He engaged our questions and presented us with information in relatable and unique ways,” said Mid-Atlantic Governor Simone Klein.

One of the most important activities of each weekend was the election, where students chose their leadership for the upcoming year.  In addition to the Governor, who serves as a part of JSA’s leadership on the 10-member Council of Governors, JSA states elected a variety of other officers, including Lt. Governors, Regional Mayors, and Assembly Representatives. “I am confident that the newly-elected JSA leadership has what it takes to spread JSA more widely among their peers, and to carry on our mission of teaching young people the democratic process,” said Elizabeth Ventura, JSA Senior Program Director.

In addition to JSA elections, other year-end awards were earned by students and chapters across the nation. The first award, the Statesperson of the Year, goes to a non-elected student, usually a graduating senior, who best embodies the ideals of statesmanship, and who works hard to make JSA successful. The second award, the Chapter of the Year award, goes to the chapter in each state which that has done the best possible job of educating, involving, and representing the youth of their school and community, and who participates frequently in statewide conventions and activism activities. The 10 chapters of the year will all compete for JSA’s National Civic Impact Award, given to the chapter which best displays these qualities on a national level, and which makes the biggest impact on the community it serves.

Here are the results for each state for Governor-elect, Statesperson of the Year, and Chapter of the Year.

Arizona:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Chetan Bafna, Kofa High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Priscila Ortiz, Kofa High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Kofa High School, Yuma, Arizona

Mid-Atlantic:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Cristian Vides, Plainfield High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Aarushi Kumar, Secaucus High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Plainfield High School, Plainfield, New Jersey

Midwest:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Kristiana Yao, Naperville North High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Carly Naughton, Nequa Valley High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora, Illinois

Northern California:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Joshua Kisbye, University High School (Fresno)
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Will Du, Bishop O’Dowd High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Richmond High School, Richmond, California

Northeast:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Benjamin Reytblat, Staten Island Technical High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Michael Holtz, Staples High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: New Rochelle High School, New Rochelle, New York

Ohio River Valley:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Winston Underwood, Dublin Scioto High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: CJ Kronk, Pickerington North High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Danville High School, Danville, Kentucky

Pacific Northwest:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Tyler Pichette, Central Valley High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Lexi Boyer, Skyline High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Westview High School, Portland, Oregon

Southern California:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Sabrina Lieberman, Marlborough High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Kortnee Ogbuefi, King Drew Medical Magnet High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Valencia High School, Placentia, California

Southeast:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Raymond Rif, Nova High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Jessica Zimmerman, Naples High School
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: Naples High School, Naples, Florida

Texas:
2013-14 Governor-elect: Indre Altman, Carnegie Vanguard High School
2012-13 Statesperson of the Year: Anthony Kayruz, St. Mary’s Hall
2012-13 Chapter of the Year: The John Cooper School, The Woodlands, Texas

For more extensive election results, visit your individual JSA state’s website.

Over 85 students from around the Los Angeles area convened at Loyola Marymount University on Sunday, March 23rd to debate the impact of how Americans perceive the world around us
through the lens of mainstream media, at a conference titled, “Rhetoric vs. Reality: Facing the Facts.” Debate topics ranged from whether or not there is too much media focus on negative news, to the large discrepancy in the perception of climate change, to violence in video
games. A particularly hot topic was the over-coverage of celebrity news where students nearly
unanimously agreed that news time would be better spent on more impactful issues to the
general public. Continue Reading

Gubernatorial Candidate Will Badart (left) and GPR Mayoral Candidate Dean Sagafi (right)

The first Pacific Northwest JSA chapter conference of this election season was held at the International School, hosted by  one of our current gubernatorial candidates, Will Badart along with Lt. Governor candidate Andrew Lee, and the rest of the International School JSA cabinet. The conference had resolutions which covered a myriad of topics, debated by about 45 attendees. The highlight of the conference was definitely the keynote debate, “Resolved, wiretapping, if National Security at stake, is morally acceptable.” This team debate required the debaters to know their facts and be able to think on the spot to counter their opponents’ arguments. Continue Reading

By Ruth Boyajian

General Session at the NJR Spring One Day

The New Jersey Region (NJR) Spring One-Day conference, March 23, 2013, took place at McCosh Hall at Princeton University. Over three hundred students gathered together on the chilly morning to voice their opinions on controversial issues that will have an influence on their futures. The theme, “Rhetoric vs. Reality: Facing the Facts”, challenged the attendees to critically think about ideologies of others around them and to think about the reality of current policies, as opposed to depending upon rhetoric for their opinions. Continue Reading

The message on her fundraising page couldn’t be clearer: “THANK YOU SO MUCH! I AM GOING TO PRINCETON!” In just 7 days, Jazmin Vergara managed to raise nearly $3,500 to attend the JSA Summer School program at Princeton University.

After completing the JSA Fundraising Academy webinar, Jazmin got right to work. “I first began the fundraising challenge through my school since I had talked to teachers about the program. For the first three days a great majority of the teachers had helped me gain more donations for me by putting the link on their Facebook or Twitter. From there, I realized I can’t just rely on my school… So, I went ahead and sent e-mails to my local mayor, the city council, the board of education, and others,“ she says.

She also faced some struggles. A week after starting her campaign, no one had donated to her. So she decided to, in her words, “kick it up.” “I started going face-to-face to local businesses and telling them my story of how I found this program and how much it means it to me to be able to go and gave them the link [to my fundraising page]. Then, I decided to e-mail the local news outlet… and they responded gleefully and got a story about me out in one night. I also had the help of one of the Board of Education members who I had sent an e-mail to and had sent a new personal referral to about fifty of his friends in the community”

Her increased efforts paid off: “With the press, the city, and my family coming together I felt as if the link to my page was on a billboard! Within about the whole school day I had checked my e-mail and the donations just kept coming. By the end of the day at three o’clock, I got the e-mail saying that I had met what I needed. “

Jazmin also has some advice for other students looking to raise the money for summer school: “Do not be afraid to e-mail anyone and everyone. The more you get your name out there, the more people will want to become invested in you. Brag about yourself!“

JSA Fundraising Academies, which can help students learn how to put together a successful campaign to raise the funds need for summer school, as Jazmin did, are held on Tuesday (7pm ET) and Wednesday (6pm PT) evenings each week through May. To sign up, send an email to FundraisingAcademy@jsa.org with your name and which day you would like to attend Fundraising Academy.

To start your own fundraising page, go to www.jsa.org/summerfundraising