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The Junior State of America is preparing for the upcoming Congress ‘99, one of three big annual conventions directed at politics and raising awareness of student-related issues.
Kareem Ghanem, one of the student-elected Presidents of JSA and a senior at MV, said: “It’s one of the best ways to meet friends from all over California, and it really involves students in discussing and influencing issues that most affect them.”
The Junior State of America is a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization run totally by the students. JSA elects student leaders, who run everything from the day-to-day organization of schedules to weekend conferences featuring informal discussions, debates, mock trials and addresses given by distinguished public figures. The Junior State allows students the opportunity to deal directly with political and government issues, foreign affairs, the law and education. JSA members debate controversial issues and lobby to have federal laws changed, preparing and arguing for their presented bills to be passed. In the 1960s, JSA was the primary organization lobbying for the voting age to be lowered to 18. Junior State conventions, such as the anticipated Congress ‘99, draw in a minimum of 1,000 students per conference.
Congress ‘99 is the second of three big JSA conventions, the first being in November and the third planned for May. Congress ‘99 is a January 23-24 conference held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento which aims at giving JSA members the chance to establish and strengthen their leadership skills, as well as the opportunity to get a taste of what being in Congress would be like. Every delegate serves as either a Senator or a Member of the House of Representatives, and daily test each other’s ability in maintaining a high level of successful, productive discussions and constructive debates on such issues as abortion and driving privileges for youths.
JSA was founded in 1934 by Professor E. A. Rogers and is presently led by Presidents Kareem Ghanem and Vivian Huang, both seniors at MV who can be reached at 736-5727 and 933-2064 respectively. An advisor to JSA, Rasband said, “JSA not only looks good on your college application, it’s fun and well worth the effort.”
