The Junior Statesmen of America, also known as JSA, is a club devoted to promoting civic and political engagement among teens through debates, discussions, and other relevant activities. It is the largest student run organization in the entire country.
During the weekend of Nov. 19-20, Brookfield Central’s JSA chapter, along with other chapters in the Midwest, traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to attend Fall State, one of the three major conventions per year.
In light of the recent presidential election, Fall State’s theme was titled: “From Promises to Policy; Unifying the Nation.” Many of the debates pertained to topics such as the presidential campaigns and the election itself.
With debates ranging from “The EU should admit Turkey” to “The US should enlist the Avengers to combat ISIS,” Fall State interested a wide variety of students with the diversity of the intriguing topics debated.
Two Lancers came home with Best Speaker awards, voted by their peers at the convention. Owen Eppel (‘19) received the Best Speaker Award for his speech on memes. ¨It was scary to go up in front of a bunch of people and I had to force myself to talk,” recalled Eppel. “It was a lot of fun and very much worth it to hear my name called.” Max Sommerfield (‘18) also won Best Speaker for his speech on whether or not party loyalty is more important than a candidate’s outlying individual beliefs.
At this convention, students were able to forge new friendships that cross state borders. “Meeting people from other schools and forming close bonds with them was only the icing on the cake,” said Ravina Sachdev, Director of Publicity and Recruitment of BC’s JSA club. Sachdev finished her thought by stating that ¨overall, JSA Fall State was an incredibly diverse and life changing experience.¨