Our school established a new charter of Junior Statesmen of America (link was giving me trouble, but appears to be active — just down) this year under the tutelage of my colleague (and classroommate), Sarah Parker. They went to their first conference over the last weekend. Of the ten students who attended, three won best speaker awards. I think this is an incredible achievement for students in the first year of an organization like this, and two of the award-winners were freshmen to boot. Congratuations on your achievement, JSA members. I’m really proud of you.
3 thoughts on “Junior Statesmen of America”
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Isn't it great to see your students rewarded for their hard work?
It sure is. I was really proud of them. Of course, I don't feel much responsible. Of the students who won, I've taught two, and frankly, I taught them very little about public speaking. The kudos really go to the kids and to Sarah, my colleague and sponsor of JSA.
There was a chapter of this organization at one of the local high schools here; I had wanted to work with them, last semester (re: the College Republicans organization that I lead). Several of their leaders and members seemed to be conservative, at this high school. I had trouble remembering the name of their group, because I hadn't heard of it before… I then found out, actually, that it was a national organization; the guy who I was talking to had actually been in Washington, D.C., when I initially tried to contact him last semester, for the JSA national conference. Anyway, I hope that they still have that group running and active at this high school. Though JSA is non-partisan, they are the closest thing that we have to a TARS group in this county (though we are trying to change that). I think that I need to re-establish contact with those guys, and see if they still have some conservative or Republican members, who would be interested in working with us. Partisanship aside, I have said before, in my conversations with that JSA guy, that I think that it is very impressive that students are organizing, and taking part in, something like this, at that age level. I wish that more high school and teenage Americans would participate in civic engagement and the public policy process, within this state, and throughout our country.