Students plan for Spring State

DOWNEY - This April 14-16, politically active students from the Junior State of America club at Downey High School and around Southern California will attend Spring State, the club's most attended event of the year.JSA, the largest, nonprofit, student-run organization in the nation, is organized at the school level and holds conventions such as Spring State - this year being held at the Hilton near LAX - where hundreds of students from dozens of schools all over Southern California can come together and share their passion for politics. According to Tracy Pointdexter, the Southern California Program Director for JSA, there is an expected attendance of more than 1300 students at this year's Spring State. "Each year, students from Santa Barbara to San Diego to the Coachella Valley convene for three days to debate the issues pressing their individual communities, the state of California, and the nation," said Pointdexter. At this year's Spring State with the theme "Life and Liberty: Re-imagining the American Dream," students can expect to discuss a variety of debate topics concerning issues affecting America today. Besides going to debates, students will also have the opportunity to elect officials their age to lead the Los Angeles, Southern Empire, and Channel Island regions in Southern California JSA next year. New additions to this year's Spring State will include a debate composed of past JSA alumni teaming up with current candidates of the highest elected positions and the first ever "California Youth Summit," where JSA has joined Youth and Government in deciding our youth's most pressing issue and how to organize a plan for community outreach. Downey's JSA chapter president Christopher Espinosa has many hopes for school members attending the event. "I hope that students will speak up and voice their opinions, and most importantly, become more politically aware of themselves, learn to respect others and the numerous opinions in the world, and create friendships that last a lifetime," said Espinosa. Leading up to Spring State was the Angeles Region (AR) One Day, held this year at The Buckley School on March 26. An approximated 22 members from Downey High went to this event attended by over 120 students from 26 schools. The AR One Day, like Spring State, allows students to discuss modern issues, this time inspired by the best-selling book "Freakonomics" by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. For more information on JSA, visit www.jsa.org or http://socal.jsa.org/

********** Published: March 19, 2010 - Volume 8 - Issue 48