Over Thanksgiving break, while most students were heading off to their respective holiday homes or attending the second round of playoffs at the AT&T Stadium, West’s chapter of Junior State of America (JSA) made its way down to Austin for their Fall State Convention, one of the three biggest JSA conventions of the year.

“JSA members from all over Texas gathered at the State Capitol to debate, dance, meet new people, exchange ideas, et cetera,” Texas JSA Speaker of the House senior Catherine Zhang said. “They heard from Texas state representative Donna Howard, listened to a panel of political pundits, wrote letters to their representatives and participated in supreme court mock trial.”

JSA may be mostly unheard of by peers, but the organization itself is growing.

“I’m not exactly sure how many members are in the West chapter,” Zhang said. “I want to say 13. I’m also not sure about the Texas numbers, but last time I checked we had over 600 members.”

Even though the membership at West is much lower than other chapters, the overall membership of JSA is quite impressive. JSA was founded in 1934, and since then, membership has risen to over 500,000 active members.

“We’re actually the largest student-run organization in the nation,” Zhang said. “JSA members attend conventions, engage in debates and work on activism projects. In a way, we are like a gigantic student organization. We have governors and mayors and cabinet members. Every aspect of the organization is pretty much run by students.”

During the convention, JSA chapters from all over the state of Texas gathered for the special weekend, resulting in a slew of newcomers and new personalities.

“You meet some amazing people there,” Zhang said. “Most people expect JSA to be full of super serious debaters, and that intimidates them. But one of our most prominent officials and devoted members is a cheerleader. Very preppy and girly. People in JSA totally break that stereotype that you have to be serious and boring to be into politics.”

Although the convention was successful, Zhang would like to see a brighter future for the membership of Texas JSA.

“I want JSA to have more members in Texas, specifically from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and the Austin area,” Zhang said. “Other areas like the Northeastern state have like 900 people attending their conventions. Because JSA is student-run, it is also a beacon for student voices. I want that power to be channelled into getting representatives and senators to consider student voices before making decisions.”

JSA’s mission statement, as stated on their website, is as follows: “The mission of the Junior State of America and the Junior Statesmen Foundation (JSA) is to strengthen American democracy by educating and preparing high school students for life-long involvement and responsible leadership in a democratic society.” They achieve these goals through their state-wide meetings in order to spread the word about their organization.

“We mainly wanted students to learn more about a diverse array of topics that are affecting the world today, participate in activism projects and fall in love with JSA so they would continue participating in our activities and encourage other people to join JSA,” Zhang said.