On April 20-21, the Junior State of America (JSA) club attended the 2024 Norcal Spring State at the Oakland Marriott City Center.
Spring State is the final event of the school year for chapters in each JSA state. Chapters serve as centers of political awareness and activity on high school campuses across the nation, and these collectively form regions that coordinate communication with other chapters in their area to run regional events.
JSA is a nationwide organization. The PHS club belongs to the Northern California JSA state, as part of the East Bay Region.
For JSA Northern California Governor and senior Mica Jorcino, this was her third and final year attending Spring State.
“It’s a lot of fun. We put a ton of planning into this, so it’s very exciting,” Jorcino said.
Jorcino played a prominent role in the organization of the convention. She worked on registration packets, workshops for the convention, and also went down to Piedmont Middle School to talk to the PMS debate team about JSA.
“It was a lot of time, but so worth it,” she said.
The state hosts three conventions each year, where students can either sign up to be part of the discussion or be part of the audience. The audience also participates in the discussion during subsequent speaking sections.
“It’s really chill, not super stressful, and it’s just a really good way to talk to people of different backgrounds about important issues and a way to practice speaking up for things you believe in,” club member senior Ellie Broscow said.
At the convention, students were free to debate, have conversational thought talks, and were welcome to walk by political affairs, where local activism organizations talked to students during scheduled time slots.
“It’s really fun to meet new people, and it’s also really nice that it’s in Oakland this year,” Broscow said.
Club advisor David Keller, who has been attending Spring State for many years, accompanied the club to Spring State as their chaperone.
“[JSA] allows students to go outside of Piedmont and interact with people from all over northern California,” Keller said.
Spring State is a special convention because it is also the resolution of JSA’s election cycle, where students in each JSA state announce the student leaders elected for the coming school year.
“JSA is a student-led organization, so there’s a lot of leadership opportunities that students take advantage of, and get involved in,” Keller said.
