After a successful Winter Congress, Stuyvesant’s Junior Statesmen of America (JSA) have begun preparing for their Winter Mini-convention. Approximately 100 students from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey are expected to attend this convention, which is entirely run by the Stuyvesant chapter of JSA. The convention will be a typical JSA convention, in which students come together to discuss and debate politics and current events.

This year at the Washington, D.C. Winter Congress, one of the three major JSA conventions every year, Stuyvesant had 14 bills accepted, the most out of all the entered schools. In addition, Stuyvesant won seven out of the 27 best-speaker awards given out, the most in the whole conference. Sophomores Jack and David Cahn each won two awards, while juniors Teddy Chassin, Hayden Karpecker, and Andrew Nell took one each.

“At the Winter Congress convention we really saw both the growth of the Stuyvesant chapter in quality of debate and in terms of becoming an organizational community that rises up to become this powerhouse,” said David Cahn, who is the NES Assistant Director of Debate and the Stuyvesant JSA director of debate.

Furthermore, two members of the Stuyvesant are running for positions in the government. As JSA is extremely popular nation- wide, it is a special honor for a school to have a member elected to be an official. This year, Stuyvesant could have two. Sophomore Austin Ostro, director of debate of the Stuyvesant chapter, is running for Vice Mayor of the ECS, while Jack Cahn, NES Director of Public Relations and Stuyvesant Director of Internal Affairs, is running for Lieutenant Governor of the entire Northeast state. These are huge steps for the Stuyvesant chapter that, as recently as two years ago, were unable to attend Winter Congress because it lacked funds due to a shortage in membership.

Now, with an expanding membership and an invigorating win at the Winter Conference, expectations are high for the Stuyvesant mini-conference, not only for the members to do well in the competition, but also to be good hosts for their guests. This means creating all the topics that will be discussed and debated for the length of the conference. “We write the debates, we write the blurbs, we make the agenda. We pretty much plan everything,” senior and Chapter President of JSA Izzy Hechkoff, Stuyvesant’s mini-conference will be held on March 18th in the Murray Kahn Theater. All students are welcome.