The Bellevue Hyatt played host to Junior State of America’s Fall State Convention for the Pacific Northwest on Nov, 20-21. The participants – all students – played politics, and the debate-oriented convention featured the same issues that permeate talk shows and headlines, but in a crowd altogether friendlier than those that adult politicians have to face.

The Junior State of America (JSA) is “a student run national organization that focuses on political debate and civic engagements,” said Issy Figueroa, the governor of the Pacific Northwest Junior State and a senior at Interlake High School. It’s also an opportunity for students to connect with a peer group. “You learn from your peers,” said Issy.

JSA is particularly popular at high schools in the Bellevue School District, and there are well decorated chapters with dozens of members at every district high school. Bellevue’s chapter gained prominence under the “Bellevue Boys,” a series of Bellevue students who long have held sway over JSA proceedings.

Interlake’s chapter features both the present Pacific Northwest governor and several other involved individuals. One Interlake alumnus, Akash Badshah, won over a dozen best speaker awards over the course of his high school career. Newport and International have thriving chapters, too.

Beyond debate, JSA gives students a chance to sink their teeth into planning, organizing and overseeing events. For some students, JSA is just a club. For others, it’s an obsession; many students have spent summers in JSA Summer School at Stanford, Georgetown or Princeton, or in China as part of the JSA Diplomat program.

Issy went to a single JSA conference on a whim and has been to every one since.

“I applied for cabinet, and it went from there,” she said. “There” is quite a dizzying height – Issy is also the chair of the Council of Governors, which is composed of the governors of each junior state.

The Fall State Convention held in Bellevue was only one of 10 nationwide. JSA is broken into 10 states – the Pacific Northwest is comprised of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Fall State is one of the three major conventions that each junior state holds annually, and boasted hundreds of students in attendance, not only from Bellevue, but from all over Washington and the Pacific Northwest.

Even in their own backyard, Bellevue students got the conference experience – participants stayed overnight at the Hyatt. Every piece of the convention was organized by some 40-50 students from all over the Northwest.

Students were invited to debate dozens of different topics ranging from the humorous to the politically pertinent. The theme of the event was the “Winds of Change,” said Issy.

Debates focused on “energizing America and capturing the winds of change” in the wake of the midterm elections. One debate was centered around the proposition that blue states secede from red states.

It was “more of a humorous one,” said Issy, “but also serious. It led us to think about political division, and whether legislation would be easier to get passed if we all had the same ideology.”

The debates follow strict parliamentary procedure, in a way that let students participate as much or as little as they please. The main proponent and opponent of the proposition present opening statements for six minutes, followed by questions and subsequent speakers for both sides of the argument. Resolutions are then voted on by the group as a whole, overseen by a student moderator.

The results are often separate from how well topics were debated, and students recognize each other by nominating students for best speaker awards for every debate. The awards are presented in the form of iconic gavels.

The convention also featured a political fair with a wide variety of political parties, guest speakers and even a dance. It even inspired one student to wax poetic about the experience, saying, “I saw the future leaders of tomorrow debate the problems of today.”

For JSA’s leaders, there’s no break. They’ve been hard at work preparing for the next convention, Winter Congress. Held in Portland, Winter Congress is a mock legislative session, where participants study issues and practice debate by writing, debating and voting on legislation.

Derek Tsang is an intern at the Bellevue Reporter. He attends Interlake High School.