Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

Former Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti.

Businessman Charles R. Schwab.

These are only three of the many notable alumni who reportedly participated in the Junior State of America [JSA], an organization founded in 1934 to promote civic education and develop leadership skills among students, according to its website.

The group actually started out as “Junior Statesmen of America” before its leaders changed its name in 2020 in response to the growing number of female participants, though according to past articles from The Accolade, staff writers often referred to JSA as Junior State of America. 

SLIDER PHOTO CAPTIONS

Top: An article by John Son from the Oct. 29, 2004, issue of The Accolade covering a mock presidential debate. The event had a total of 128 students and staff members in the audience. The organization was referred to as Junior State of America at the time. (Accolade Image File)

Bottom: Wild art of then senior Laura Chin, the president of the Sunny Hills Junior ‘Statesmen’ of America chapter in 2008 in the Sept. 23, 2008, issue of The Accolade. (Accolade Image File)

According to a previous article by The Accolade, the SH JSA chapter was founded in 1983 and appeared in the yearbook as a formal club in 1993 with a total of 31 members.

But over the summer, JSA chapter presidents received an email announcing the organization’s demise.

“JSA as an organization will be dissolved by August 31st due to the financial situation of the organization,” wrote Taylor Regen, the previous Southern California state governor for JSA, in a mass email on Friday, Aug. 2, 10 days before the start of the 2024-2025 school year. “Although we are losing the name and brand of JSA, we are not giving up on the mission.”

As the school’s JSA president-elect at the end of the spring semester, senior Alexxa Berumen said she saw the writing on the wall last school year.

“There was obviously some change that was going to be happening to JSA, and no one was really sure what would happen to the organization,” Berumen said. “The conventions were smaller; the attendance was really low.”

Class of 2003 Justin Liu, who served as JSA president here during his senior year, first found out about JSA’s dissolution from The Accolade.

“It was really surprising to me because it was always sort of one of the more popular, like at the time when I was in high school, I would say the most popular clubs,” Liu said.

Social science teacher and Associated Student Body adviser David Fenstermaker agreed to oversee JSA starting the school year after Liu had graduated and continued on until the 2010-2011 school year.

“The current event component and the ‘debating issues’ aspect of the club will be missed on campus, but the Amnesty International and Speech and Debate clubs have filled some of that void,” Fenstermaker said. “I am not surprised that JSA has died out because honest, sincere discourse has mostly died out, so I am sure they are seeing this as a reflection of the times.”

The last adviser for the SH chapter, Kelsie Castro said since the SH chapter’s founding, the club has taken students to three yearly conventions and has held debates on campus. In fact, in 2000, the club appeared with 43 members in the yearbook.

JSA also held its own mini-conferences where they debated political issues. During national and state conferences, members were also able to be recognized with awards and positions.

Previous Accolade newspapers have reported the chapter’s hosting of mock presidential debates on campus. These meetings would garner participation from over 100 nonmembers of the club, who would vote for their preferred representative.

SLIDER PHOTO CAPTIONS

Left: Sunny Hills JSA’s first Helios yearbook appearance in 1993, a decade after the chapter’s founding in 1983. (Source: 1993 Helios)

Right: The Sunny Hills JSA’s final Helios yearbook entry in 2024, over 30 years after the first. The club disbanded the following school year. (Source: 2024 Helios)

While the club had a balance of female and male members, over the years the former began to double in membership compared with the boys. During the fall semester of 2020, for example, JSA comprised of 20 girls and 10 boys.

Liu, who now works as a lawyer for American Homes 4 Rent, said he can only speculate as to the reason for the gender changes among JSA’s club members.

“You like to recruit your friend circles to [join clubs] together because you like to hang out with your friends while you’re doing these extracurriculars,” said the SH alumnus, who also headed The Accolade as editor-in-chief during his senior year. “Maybe that just became something where female-dominated friend circles wanted to do JSA:

“That’s my best guess.”

The vice president-elect sophomore Abbie Nguyen said the different interests of male and female students may be to blame for the disparity.

“I generally feel like girls are more likely to join clubs,” Nguyen said. “I don’t think guys really care about [clubs], especially in all the clubs I’m in; it’s mostly girls.”

NEW GROUP EMERGES

Established by the Council of Governors in response to JSA’s demise, Regen said the Civic Leaders of America shares the same fundamental goals as its predecessor. 

In addition, Regen said the new program plans to emphasize cooperation, public speaking and critical thinking skills rather than in-person conventions. The organization will also be completely student-run and will offer career-based workshops.

“We think this will recruit more students interested in law,” Regen said. “As the organization has started, more leadership roles have opened to students just starting out with civics, so we’ve gotten more beginners already.”

For Sunny Hills, this opportunity to revamp JSA with a new name won’t happen during this school year, especially since JSA can’t find an adviser – Castro has gone on to advise a new club, Mock Trial, Berumen said.

“We also don’t have any other members [besides the cabinet],” she said. “Our school has one of the smallest chapters, and all our members graduated last year.

“I’m sad, but I think it’s also for the better because it would have been a hard transition year with the organization being new and without our adviser.”