JAWS COMET Participates in the Annual Youth Forum

Last Monday, December 5th, DRSS’s Junior Council on World Affairs team went to Wright State to participate in the Youth Forum. At this event, students were able to hear from two speakers about the Arab Spring Uprisings and Brexit. The Youth Forum is always a fun event that students partake in, learning about current events while also getting the opportunity to interact with other JCOWA teams. The previous year’s topics were the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The morning started off with an introduction from Bridget Federspiel, the director of JCOWA. From there, they dove right in and began their first topic: Arab Spring Uprisings. Getting to hear about these uprisings was very interesting because I was ignorant to this topic. To understand this situation, we had to learn about the history of US relations with Arab countries: Turkey, Iran, Egypt, etc. Then, students were able to learn about Brexit (Britain Exit). This situation involved Britain leaving the European Union, an organization composed of 28 countries who provide official development assistance around the world, while also discussing the implications of their actions and how various political groups in Britain feel about it. Hearing about the ramifications of Britain’s decision on the EU was also very interesting because they are an important contributing country to the EU, giving about $20 billion per year.

Once students heard about the two topics, they were given three options for each and had to pick one that they felt was the best option for the US to partake in. For example, I chose the option B for the Arab Spring Uprising which was for the US to partake in only the revolutions they wanted to. The other options for the issue were do nothing or participate in all revolutions. For Brexit, the options were to do nothing, intervene, and use it as an opportunity for trade. Once lunch was eaten and the students finished discussing their claim and reasoning about their option, each group had two representatives speak in front of the group, explaining why their option was the best. The do nothing group won for Brexit and participating in select revolutions was the option that won for the Arab Spring Uprising.

The annual Youth Forum is always an enjoyable JCOWA event. Many students enjoyed the forum. 11th grade student and first time JCOWA member Bri Perkins said, “This is my first year in JCOWA. I really enjoyed my first trip to Wright State learning about the Arab Spring. It was something I hadn’t heard about before and it was very interesting to me.” The New Year will be exciting for JCOWA, having its annual Quiz Bowl where the winner will travel to Washington DC, competing against JCOWA teams from across the country.