Date: Fri 20-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: JEFF

Quick Words:

Joshua-Stern-Washington-DC

Full Text:

Catching A Fever During A Summer In Washington

(with photos)

BY JEFF WHITE

For Joshua Stern, it has been a long, futile battle that has occupied his last

two summer vacations. Perhaps at first he put up some resistance, but the

power of Joshua's affliction tempered any desire to fight. He has become

consumed by "Potomac Fever."

The ailment is an intellectual infatuation with the power struggles, political

agendas and partisan rivalries that underpin the functions of government in

Washington, DC. For the second consecutive summer, Joshua, who will be a high

school senior this year, attended a Junior Statesmen Foundation (JSF) summer

school program at Georgetown University.

"I think it's great," Joshua said of the three-week program. "You get some

insight that most people don't have because you get to meet so many different,

interesting people."

Each summer, Junior Statesmen programs are held at five of the country's top

universities -- Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Northwestern and Georgetown. It is

at the latter university that students get the best first-hand look at the

workings of American government.

During the program, a typical day for Joshua combined rigorous course work in

a classroom environment with guest speakers and the opportunity to bounce

questions off top national leaders.

Joshua chose to research foreign policy, where he logged more than 100

classroom hours stretched over the program's duration. The course was a true

college-level challenge for Joshua, with nightly readings exceeding 100 pages,

a midterm and final exam, and a 17-page research paper that he chose to write

on American-Israeli relations.

Outside the hours he spent in the classroom, Joshua also took part in various

"Congressional Workshops," nightly student-run debates on major national

political topics such as the US embargo on Iraq, gun control policy and the

legalization of same-gender marriages. In all, 25 different topics were

debated in an atmosphere that emphasized precision in both pubic speaking and

argument generation.

"I have definitely seen an improvement in my public speaking," Joshua said.

The program also highlighted guest speakers twice a week, usually current

political leaders from the media, special interest groups and various branches

of government. Among the 45 different guest speakers were Attorney General of

the United States Janet Reno, Political Affairs Counselor for the People's

Republic of China Gao Jian and the Director of the Office of National Drug

Control Policy Barry McCaffrey.

Joshua said that part of the excitement of a summer spent inside the Beltway

was "being around motivated students who are interested in the same things I'm

interested in. [Politics] is something I plan on doing, so hopefully the

program will have an influence on me."

Civic Minded Students

The Junior Statesmen Foundation was founded in 1934 on a non-partisan,

educational platform dedicated to helping young people develop skills

necessary for effective civic leadership.

"The Junior Statesmen goal is to create not only political leaders but also

responsible citizens who will vote and be knowledgeable," Joshua explained.

Each year, 250 outstanding high school students participate in Statesmen

summer school programs, and since its inception, over 500,000 students have

been educated in American government, international relations, national and

foreign policy.

While the JSF provides a summer forum for interested students to develop their

political understanding, it is in the Junior State of America (JSA), the

year-round affiliate of the JSF, that most high school students can learn more

about their government and the civic issues of the day. For over 60 years, the

JSA has encouraged political awareness and involvement on an everyday basis

among high school students across the country.

Upon returning from his first summer at Georgetown, Joshua founded the Newtown

High School chapter of the JSA. NHS students plan JSA agendas, meetings, and

run the various meetings and debates, all in the effort to transmit the

theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to ensure active, informed

citizenship.

Students active in the JSA chapter at the high school had the opportunity this

past year to participate in numerous conferences with other regional high

school chapters.

"The biggest conference is the one that they do in Washington, DC in the

winter time, at the Hyatt, which is modeled after Congress," Joshua said.

"People take on the role of a congressman. You have legislation and

committees."

On the JSA level at the high school this coming year, Joshua will pass the

reigns of leadership over to last year's chapter vice president. But he will

still be immersed in his passion; at an end-of-the-year conference last

spring, Joshua was elected mayor of the Connecticut/New York region. He will

be in charge of all the chapters in the region, organizing conferences and

overseeing existing chapters, while starting new ones.

"That will be a pretty big job and will be my focus this year," he said.

Though the new school year is only a few weeks away, Joshua seems more content

to talk about another summer spent further infecting himself with "Potomac

Fever." He reveled in the international flavor of the program.

"One of the things I always love is meeting the people. You meet people from

all over," he said. "It was exciting in a foreign policy class to have people

whose ideas are coming from an outside perspective, saying the US isn't the

center of the universe, `this is what we think of you,' that sort of thing.

It's a completely different perspective."

And it is a perspective that looks to serve him well in his future endeavors.

Besides being one of the top ten students in his class, Joshua, who loves to

sail, play tennis and run, plans, not surprisingly, to study either government

or political science in college. He eventually hopes to attend law school with

the aim to some day work in Congress.

Ask Joshua whether or not he recommends his summer fever to other high school

students, and the answer is unmistakable. "I mean, even people who decide that

they don't want to be in politics are often glad that they went because it

gives you a general idea of how government works."