On February 13th, Arrowhead’s Club, the Junior States of America (J.S.A.), travelled to Washington, District of Columbia. They returned February 17th.

Arrowhead senior and JSA President Robert Taylor says, “We go to DC every year for our Winter Congress Convention. We write bills or amendments in a group of two, and if they are approved by JSA’s CIA (chapter of internal affairs) group, we get to debate the bill/amendment that we created. We debate these bills as if we were real congressmen/congresswomen in two chambers, house and senate. Then if they pass in both chambers, it moves on to a bigger chamber of combined groups. In competing for getting our bill passed, we also compete for best speaker. This year Rohan Vasavada and Andrew Eisenhauer won best speaker awards, but none of our bills were passed.”

Forty four students from Arrowhead travelled to DC with four chaperones. The chaperones were Arrowhead social studies teachers Tim Tower, Dan Miller, Tamara Varsos and Jennifer Cropsey-Brown.

The group stayed at the Crystal City DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton in Arlington, VA.

On Wednesday at 6:30 a.m., the group arrived at Mitchell International Airport and departed to DC at 8:00 a.m. through Southwest Airlines. They arrived at 11:00 a.m., picked up their luggage, rode in a shuttle to the hotel and checked in.

The group had lunch, headed to Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum, and had dinner at Ben’s Chili Bowl.

On Thursday, they got breakfast at Crystal City Mall and then made their way to the Pentagon for a Pentagon tour. They travelled the Mall, had lunch, and sightseed. They explored the National Archives, had dinner at Buca di Beppo, and made their way to Ford’s Theatre to see 12 Angry Men.

“On Friday it was in the 60’s, and many people actually wore shorts,” said Taylor in an email.

On Friday, the group had breakfast, took the metro to the mall, and made their way to the capital. They toured the capital and the African American History Museum. They made time to sightsee on the Capital Mall. They had dinner at Union Station with evening activities including debates and a dance.

On Saturday, the group went to Committee Hearings and Keynote Speaker. They went to the committee hearings and party caucuses until 5:30. They debated the bills that were accepted all throughout the Midwest and Ohio River Valley. After, they had dinner at Crystal City Mall until 7:30pm, went to a Chapter Meeting, and Full Senate and House Sessions. From 9:00 to midnight, there was a Moonlight Tour of Monuments. 12:15 am was curfew.

“Another thing we did was have a picture scavenger hunt that took place during the entire trip. Through the app GooseChase, we submitted the photos for points until the trip was over and whoever won the most points won. It turned out that the spacemen ended up winning because they took the most pictures,” said Taylor in the email.

On Sunday, the group had breakfast and packed and stored their luggage. From 9:00 to 12:30, there were Full House and Senate Sessions along with a Closing Session. They had lunch at Crystal City Mall and visited the Arlington National Cemetery. At 5:30 (EST), they arrived at Reagan Airport. At 7:00 (EST), their flight departed to Milwaukee Mitchell through Southwest Airlines. The students’ parents picked them up at Mitchell.

A couple of Arrowhead student, Taylor and Charles Fahey,s said their trip was fun and “the best one yet.”

“This year’s Winter Congress was the best one yet. We took so many people and didn’t even lose anyone in the metro! I’m so proud of our two best speakers, and I hope we continue to win more in the future. Seeing people’s true beliefs come out is my favorite part of JSA, and I’m so happy when I hear people speak for the first time. Watching their speaking abilities grow is something I take a lot of pride in,” said Taylor.

“I loved the trip, it was super fun. Touring the National Mall was seriously the funniest part. Before we went to the National Archives, me and a couple of guys decided to walk by the US Capitol building. We noticed there was a lot of security, then a bunch of black sedans pulled up with Colombian flags on them. We saw a bunch of men in suits walk down the steps and into the cars. We thought it was some Colombian delegation or something, but we later found out the President of Columbia visited Congress that day. The JSA convention was a lot of fun, we got to debate a lot of very interesting bills,” said Charlie Fahey, an Arrowhead sophomore and JSA Party Chair.

“Our 2019 trip to Washington DC was our largest with 44 students and four chaperons. We did an enormous amount of activities and also brought home two best speaker awards,” said Tower, JSA leader.