Twelve days away from the Junior Statesmen of America Fall Convention in Austin, Texas, members of the JSA Houston chapter met in Room 3711 to prepare on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.

First on the policy agenda? A casual mock debate over universal healthcare to show new inductees what to expect in Austin.

Junior Alexander Tang took the affirmative, arguing for government-funded healthcare to cure our “boo-boos” quicker than under current privately funded healthcare.

Junior Mingyi Chen took the negative, rebutting the failures of other countries’ universal healthcare, including the months-long wait times of the United Kingdom’s NHS.

First-year member and junior Shaun Israni believed the informal debate, and particularly Alex’s wording, made the idea of attending the convention more approachable.

“I thought the debate was very lighthearted, and everyone was supportive,” Israni said. “It made [the prospect of] debating a lot easier.”

President and junior Emerald Tang, who is also in charge of Junior Statesmen of America at the Texas level, was excited about the number of non-debaters, such as Shaun Israni, attending this year.

“One issue our club [membership] faces has always been solely the debate community,” Emerald Tang said. “Seeing us able to outreach to people outside of that [community] makes me really happy. I just hope that we’re able to motivate them to want to speak outside of the debate space.”

Chen agrees with Tang and hopes freshmen and non-debaters alike will “hopefully fall in love with the organization.”

“We actually want people that are not engaged in debate so that they can be more engaged in politics and discussion,” Chen said.

For more information, join JSA’s remind at @belljsa.