The Junior World Affairs Council, commonly known as JWAC, has been a flourishing program here at Tallwood that began a mere three years ago founded by, at the time, a freshman.

The World Affairs Council is a program that allows everyone involved with it to be submerged in different cultures. From internships to major events, this council opens countless doors of opportunities for its members. It was these experiences that intrigued and inspired Jayden Ventura, president of Junior World Affairs Council, to approach Mrs. Rebecca Gurley, the Global Studies World Languages Academy Director, with the idea of creating a council that resembled these values as well, but one that appealed more to the youth.

“When JWAC was originally established, it was established to be a speaker series for the academy students and other students and to teach them about world affairs and international affairs, and it was all Jayden Ventura’s idea,” said Mrs. Rebecca Gurley. She then proceeded to mention how Jayden approached her when he was only in ninth grade.

Another sponsor to the program had also said that he helped Jayden out a bit his freshman year with the development of this program. Mr. Gregory Falls, a Social Studies teacher here at Tallwood High, is a key part in this organization with regards to: setting up the events, finding the speakers, helping put the programs together, and taking care of the paperwork with,“food on the back end,” Mr. Falls jokingly stated.

Both sponsors feel that this program is imperative to our youth growing, not only as individuals, but as future leaders. Mr. Falls said, “Junior World Affairs Council, it’s to make students, academy students and non-academy students, more globally aware.”

Mrs. Gurley similarly said, “It will give them a broader perspective of world issues and will help them to be more open minded, and gain appreciation for people of other cultures.  And especially having that connection to the World Affairs Council and sister cities will also connect them to people in the community.”

Sister cities, by definition, means: a city that is linked to another typically for cultural exchange purposes. With Tallwood High School being the Global Studies and World Languages Academy, it is only natural that we hold some sister cities. Some we have held for years, while others we have just recently obtained.

Virginia Beach “is a sister city to several others such as Miyazaki Japan, Northern Ireland, Olongapo Philippines, and Moss Norway, and because of this relationship with our sister cities the academy has had a exchange programs with schools in those cities,” Mrs. Gurley briefly explained. Later on, she went on to explain how, through JWAC, we were recently able to obtain a “friendship city.” Mrs. Gurley had this to say about that: “One of the schools that we partner with in Germany is Waiblingen. We became a friendship city as a part of the sister cities organization, that’s the first step to becoming a sister city.”

JWAC is described by Mr. Falls to be an “umbrella organization,” seeing as how it heads and oversees many smaller clubs and organizations underneath it. The organizations range anywhere from the NATO Challenge to Noble teens to Global Gala or to the Spanish Honor Society.

Jayden Ventura stated, “I was apart of World Quest last year. I was also a part of Model UN last year as well. I was in both conferences there, and they were a lot of fun for me.”

World quest, Jayden said, was a series of trivia questions that one had to answer with a team. “There was a lot of pressure on our shoulders at the time.We were supposed to keep up the Tallwood streak of winning,” Jayden stated with a grin about the event. He then continued on to talk about Model UN expressing that, “You are basically doing a stimulation of United Nations.”

Not only does JWAC serve as an umbrella for these separate organizations, it also introduces internship opportunities to its members. Currently, there are seven or eight active interns, according to Mr. Falls. Also, along with these interns getting volunteer hours, WAC is currently working with the JWAC program to set up a competition for the students with the most volunteer hours to the organization. Prizes can include a hundred dollar Starbucks gift card or other possible intriguing items.

One may wonder just what does being a JWAC or WAC intern entail exactly.  According to Ventura, “Most of it is helping at some events, managing microphones for the guest speakers, and making sure everyone gets food or just working with the WAC at their office and doing tasks for them like flyers and things.” Mr. Falls added, “…we’re also working with sister cities association of Virginia Beach and how can they use our interns.”

Both sponsors, Mrs. Gurley and Mr. Falls, agreeably encourage all students at Tallwood High to become involved in JWAC. They believe that everyone should be more aware of what exactly is going on in our world. Kudos to Jayden for being the first student to establish this program here at Tallwood and taking on more initiative and responsibility than he expected first entering into high school. In order to get more active participants, Mrs. Gurley encourages Social Studies teachers to become involved and advertise to their students about the program.

Jayden is proud to be the founder, saying that, “Sometimes, I can’t even believe that I was the founder, and it’s hard to remember what it was like leading up to this. Looking back on how hard it was for me building up to this point, I definitely feel accomplished.”

Mr. Falls and Mrs. Gurley equally said the reason that motivates them to keep this program alive and flourishing is because of the students. Mrs. Gurley elaborated on this by stating, “It’s really just what I see in the hearts and minds of our students and how much meaning it brings to their eyes and how I really see a change in their lives.” Mr. Falls said, “Seeing the benefit to the students” motivates him.

Jayden, Mrs. Gurley, and Mr. Falls all agree that this program is beneficial to all who join. No matter what social group or caste you are affiliated with, JWAC is a program that allows you to explore real world issues and discover others from around the world who may not be so different from you. This program is allowing us to slowly “break down those barriers,” one stereotype at a time.

Photo by Kaylyn Neves