JCWA (Junior Council on World Affairs) helps students develop skills in the areas of public speaking, research and knowledge of current events.

Students involved in JCWA attend model United Nations conferences, and Beachwood’s team has a long history of success. At conferences, each student acts as a diplomat for a certain nation. Participants learn while debating global issues.

The BHS JCWA team competes in three annual tournaments at the national level. Each conference is run by tier-1 universities including the VAMUN conference at the University of Virginia, the NAIMUN conference at Georgetown University and the NUMUN conference at Northwestern University.

At the NAIMUN conference in Feb., club President Louis Rosenbaum won a best delegate gavel, his fifth gavel in four years. Rosenbaum is the first Beachwood student to win at NAIMUN in seven years.

“Each conference differs in size and difficulty. Our team is known for a lot of individual success and continues to have a team member place at almost every conference,” said Exec. Board member Howard Sobel.

Since so many students want to attend conferences, some applicants have to be turned down.

“A variety of factors are considered when making such tough decisions,” said English teacher Evan Luzar, who advises the club.

An average of 30 students are chosen to attend each conference. They had a waiting list of about 10-12 students for the NAIMUN conference in Feb.

Students report that JCWA is an excellent way to improve public speaking skills, as well as knowledge of history, politics and economics. Some students compete in both debate and JCWA conferences.

“The only way to win at conferences if for each team member to feel comfortable with their topic and know how to deliver it well to the other people at the conference,” said Sobel.

Practice schedules for the club are strict. Participants must attend eight of 10 practices before leaving for each conference.  Luzar and the Exec. Board help team members research their topics, which they need to do before writing their final position papers for their committees.

Club President Rosenbaum stated, “We do research and speaking exercises. Recently we’ve shifted to practice more speaking and tactical exercises and have made members do more research at home as public speaking is our main priority.”

One way the team helps students with their public speaking is called speechapalooza, usually held at the last JCWA practice before each tournament, where each team member is asked to present a speech about any topic that adviser Luzar assigns. Team members report that speechapalooza is a great way to overcome discomfort with public speaking.

“It helps students feel comfortable with their surrounding, even when they’re given a speech they didn’t prepare for,” said Sobel.

Luzar has been JCWA adviser for the past ten years. Luzar got involved in JCWA after years of athletic coaching.

“After my son turned one, I realized that due to all of my time coaching wrestling and track, I was missing too much time with him,” Luzar said. “I still wanted to be involved with students in an enriching way beyond the school day, so when Mrs. Brewster retired, I volunteered to take the spot.”

In Luzar’s time as coach, Beachwood has had remarkable success at JCWA conferences. “BHS has won at least nine titles at conferences,” he said. “We’ve won VAMUN three times and earned second place two times, we’ve also won NUMUN twice, Michgan State four times, and had some great individual success at NAIMUN.”

At conferences, each member or team of two members represents an assigned country within their own committee. Rosenbaum explained the committee system:

“Each of our team members represents a country and there is a predetermined global topic like drug trafficking or war,” he said.

Rosenbaum also explained that delegates engage in a variety of debating methods in order to persuade other members to their positions.

“After three days of debate the chair reviews each team member’s position papers and chooses which country performed the best during committee,” he said. “Awards are then handed out to the country or school that was the best delegate in their committee.”

After winning five best delegate gavels in four years, Rosenbaum hopes that JCWA maintains its tradition at BHS. “I really hope that we can keep solid membership and get even more students involved,” he said.