Junior Council on World Affairs
Of course, the future lies in the hands of our youth and one of our most successful programs, Junior Council on World Affairs (JCOWA), which engages high school students with a variety of programs. Currently we have 12 chapters in the greater Dayton area, and we are working to expand the youth program into all high schools in the area. Click here for more information on JCOWA.
Sixteen high schools throughout the Dayton region have organized JCOWA chapters that sponsor regular monthly activities focused on international topics for their members. JCOWA hosts four regional events inviting all sixteen chapters to participate. These regional events are
- International Career Day: Each October, twenty or more local professionals with careers that have an international focus speak to small groups of students in a roundtable discussion about their careers and offer students ideas on the many ways to pursue their interests international affairs in their future careers. This popular event is set up like"speed dating's° that students have the opportunity to hear a wide variety of speakers during the course of the event.
- International Forums: Experts speak to the students on two important international topics (for example, Immigration and Arab Spring). The students then choose a topic, break into discussion groups to form a group recommendation that is later presented to the entire student audience.
- World Quest Academic Quiz Bowl: Each February, teams of four students from the high schools in the Dayton region, compete in a half-day session answering questions on a wide variety of international topics. The winning team goes to Washington, DC in April to compete for the national title against students teams from other World Affairs Councils throughout the United States.
- Geo Quiz Bowl: Each April, student and adult teams compete against one another by answering questions on a wide variety of geography categories for the honor of being the Geo Bowl Winner. It always proves to be a tough challenge, but lots of fun for all ages.
