On August 2nd, the Student Alliance for Political Action(SAPA) held a forum to learn about the national assembly through a zoom meeting. The Student Alliance for Political Action(SAPA) is a student-led organization founded by Andrew Yoo and Tyler Lee. SAPA aims to increase political participation among high schoolers. SAPA already has more than seven member schools and is expanding internationally. 

To give the alliance members a firsthand experience of political participation, SAPA organized a forum with Min Hyun Joo, congresswoman for the 19th National Assembly. The forum’s content was organized around the National Assembly and law-making. Ms. Min Hyun Joo went on to explain how the National Assembly operates, along with the different branches there. Furthermore, she added explanations for how laws are proposed by congresspeople, and how they are passed. 

Once Ms. Min Hyun Joo was finished with her presentation, there was a Q&A session, where the SAPA members freely asked questions. The questions were all relevant to the presentation, and Ms. Min Hyun Joo commented that she enjoyed the Q&A session because the members were enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions. Even though the forum was held through zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members showed great interest in the presentation and were engaged. 

After the forum, the president of SAPA Andrew Yoo, and Tyler Lee went on to send a survey to the SAPA members about the forum. The SAPA members who participated responded to the survey that it was a very meaningful time, as they don’t get to learn this information at their schools, but with SAPA, they can gain insight into politics. Furthermore, they showed interest in going further with political participation, as they wanted a more detailed session on how they can create policy proposals and submit them to the National Assembly and local governments. 

Because Ms. Min Hyun Joo suggested that we could have a follow-up session to learn more details about the process for SAPA, members could directly participate. SAPA is a growing group of ambitious young adults that aims to leave a positive impact on society through political participation.

유승현 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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