The student government president and vice president will be in the nation’s capitol this weekend to raise awareness about relations between the United States and Israel.Student Government President Stuart Watkins and Student Body Vice President Martina Scheuermann will be attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee summer leadership seminar in Washington D.C. The two will be attending the conference during the weekend until Tuesday. The trip is funded by AIPEC, Watkins said.The conference will bring in more 400 student leaders from across the country to discuss the importance of relations between Israel and the United States, said Krista Allen, president of Tigers for Israel. Allen also said the group spends time with congress lobbying for various incentives regarding Israel and the United States.”Last year the group lobbied on the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act and that was to get companies to stop doing business with Iran essentially,” Allen said. “This time it just depends on what is going on when we are there.”Watkins  said he plans on also using the time lobbying to serve the interests of University students.”While I am in D.C. I hope to meet with several members of the Louisiana delegation and discuss issues facing students at LSU such as the budget crisis,” Watkins said. “AIPAC sets up meetings for us to lobby with our congressmen and senators and usually during those trips I will talk about LSU stuff there.” Both Watkins and Scheuermann are members of Tigers for Israel — a pro-Israel student organization. “I think the really cool thing is you have the campus’s highest student leaders come and support something that is very, very important,” Allen said. “Also to have representation like that from a school that doesn’t have a heavy Jewish or pro-Israel influence because we are in the South and are a mostly Christian campus … it shows that LSU is not just concerned with football and fun but also real world issues that are going on and how it effects students.”Scheuermann said that becoming better informed about those divisive real world issues is a big benefit of the trip.”It’s a really good educational experience for us,” Scheuermann said. “I am looking to learn more about the issues, and I do outside research on it as well. I don’t just listen to everything that is given to me at the conference — I take it into consideration when doing my own research.”Allen said the student body should care about the relations with Israel because it is vital for both countries’ national security.”Israel is a democratic nation in a part of the world where there isn’t much democracy,” Watkins said. “The decisions that our world leaders make now are going to affect us not only today but years from now. And one day we are going to have to step in, and it’s going to be our generation to resolve the conflicts not only in the U.S. but abroad.”—-Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]