Boys/Girls State
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Boys State and Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs sponsored by The American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary for high school students between their junior and senior years. Boys and Girls State programs are held in each of the U.S. states (excluding Hawaii), usually on a college campus within that state. Within each state, the Girls and Boys programs are usually held at different campuses, but may also be held at different times (consecutive weeks) on the same campus. At least four states, Georgia, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania host Boys' and Girls' State on the same campus on the same week, Georgia Southern University, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge, and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania,.
In the early 1930s during the Great Depression, The American Legion grew concerned over public statements to the effect that democracy was failing. How, it wondered, could the United States train its young people in the process of self-government as effectively as Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany seemed to be training their youth groups in the promulgation of totalitarian forms of government. Deciding that the best way to learn something was by practicing it, American Legionnaires began, in 1935, to gather teenage representative high schools together for a few days each summer in a citizenship training program on the processes of city and state government. They called it Boys State.
As this program succeeded and spread throughout the United States, the American Legion Auxiliary began providing similar opportunities for girls of high school age. Thus Girls State was founded. The first Girls State was conducted in 1938 and since 1948 has been a regular part of the Auxiliary's better citizenship programs. By 1984, Girls State sessions were held in all 50 states.
The program participants are divided up into smaller groups that are given city names. The "citizens" of each of these cities then elect mock municipal officials and representatives to the mock State Legislature. If enough "citizens" are present, then a county level is added to the program between city and state. The participants also elect state officials, such as Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other state-level officials that their real state has. The legislature then meets to organize, elect leaders, and to pass bills, in a way that is similar to how their actual legislature operates. Some states hold mock trials, the participants volunteering as lawyers, criminals, and juries, and others are able to form bands and choirs from the talent pools that they have assembled.
Boys/Girls State is staffed by members and community leaders who volunteer their time and effort to this enterprise. Its administrative costs are defrayed by their Department (state) organizations. Delegates to Boys/Girls State are selected with the help of their high school principals on the basis of potential leadership qualities and must be between their Junior and Senior years in high school to qualify. Through these programs, it is estimated that each summer the American Legion Auxiliary alone is adding 19,000 girls trained in the processes of government to a group that by the end of 2006 will total about 1,103,000.
While the event began during the Great Depression in Illinois, today's largest Boys State occurs annually in Ohio with over 3,000 boys congregating at Bowling Green State University. A group from Israel recently visited the "Buckeye Boys State" in Ohio to use it as a template for their own version.
[edit] Boys Nation and Girls Nation
Since 1947, each of these Boys State and Girls State programs send two delegates to Boys Nation and Girls Nation, in Washington, D.C.. Each state chooses their delegates differently. These delegates are sometimes the participants elected to the Governor and Lt. Governor positions, but other states have separate elections for the honor, while still other states appoint their delegates through interviews with the Legionnaires who run each state program.
The event endeavours to teach delegates about the processes of federal government in the United States of America, through taking part in a mock Senate and mock elections of a Boys/Girls Nation Senate President Pro Tempore and Secretary, Vice President, and President, attending lectures and fora, and visiting governmental institutions and historical sites.
[edit] Famous alumni
Famous alumni of the Boys and Girls State programs include Bill Clinton, Brendan Gallagher, George Pataki, Mike Huckabee, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Michelle D. Johnson (First Female Wing Commander, United States Air Force Academy), Michael Jordan, and Neil Armstrong. [1].
Many United States Senators (including Bob Menendez and Lamar Alexander), Governors, and state-level politicians (state senators, state assemblymen, et cetera) are Boys' or Girls' State alumni.
