Female juniors can find details in their school counseling office –

Young ladies in Star Valley, who are currently high school juniors, are invited to apply for an opportunity to serve in the American Legion Auxiliary Girl’s State for 2022. Accepted applicants will be in Cheyenne at Laramie County Community College June 5-11 for educational activities about government and legislative purposes and processes.

According to https://www.legion-aux.org/ala-girls-state, “American Legion Auxiliary units in all 50 states proudly host ALA Girl’s State, an amazing week of learning focused on responsible citizenship, leadership and love for God and country.”

Marti Halverson, who has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives, has taken Star Valley’s candidates to Girl’s State for 17 years. Halverson has visited with counselors at SVHS and is looking forward to taking as many girls to this year’s event as possible.

“It’s an incredibly valuable experience,” Halverson told SVI News in an interview. “The purpose of Girl’s State is to instill the responsibility of citizenship; to educate the girls and take them a little more in-depth into the founding documents of the country. It instills patriotism through experience.”

Girls who attend the event have opportunities to run for offices in an election process, and then experience the dedication, education and rigor of moving legislative bills through the congress in a legislative process. They have opportunities to debate and pass their own bills and have bills approved by a Girl’s State governor.

“Every girl will run for election, though it’s not as polarized as in real life,” explained Halverson. “They will either run in a partisan race, or they will run for a non-partisan office – circuit judge, district court judge or supreme court judge, and they choose what they want to run for. It’s really designed to resemble real life as much as possible. They will elect from among the house Girls State delegates, a speaker of the house, a speaker [pro-tempore] and a majority floor leader, [among other leaders]. Girls watch a sample process provided by adults, but once they have watched that, the girls are on their own. If they have questions, we are there to help them.”

Female juniors interested in going to Girl’s State this summer can ask their school counselor for packets and information. They can also visit http://www. wylegionaux.org/girls_state.html for information and application materials or call Halverson directly at 307-883-0250.