Ever wonder what a career in politics would look like? New Jersey Girls State can pretty much give you the low down on what it’s all about. Every year, the Women’s Auxiliary of the VFW, or Veterans of Foreign Wars, hosts a program called Girls State, a highly selective and life changing event for girls entering their senior year of high school.  It was an amazing opportunity to learn firsthand about state and local governments, including how they function, what specific politicians’ jobs are, and how appointments to positions are awarded.  One of the most unique aspects about this is that for our school, the local chapter of the Women’s Auxiliary fully sponsored every delegate they sent, going above and beyond to even buy everyone a personalized t shirt to commemorate the experience.
This past year, the delegates arrived at Georgian Court University on June 22 with suitcases in hand. It was an odd sense of excitement, anticipation, and nervousness. The program required all participating delegates to stay for five nights and six days in the dorms at the university. For a lot of the girls, it had been the first time staying away from home for an extended period of time, not to mention, in all likelihood your roommate was from an entirely different region of the state, meaning you were truly on your own.
The check-in process was hectic.  I was first to arrive at my dorm (which meant first choice of beds) and went through a couple roommates until the “house mother” got people to their prospective dwelling areas.  Once we were all settled, everything turned out ok.  My two roommates and I hit it off immediately. I must say, I was incredibly lucky in that aspect. One girl was from Collingswood, and the other girl was from Cinnaminson! The groups of friends were quickly established, though I must say our town was not cliquey at all, and everyone I got to know really well happened to live within fifteen minutes.  It couldn’t have worked out better!
Once acquaintances were made, everyone in the “town” was rallied together for our first of a long line of meetings.  In all honesty, these were the worst parts of the program. The preliminary information sessions were rather drawn out, dull, and straight up boring. However, once everyone got in the swing of things, they moved at a quicker pace. The really tough rules to wrap your head around was the fact that there were no cell phones allowed, at all.
The way the program was structured was that there were two major political parties, the Nationalists and the Federalists.  Besides the political divisions, the 400 delegates were divided up among four counties, eight cities, and sixteen towns. Two towns constituted a city, while a county contained two cities. The main goal was to build a state government from the ground up. We started at town level, then we moved onto the city and county levels, and finally graduated to the overall state government. The most important position you could run for was state governor, which was won by a Nationalist this year, or one of the two spots to be delegates for Girls Nation.  The selection process for Girls Nation was a little bit different. Instead of really campaigning, though that certainly was a major component, they started with speeches in front of the entire delegation about their position on a specific platform. The whole point of going to Girls Nation is to draft a bill, so the candidates’ platform was the national issue they would like to draft a bill to create a remedy.
Each time we ran for an elected position, we had to first have a petition signed with the appropriate number of signatures in order to allow us to run.  Then a speech was to be made in front of the town if it was a town election and a city if it was for the city level, for which you had minimal if any time to prepare. Immediately following the speeches, there was the preliminary election, mostly to narrow down who would really be in the running. The next step was to campaign, get to know the girls and make sure they like you to ensure votes, create posters, or hand out candy. Anything you could do to sway the votes to your benefit falls under the category of campaigning. Then came the final election.  At this point, there’s nothing left for the candidate to do but sit and wait and cross their fingers.
The more positions you are elected to, the more meetings you have to attend, and therefore the less recreational time you have. With lights out promptly at eleven o’clock, it wasn’t always all that easy to meet new people, except in the context of overlapping jobs to which they were elected. However, the experience wasn’t all work and no play. We all had the option to join a newspaper during our time there, which was mainly designed to keep us up with current events. A lot of the subjects were related to international affairs or the military, which was appropriate considering the overall theme of the program was unyielding patriotism.  For those who weren’t aspiring journalists, there was also a chorus you could opt to join. They performed their songs during the closing ceremony which all the parents were invited to at the last event of the program.  Other than that, there was a lot of bonding. I can easily and truthfully say it was well worth it to participate in this once in a lifetime experience, if for nothing else but the amazing friendships I’ve made. I only talk to four of the girls I had the pleasure of meeting at Girls State 2013 on a regular basis, but that’s four awesome people I would never have met without this opportunity. One of the girls I am proud to say is one of the best friends I’ve ever had.