Bruins lobbied their way to a Girls State Delegation.
On Feb. 2, seven junior girls were interviewed in order to be chosen as the Bear River Delegate for California’s American Legion Auxiliary Girls State. Kaylee Bohrer was selected as delegate, Catherine Renner as first alternate, and Serenity Edwards as second alternate.
“Girls State is a 6-day leadership training experience focused around government,” said District Scholarship Coordinator Barbara Ross. “The delegates begin by setting up local (city) government, and then proceed to elect county officials and finally state officials. There are two girls selected during the week to attend Girls Nation in Washington D.C. The California Girls State is held at Claremont McKenna in Claremont, CA.”
Delegate Kaylee Bohrer was very excited for this opportunity.
“I’m really excited to go because I always hear Breeze (last year’s delegate) talk about all the friends she made and I just think it’s going to be really awesome to meet those new people because I love meeting new people,” she said. “I want to go because I think it’s going to be an amazing experience for me and help my future. I want to pursue something in girls and women in technology, so understanding how I can make that work on a national level and through the government would be super beneficial to me.”
In order to be chosen as delegate, Bohrer had to go through a selection process with fellow nominees.
“The girls who were nominated by Bear River staff are asked to email a brief paragraph sharing why they would like to attend Girls State,” said Mrs. Ross. “Then the girls are all interviewed corporately where they each answer questions from the American Legion Auxiliary committee members.”
The girls discussed their experience with the interview.
“In the interview we all had to dress up really nice and there were four ladies that interviewed us,” said Renner. “We all sat in a line around a table where we listened to each other’s interviews. Luckily, I wasn’t the first one, so I had time to think about my responses and I knew what they were going to ask me from the previous people that went. So they asked me who I am, strengths and weaknesses that I had, my family life at home, why I got chosen for this, if I had any relatives serving in the army or military, things like that.”
“I was the second person in the group to go so I still didn’t know how I should answer questions or what they were looking for,” commented Bohrer. “After hearing Bella Batula go before me, I was like ‘Woah, she did really good! I don’t know if I can do that!’ The first question they asked me, I was really nervous and I think they could see that a little bit, but once I just calmed down we had nice conversation.”
“The interview was really uncomfortable because everyone was in there,” said second alternate Serenity Edwards. “It was definitely a memorable experience overall, though. They asked me questions about my family and my goals. They wanted to get a take about my character and why I should be chosen to go to this very exclusive camp.”
Each Girls State Delegate is required to draft and present a legislative bill during the week. Bohrer shared her ideas on what her bill might entail.
“I wanted to go along the lines of education,” she said. “Girls’ education specifically, because a lot of young girls aren’t getting the education they deserve for certain things so I wanted to try and close that gap and create a bill for something in the education department.”
Bohrer expressed her excitement for this opportunity.
“I’m super excited to meet new people and make memories and friendships that are going to last a long time,” she said.
