SOWEGA students selected for Girls State

ALBANY — Nine students from Dougherty, Lee, Decatur and Thomas county schools who were selected to participate in the Girls State program attended an orientation meeting recently at American Legion Post 30 on Gillionville Road.

Georgia Girls State will be held this year at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro June 10-15.

Young ladies from the region selected to attend Girls State are Rebecca Hughes, Yvonne Ramos and Bernadette Takash from Deerfield-Windsor School; Jada Harvey from Dougherty High School; Emily Irvin and Chantel Mackey from Westover High School; Kali Taylor from Lee County High School; Mattilyn Winburn from Decatur County, and Leila Hurst from Thomas County High School. These students will represent American Legion posts in Albany, Bainbridge and Thomasville.

“We are very proud of the girls selected, and we look for them to do well at Georgia Girls State this year,” Marilyn Fowler, Girls State chairwoman, said.

Girls State is a national program of the American Legion Auxiliary and offers a course of instruction in, as well as a practical application of, the fundamental principles and procedures of city, county and state government.

The five-day event is conducted by each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the top-ranking rising senior high school girls selected to participate. Under the guidance of counselors and other staff members, the students learn and then practice through self-government, the duties, responsibilities and privileges of American citizenship.

Georgia Girls State is sponsored, as it has been since 1940, by the American Legion Auxiliary, Department of Georgia, with local auxiliary units and interested civic, fraternal and patriotic organizations cooperating.

The participants are encouraged to write a bill for debate in the Girls State House and Senate. Georgia Girls State general elections will be held during which a Girls State governor and other state officials will be selected.

Two outstanding citizens of the Georgia Girls State session will be selected by delegates and staff to attend Girls Nation as Georgia Senators. The Senators learn how government and democracy work on a national level. The Senators tour the nation’s capital, including trips to the White House and Capitol Hill. Girls Nation will be held at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Md., in July.