By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Arielle Aguado and Carly Dorshorst, both junior students from Medical Lake High School, were recently selected by members of the Medical Lake American Legion Auxiliary Earl English Unit to attend the Washington Evergreen Girls State citizenship-training program June 10-16 in Ellensburg, Wash.
Girls State is nationwide, non-partisan government program that began in 1937 training the nation's young women in the duties, rights, privileges and responsibilities of American self-governing citizenship.
It's a highly intensive study program that has 20,000 high school girls from 49 different states participating in annually. Students are selected through recommendations based on their standings in both school and community.
Every year the local auxiliary sponsors at least two students to attend the program.
Both Aguado and Dorshorst have sisters who've previously represented their school district attending Girls State.
“I had first heard about Girls State when my sister (Annie Dorshorst) was a junior in high school,” Dorshorst said. “I had always...thought that it would be really cool to go and have the same experiences as my sister had talked about when she left.”
Aguado's sister also attended the program in 2004.
“She had the best time of her life,” she said. “I just figured that if she had such a great experience that I would enjoy it as well. It seems like it will be educational and very fun.”
Apart from hearing firsthand from family about what goes on at Girls State, where students spend an intensive week studying and working together as self-governing citizens at the state's Auxiliary-sponsored Girls State headquarters located in Ellensburg, Wash., both share an interest to better understanding politics.
“Girls State is a chance for high school junior girls to see how Congress is run. We have the chance to run for many positions, such as city mayors, county commissioners, and even state governor,” Dorshorst said on what motivated her to apply to the program. “Being a participant at Girls State, you have many opportunities for scholarship, and it looks really good on college applications too.”
Girls State students, or “citizens” study local, county and state government processes by setting up their own miniature society, county and state government bodies that are governed according to state laws.
Upon arriving, citizens divide into two political parties, often named as the “nationalists” and the “federalists” (both are non-representative of the two major political parties of today's systems of government).
The parties allow students to gain knowledge of the operations of a two-party system.
“I hope to get a better understanding of how congress works. I also hope to gain an understanding of how the city, county and state government all come together to work,” Dorshorst said of what she hopes to come away with from this experience.
Dorshorst is president of the high school's Key Club and a junior class officer. She's a self-declared No. 1 fan of the Lady Cardinals basketball team, plays both volleyball and softball at MLHS, and is also on the Spokane Splash volleyball team, which qualified this year for the Junior Olympics in Minneapolis, Minn.
“I hope to come back with more of an understanding of politics and government,” Aguado said, who served this year as class vice president at MLHS and was recently selected as class president for next year.
“I am currently taking [advanced placement] classes as well, and I'm planning on taking several more next year.”
Aguado's school activities include playing the drums for the high school Jazz Band, the wind ensemble concert band, National Honor Society, treasurer and former president of Key Club, varsity cheerleading, and varsity tennis. Both students have plans to attend college, though neither is decided on a university.
“I also want to make a lot of new friends that share my interests and stuff,” Aguado added of her expectations for Girls State. “I went to a tea that explains some of the information about Girls State with all of the girls attending…and I could tell we are all going to be become good friends, and we have a lot of the same interests.”
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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