photo by: Contributed

Many students from all over Kansas attended Sunflower Girls State in Lawrence, Kansas.

Several students from Bishop Seabury Academy triumphed in simulated political races, securing victories this summer while advocating for the things they are most passionate about during statewide programs to engage students in civics and the political process.

Heba Aziz, who just finished her junior year was elected attorney general at the end of Sunflower Girls State’s weeklong program in Lawrence, said she decided to center her political campaign on diversity. She said there were not many girls of color that attended Girls State and she wanted to speak out and advocate for ways to change that.

“I found a problem at Girls State and bringing awareness was the thing I could do there,” said Aziz. “I knew that other girls would be able to connect with that as well.”

Other Bishop Seabury students elected to the program’s mock government included incoming seniors Josie Kim, who was chosen as governor, and Eni Wintoki, who was elected lieutenant governor. Additionally, incoming senior Hugh Griggs was elected lieutenant governor at Boys State of Kansas that same week in Manhattan.

The programs, which were both held June 2-7 this year, are one-time summer experiences for high school students. These programs have led the efforts to educate youth about the duties, privileges, and responsibilities of American citizenship.

During their weeklong program, students engage in a practical civics lesson, allowing them to experience the challenges of government by taking on the roles and responsibilities of real officeholders. Delegates experience governmental proceedings by simulating political campaigns, elections and the political process.

“People are obviously going to be going into Boys State with their own political beliefs and sentiments, but when you get down to sitting in your local government, you start realizing that some ideas are just good ideas,” Griggs said.

photo by: Contributed

Josie Kim (left) was elected Governor at Sunflower Girls State and Eni Wintoki (right) was elected Lieutenant Governor.

Kim said she was excited about this opportunity to take on a new role through building a functioning city and county government after participating in some student leadership roles in the past.

“I knew that I had some interest after I had been taking on a leadership role,” Josie said. “So I decided to do Girls State and thought I might as well just go all out while I was there.”

After seeing Kim, one of her good friends, announce she was running for governor, Wintoki said she just had to run for lieutenant governor and hopefully make it through the primaries.

“I think a lot of times the Girls State experience is you end up running with people you don’t know very well,” Wintoki said. “But (we thought) if we both get past the primaries then we can run together and it’ll be great.”

And that’s exactly how it happened. Once they had passed the primaries, they made a joint slogan for their campaign, “Nothing is Kim-possible when you win with Wintoki.” They also had wristbands to get the word out before the general election.

Aziz initially wasn’t sure she wanted to run for office when she first signed up for Girls State. Nevertheless, she took the plunge and went through the campaigning process with the goal of becoming attorney general. In the end, her decision proved to be a successful one.

“The biggest takeaway that I had from the experience was that when I told myself that I could do something and when I put my mind to something, I was able to do it,” Aziz said.

When everyone was in their elected positions following the general election, the delegates concluded the program with a visit to the Capitol and put forward their own bills for the governor to review. Kim said this made the opportunity that much more special.

“It was a really great opportunity to travel to our Capitol and actually truly simulate what might go down there on the day to day,” Kim said.

photo by: Contributed

Hugh Griggs being sworn in by Kansas Boys State Governor Luke Wakeman following the announcement of the state office winners.

Aziz said that for future delegates, it’s important to make as big of an impact in as little time as possible and to make it memorable, whether it’s by being funny or just doing something a little bit different.

“The Girls State government mimics the Kansas government,” Aziz said in a statement for her campaign. “If Girls State isn’t diverse, how can we expect our government to be diverse?”

Wintoki said she would recommend the experience to anyone that thinks they might like it, and there’s one thing the counselors said that made her want to run for office.

“A lot of counselors said at the start, ‘you get out what you put in’,” Wintoki said. “The whole thing is you have to kind of suspend your disbelief for a bit, but the moment you do, you have a lot of fun and you learn a whole lot, and you’ll get the most out of the experience.”

Kim also said that people would be surprised by how successful you can be if you just go for it, be yourself and speak your truths while showing enthusiasm for the program. Although she admitted it was a very intense week, the experience paid off in the end.

“You’ll be busy, and you’ll be very tired by the end of the day, but it’s just a really unique experience that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Griggs said that if anything, this was a wake up call to the lack of civics education, and how more people should be able to participate in experiences like Boys State.

“I think as inspiring as Boys State might be, more people should do it,” Griggs said. “If the same attention to civics education were applied to everywhere, I think that would be a lot better.”