By Nicolle Conlogue – City of Manzanita
Another great day at Virtual Girls State! Today we were presented with stories and encouragement from significant speakers in Arizona. The girls and I were lucky enough to have learned about the executive, judiciary, and legislative branch from women who have expertise in each area. Some of these speakers included Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, Representative Charlene Fernandez, and Lobbyist Katherine Coleman.
Yee was the first speaker at the meeting today and recounted her personal journey of transitioning amongst different ranks in the state government, and the experience that helped lead her to be State Treasurer today. Yee described her representation as a minority, being that she’s the first Asian-American appointed to state-wide office and she’s also a woman, bringing a unique perspective to politics and our state government. Her parting words of encouragement inspired the girls, and we could only imagine how amazing it would have been to meet these phenomenal women in person at the University of Arizona.
We also had a presentation of the legislative branch which was incredibly informative and cleared most, if not all, of the questions that I had during the meeting. After learning about the different types of branches in government, county meetings took place in order to solidify as a county, what seal we wanted to represent us. In our counties, we held speeches by candidates for governor and secretary of state. As I mentioned yesterday, I was the candidate for governor from Manzanita and I went up against another candidate from Ocotillo. Honestly, the position to continue in the election for governor could go either way. She was a great competitor and I can’t wait to find out which one of us will be continuing tomorrow.
