By MiLee Vogel – City of Sycamore
Sliding into the fourth day of Girls State, “Welcome to State Government Part 1”, covering the Executive and Legislative branches.
First on the agenda was breaking down the inner workings of state government with various presenters giving virtual presentations of their specific jobs. The first presenter was State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, the first Asian American to hold a state political position. My favorite quote of hers was “You matter and your voice matters… respect others.. and step up and help others to have their voices heard.”
Charlene Fernandez, the next presenter, is the democratic leader for the Arizona state House of Representatives. Her ending quote was “Don’t be afraid to try new things or that you may lose… Be kind and be patient.”
Then Arizona Senate president, Karen Fann, described what the senate does on a daily basis. Our final speaker was Kathryn Coleman, who gave us an in depth description of what a Lobbyist is and what their function is in our government. What amazing presentations from some of our political officials!
While this year’s Girls State seminar may not look the same, we still have the opportunity to, as delegates, write and propose laws. The soon to be governor of Girls State will get the chance to read through the bills and decide if she should pass them or not. However, before we can get to this, it’s important that we learn how to write a bill. Thankfully, we had one of the staff members give a thorough explanation of the procedure.
An important note to add is that two of the delegates for Sycamore designed creative seals to represent our city.
In Kaibab’s county meeting today, the main topic was on the governor and secretary of state candidates. From each city, we had one candidate for each position. I got the honor of representing Sycamore as the candidate for governor. Each candidate was allowed a maximum time of 2 minutes to deliver their speeches to the citizens of the county. It was truly impressive and inspiring to listen to these eloquent speakers. After the speeches were given, there will be a primary election to select one candidate for each position to represent our county for the state general election.
It will be a difficult decision to choose only one of each and I truly look forward to tomorrow’s election outcome to see who will represent Kaibab county! This is MiLee Vogel, signing off…