Missing the last week of school requires a lot of planning and catching up, and that is exactly what the students that participated in Boys and Girls State have to do.

Coming back to school to take semester tests is not the ideal start of summer students want. There were quite a few students that turned down the offer right away because of the school time they would miss. But, there was also a handful of top scholar students that sacrificed their time to go participate with other top scholar students from schools around South Dakota at Boys and Girls State.

Although there are some downfalls in participating in Boys and Girls State, there are definitely more benefits. Many students go to gain real life experience while working with the government, but one of the main reasons why students go is for the name recognition of Boys and Girls State in and of itself.

“Colleges, scholarships, employers know that students that get selected to participate in Boys and Girls State are the best of the best,” said LHS counselor Matt Meyers.

Students are selected based on their GPA and then later are elevated from a written essay. Girls’ standards are a tad bit higher than the boys’ standards. The GPA cut off to
qualify for Girls State is 3.7 and for Boys State the GPA cut off is 3.5.

“Girls is way more competitive than boys because the women’s auxiliary does not send as many girls to Girls State as the legends sends boys to Boys State,” said Meyers.

Boys and Girls State is not combined; they both go off to separate destinations. The girls traveled to Vermillion and the boys traveled to Aberdeen to enjoy a fun week learning about the government.