Imagine running for governor while still in high school, or drafting a bill and steering it through a legislature made up of your peers. That is the premise of Boys State and Girls State, a one-week summer program in which American high school students build a mock state government from the ground up. It is a leadership tradition more than 80 years old, and it carries real weight with selective colleges that look for students who have led rather than simply joined.
Here is how it works, who can realistically take part, and how it compares with academic summer programs.
What Boys State and Girls State are
Boys State and Girls State are civic education programs run by the American Legion, the US veterans' organization, and the American Legion Auxiliary. Each summer every state holds its own session (Hawaii holds only Girls State). Participants organize mock cities and a mock state government, then fill the roles that make them run: mayor, governor, state senator, reporter, attorney, judge. Everything happens in English, and the week is built around community and personal responsibility.
The program dates to 1935, when two American Legion members in Illinois organized the first Boys State in Springfield; Girls State followed in 1938. About 40,000 students now take part each year, and more than two million have attended since the program began.
The alumni list is long and varied. It includes a president (Bill Clinton), a vice president (Dick Cheney), the first person to walk on the moon (Neil Armstrong) and basketball great Michael Jordan, along with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Apple CEO Tim Cook, news anchor Tom Brokaw, and a number of senators and governors, including Cory Booker and Chris Christie.
Separate programs for boys and girls, mostly
Traditionally the two are separate. The American Legion runs Boys State and the Auxiliary runs Girls State; the content is similar, but the organizers differ. Some states hold them side by side: in Georgia, Nebraska, Oregon, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine, among others, Boys State and Girls State share a campus and a week while remaining distinct programs.
California now has two tracks:
- California Boys & Girls State (American Legion). The Legion's program, traditionally Boys State, has been co-ed since 2023, and about a third of its participants are female. Female delegates chosen here are not eligible for Boys Nation, the national-level program for boys.
