LINCOLN – The Auxiliary of Wausa American Legion Post 63 recently selected two young women to learn in-depth about U.S. citizenship and government.
Mackenzie Vanness, rural Wausa, and Alexandrea Harder, Lincoln, are delegates who are attending the 2024 session of American Legion Auxiliary Cornhusker Girls State.
This year’s session of the annual citizenship program is being held June 2-8 on the downtown campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These students were selected through an interview process and are studying local, county and state government processes in this nonpartisan political learning experience.
Vanness, who wrapped up her junior year at Wausa Public Schools in May, said she is “very grateful” to have been chosen to attend Girls State in Nebraska’s capital city.
“It is an honor,” Vanness said. “I know that it is a government-based learning week. I am looking forward to gaining more experience and knowledge with our state Legislature. I am looking forward to what else this week will hold, but I am hoping to learn more about how our government operates.”
Vanness was also “looking forward to meeting new people and networking with others to expand on my civil knowledge and duties. I am also looking forward to touring the Capitol.”
Every spring, the Girls State program provides about 25,000 young women from across the country with a hands-on educational opportunity designed to instruct them in the duties of responsible citizenship.
Delegates receive special instruction in parliamentary procedure and organize themselves into two symbolic political parties. They then campaign, hold rallies, debate and ultimately vote to elect city, county and state officials. Once elected to office, delegates are sworn in and perform their prescribed duties. Citizens not elected to office are given appointments and will attend meetings with the offices of their elected or appointed counterparts in actual state, county and city government.
The American Legion Auxiliary developed this citizenship training program based on the formation of the American Legion’s Boys State program.
The Girls State program offers training in the positive processes of self-government and good citizenship as practiced in democratic societies.
Girls State began as one- and two-day sessions in the late 1930s.
In 1939, Girls State was altered to make it a weeklong government education program. Since 1948, it has been a regular part of the Auxiliary’s Americanism curriculum.
Harder, who recently finished her junior year at Lincoln North Star High School, is the granddaughter of Arlynd Johnson and Carolyn Hall, Wausa.
In addition to Girls State, Harder, who is being sponsored by the Wausa American Legion Auxiliary through her grandmother, is in the National Honor Society, jazz band and marching band, including as a marching band leader.
Harder has a black belt in taekwondo and volunteers at a community center called The Malone Center in Lincoln. She was nominated by Lincoln North Star and UNL to attend Women in Engineering Industry Day this summer in Omaha.
In addition to Girls State, Vanness has been involved in several activities while attending school at Wausa, such as basketball and volleyball, as well as Future Business Leaders of America, of which she is the current chapter president, and FFA and 4-H.
She is the 17-year-old daughter of Chad and Kris Vanness.
“I want to thank the American Legion Auxiliary for sponsoring me,” the younger Vanness said. “I am looking forward to what this week holds.”
