by Maverick Houg, Blue Ink
The American Legion Auxiliary provides an opportunity for high school junior girls to learn more about politics through an experience at Girls State but also has a journalism opportunity with its Journalism City program, held at USD campus this past summer.
In Journalism City participants wrote about the elections and activities/events at Girls’ State. For the first time in Garretson history, a GHS student went the Journalism City route.
Through a long process and some big questions, Mataya Trower managed to get in as one of the few that were accepted in the whole state of South Dakota.
Trower applied for Journalism City because “Mrs. B really inspired me to and I had such a great time in my journalism class last year in Garretson, so I thought to try it at Girls’ State.”
Trower described a typical day as “very stressful.” Their days start at 5:00 am to deliver papers; then at 7:00 they go to a ceremony and eat breakfast. For the rest of the day, they just keep going to as many events as they can to decide what to write about for the next day.
Trower said she stayed up until about 1:00 am writing papers for the next day. They spent most of their time at the events looking for good pictures and quotes for the paper.
Despite what you might think from the description of Journalism City, Trower said, “Overall I had a great time! I got to meet so many amazing people and had many amazing opportunities. I got very homesick at first but once you get used to it, it’s a blast.” She continued, “I would 10/10 recommend going to girl’s state and enjoying every moment…it goes by fast.”
