August 3, 2005
Local teens attend Boys State
Traverse City teens take part in intensive leadership program
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Spending a summer immersed in leadership, excellence and preparation their futures, three area seniors attended Boys State in June.
In addition, two of them, Chris Blanchard and Zach Roen, both of Central High School, spent the week before at West Point's Summer Leaders Program. If admitted, both Blanchard and Roen plan to attend West Point after graduation next spring.
The third Boys State attendee, Nick Glauch, of West High School, spent three weeks in Europe afterward as part of the People to People program. Glauch has his sights set on the University of Michigan and later law school.
Boys State is a week-long leadership that drew more than 400 boys from around the state to Michigan State University June 19-25. There, attendees ran a fictional state, complete with politics, elections and administrations at the city, county and state level plus a Supreme Court and a newspaper.
Attendees were assigned to one of two political parties, either the Nationalists or the Federalists, and ran for offices the first part of the week.
"There were a lot of back room deals," noted Glauch, who ran for governor but was not elected. "We'd given all our political credit to get our lieutenant governor."
The scrabble for votes, refining of policy positions, shaping ideas into winning rhetoric and throwing together a speech was a blast for the three attendees.
"You wouldn't think that politics would get your heart racing but it does," Blanchard said. "Getting up there and making this huge speech that you wrote in three seconds and trying to get 400 kids to vote for you as opposed to 20 other students_ the speech made or broke you."
The second part of the week they tackled issues ranging from urban reform, education, unemployment and video game ratings. Cities grappled with real world headline topics of crime, a power plant controversy and boosting commercial development downtown.
All three boys who attended from Traverse City have already been involved in student government at their respective schools and all aspire to a career in politics. The experience at Boys State helped solidify their ambitions.
"I really want to get into politics after college, work for the military and then a political career," Blanchard said. "I want to make a difference in American society and the way to do this is to jump right into it."
American Legion Post 35 sponsored one of this year's Boys State attendees, the Rotary Club sponsored another and Jason and Suzanne Allen sponsored the third. Students are suggested to the American Legion by teachers and, after completing an application, are interviewed by post members. The American Legion sponsors the Boys State program nationwide with each post selecting youth for their state's Boys State.
"Most of the time we're pretty well charged with sending someone who's interested in the political system and government," noted Kidd, a retired Coast Guard lieutenant commander who interviews Boys State students every year. "I kind of look for those kids who show leadership because it's a pretty aggressive environment and somebody who's weak kneed will have a hard time surviving."
Attending West Point's Summer Leadership Program also focused Roen and Blanchard's desire to attend the military academy for college and serve their country afterward. Friends since elementary school, both are members of the school's track and cross country teams and part of the SCI-MA-TECH program. The two have a friendly rivalry that inspires them to new heights of accomplishment.
They were among 800 prospective cadets from around the country who lived a slice of academy life for a week in mid June.
"I've always wanted to join the military - I don't know why, there's no family history," said Roen, who found out about West Point in the seventh grade. "It's the most trustworthy place I've ever been to, I left my wallet and cell phone out the whole time I was there."
The week was packed with classes and activities, a glimpse of the high-octane schedule they would keep if accepted next year. Even for two very busy, overachieving teens, the pace was amazing.
"There was no down time, you were always doing something," noted Blanchard, whose father is a West Point graduate. "You really learned time management quickly. Zach and I agreed that what we normally would have done from 5 until noon there was more than we did the whole summer."