Peytan Ruhl, the Exeter American Legion Auxiliary
representative for Cornhusker Girls State, is pictured with her grandparents
Butch and Barb Jansen.
Peytan Ruhl began her presentation to the Exeter Legion
Auxiliary on Monday night thanking them for the opportunity to attend the
Cornhusker Girls State, “It was an amazing week. I learned so much.”
Ruhl, who is a Senior at Norris High School, shared pictures
of her floor which was named after President Monroe along with other
memorabilia from the experience.
“Each town had to solve a new problem every night. One
night ours was how to combine two schools. They were all relevant
problems,” explained Ruhl.
Ruhl is the daughter of Ryan and Kristen Ruhl who are both
Exeter High School graduates. Peytan’s grandparents, Butch and Barb
Jansen, are both very active in the Exeter Legion and Auxiliary.
During the week-long event in Lincoln the girls got to hear
a motivational speaker Aaron Davis, a former Nebraska Cornhusker football
player who speaks all over the nation about leadership, “He inspired us
to live as leaders and have other kids follow us instead of us following them.”
The goal of the event is for high school students to learn
about government and Ruhl talked about how they learned to campaign. Each
participant had to campaign for office during the week. Ruhl campaigned
for Mayor of the town that she lived in and while she didn’t get elected she
was appointed the Assistant Director of Game and Parks. Later in the week
she got to meet the real person in the job she was assigned to and find out
about how they do their job.
Ruhl reported that her favorite part of the week was
visiting the National Guard, “We got to see helicopters and march around like
we were in the military and they even yelled at us.”
Elected a governor for Girls state was also very educational
for the students, “We narrowed down the candidates and then two of them had to
debate about topics relevant to Nebraska.”
The elected governor was inaugurated by Nebraska Governor
Dave Heineman. The girls also got to hear a debate between Senate
candidates Ben Sasse and David Domina.
Participants can choose to participate in a band, chorus or
take an opportunity to do some community service. Ruhl enjoyed a trip to
work with some preschool children for her community service.
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