Hooray for Monday!

Monday is a dreaded day for almost every human being, except for Cornhusker Girls State citizens. Festivities started off bright and early as the citizens lined up in girls state order prior their breakfast times and began their day with hope, enthusiasm and full stomachs.

The first item on Monday’s agenda was the election of city officials. Each town (or floor) elected a Mayor, City Council, Senators, and School Board Members. Citizens lined the halls of their floors and marked their ballots for the delegate they wanted to lead their town.

After the city elections closed, CGS delegates who did not run for a city office filed to run for county and state offices. Delegates then quickly returned to their floors to make campaign posters and bribe their roommates to help them. The girls were also then able to complete their first exam of the week on current events. Questions covered topics featured in three different newspapers, as well as local news channels. Citizens were asked to recall events ranging from what University of Nebraska football coach was fired, to what Nebraska town was hit by an E4 tornado almost one year ago.

The major activity of the day was group photos which were completed outside of Mari Sandoz Hall. After each individual floor was photographed, all CGS citizens and staff came together for one large group photo.

After lunch it was back to session where the citizens were versed in parliamentary procedure in the form of a skit by the CGS staff. The delegates were then split up into their two parties (Nationalist and Federalist) for their party conventions. During party conventions, the citizens elected a party Chairwoman, Vice Chairwoman and Secretary/Treasurer. With the guidance of the newly elected officers and CGS alumni, each party came together to form the planks for their party platform as well as their party’s motto. Selected citizens were chosen to draw a logo for their party that will be displayed on their party platform’s sheet to be printed later in the week.

Following party conventions, delegates were dismissed to their individual activities. After dinner, the citizens of CGS made the journey to Kimball Hall for the event they had been dreaming about since they arrived: joint session with Cornhusker Boys State. Monday’s nightly session featured speaker Mike Smith, a Nebraska-native and self-made philanthropist who described himself as a, “professional teenager”.

When the CGS citizens had to part from the boys, they headed back to their dorms to begin another round of whistle stop campaigns for county and state offices. Candidates filled each floor telling their fellow citizens their clever campaign slogans along with explaining why the citizens should put their trust in them. Tuesday came and went with a bang. The evening closed with excitement, and the promise of a new day in the beautiful Girls State.