As senior Kyle Witzigman sits among the boys from every state in the nation, all he hears is the silence of the east wing in the White House. Before he knows it a figure walks into the room and all the boys erupt in cheers as President Obama shakes each boy’s hand one by one.
“It was so memorable to meet him, to see that this program really does create political leaders, and to know that the President was once just a 17-year-old teenager too,” said Witzigman.
Witzigman was one of the two boys chosen from 609 Boys State boys to attend Boys Nation July 22-30. While at Boys State, Witzigman applied with 175 others to attend Boys Nation over the summer.
Each state has a different selection process to determine who will represent the state. Arkansas allows each boy who is interested to apply for Boys Nation and then they are split into ten counties. Each county picks two boys to be interviewed. After that the interviewees are narrowed down to the top four who give speeches in front of every boy at Boys State. Then the 609 representatives at Boys State vote on who they would like to go on to Boys Nation.
“It was so nerve-wracking standing up and giving those speeches in front of everyone. But it was the most humbling honor to be chosen to represent the 609 guys at Boys State,” said Witzigman.
Witzigman loved receiving the opportunity to go to DC and stay at Marymount University for Boys Nation. Witzigman flew out for free with Sean Alexander from Little Rock to attend this event. Different from Boys State where they learned about government on a state level, the boys got to learn about 49 other state governments at Boys Nation.
“I liked them both but for different reasons. At Boys Nation all the guys could hang out in the dorm and be regular teenage guys but then go into meetings and completely understand politics,” he said.
The best part for Witzigman was passing senate bills and being able to take part in electing a president.
“We can do this,” he said. “We teenagers can become great political leaders. The program can do great things for us.”
After talking about politics 24/7 at Boys Nation, Witzigman is definitely considering a career in politics now.
