May 28, 2024
By Landry Brewer
Four members of the Elk City High School class of 2025 hope that Oklahoma Boys State is gonna treat ’em great.
Sam Brewer, Wyatt McConnell, Bryce Mouse, and Hooper Stover recently met with City Manager and Boys State veteran Tom Ivester at City Hall for a pre-event orientation session.
Each year student leaders from across the state who have just finished their junior year of high school are selected to represent their schools during a week-long crash course in city, county, and state government on the campus of Rogers State University in Claremore.
Ivester attended Boys State during high school, and he has returned several times—and returns this year—as a counselor and teacher.
“The three main themes of the week are leadership, patriotism, and government,” Ivester told the four ECHS delegates.
According to Ivester, attendees learn by doing. He told the boys that they will get hands-on experience setting up and running mock governments, and they will even have the opportunity to run for office.
They will also take classes on the United States Constitution, Leadership & Patriotism, a Civics Class based on the book Bill of Obligations, and a Local Government class that will be taught by Ivester.
Students who complete the week and pass the coursework may earn 3 college credit hours through Rogers State University.
Ivester’s son Jackson, who attended Boys State last year and is returning this year as a counselor, also spoke to this year’s ECHS representatives about what to expect.
Since Tom also attended Boys State while in high school and returned as a counselor alongside his father, he and Jackson are carrying on the Ivester family Boys State tradition begun in the late 1980s.
Ivester told the four ECHS students that Boys State can be life changing.
“The motto is ‘The Week That Shapes a Lifetime,'” Ivester said. “The experience sent my life in a new direction.”
This year’s Oklahoma Boys State session lasts from May 25 until June 1.
Copyright 2024 Paragon Communications. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
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