Boys State introduces youth to government

In a world with expanding competition for the attention of high school students, Boys State may not hold the lofty position it once did.

 But current participants still have viable reasons for continuing a 62-year tradition. And in Portales, organizers have a locale they find well-suited for their event’s needs.

New Mexico Boys State, sponsored by the American Legion, is being hosted by Eastern New Mexico University this week — only a week after Girls State took place at the same site.

Over 100 high school students who just finished their junior year are making ENMU’s dorms their home for a week while learning the ins and outs of the U.S. governmental system in practice.

On Wednesday, students staged elections to fill their Boys State positions of governor, lieutenant governor, public regulation commissioners, supreme court judges and more.

The day wrapped up by a banquet, at which New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera spoke.

“I really didn’t know anything at all about it. I was told it would be cool, so I decided to do it because it would look good on a resume,” said George Urias from Las Cruces High.

Urias won the governor’s race among his peers and was immediately, along with everybody else, rushed into more meetings to simulate the business of government.

“We’ve been learning about city government, county, state and everything about the positions — see how everything runs in the system,” Urias said. “It’s like a camp. An intensive camp.”

Texico’s Marques Pena had a similar sentiment.

“I didn’t really think it was going to be this intense. I thought it would be, more or less, just teaching us, but it’s actually really hands-on and a lot of fun,” Pena said. “My brother came to it in 2004 and that got me interested.”

The two biggest nearby schools, Clovis and Portales, had nary a single representative in the bunch. But that didn’t overly concern current director James Baca, who is pleased with the 10-year run that continued at ENMU.

“We’ve been to campuses across the state. We’ve been to New Mexico Military Institute and Socorro mining institute (New Mexico Tech), before we found a home in Portales,” Baca said. “It’s a little bit of a drive from the rest of the state, but it’s a nice secluded campus and the campus treats us great.”

When Baca went to Boys State it was in Socorro in 1988 at the spread-out New Mexico Tech campus. Baca said the more closely situated buildings at Eastern make logistics easier in running the event.

“This helps facilitate our program, to speed it up and make things go quicker,” Baca said.

New Mexico Boys State for 2009 ends noon Friday.