National, state program sponsored by the American Legion gets high schoolers interested in civics, public service
DETROIT — For 79 years, boys from across the country have gathered in Washington, D.C., for a weeklong crash course in government, politics and civic leadership.
Boys Nation is an annual project sponsored by the American Legion intended to foster patriotism and civic pride in rising high school seniors. This year, the 79th Boys Nation session was held July 18-26 at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, just outside the nation's capital.
Two students from the Archdiocese of Detroit represented Michigan as senators, chosen by the state members of the American Legion Auxiliary Department of Michigan based on their work at Michigan Boys State, which took place on the campus of Grand Valley State University in Allendale from June 22-28.
Xavier Evoy from University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Gabriel Lencioni from Divine Child High School in Dearborn were this year’s Michigan senators, where they had the opportunity to draft legislation, vote on bills and amendments and get an inside look at how the wheels of government turn.
“It was really fun (in D.C.); it wasn’t like anything I could have expected from Boys State,” Evoy told Detroit Catholic. “It gave me the rare opportunity to be in a room with people from all the states (49 states and the District of Columbia; Hawaii doesn’t have a Boys State program). We are all coming together from across the country, sharing our perspectives and building relationships.”
The senators completed two full Senate sessions and a series of committee sessions, where legislation is drafted, debated and voted upon by the senators, each of whom were assigned various issues and causes for which they advocated on the Senate floor.
“When we got out to the Senate chamber, you learn all the decorum of what you have to do once you step on the floor, a lot of parliamentary procedure and protocol,” Evoy said. “But we also did stuff outside the Senate floor, such as laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, going into the catacombs of the Capitol and seeing the actual Senate in session.”
To get the full picture of Boys Nation, one has to go back to Boys State, where high school students from across Michigan gathered to form a mock state legislature; a Girls State session sponsored by the American Legion Michigan Auxiliary took place this summer in Lansing as well.
One-hundred-and-eight boys from across Michigan gathered to represent six cities in a mock legislative session where they elected mayors, city councilors, members of the House of Representatives and state Senate, culminating in the election of a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The Boys Nation program gained notoriety after the recently released A24 documentary on the Boys State program in Texas, showcasing young men with an interest in politics and public service.
Lencioni said he knew a little bit about politics and government before participating in the Boys State program, but knew it had a reputation for crafting leaders and looking good on a resumé, a key factor for someone looking to enlist in one of the U.S. service academies.
“I’m interested in attending one of the military service academies, specifically the Air Force Academy or Naval Academy; I want to be a fighter pilot in the United States military,” Lencioni said. “I’ve heard a lot of people talk highly about Boys State and how that can impact leadership and communication skills, which I’ll need later in life, whether I get into an academy or not.”
During the Michigan Boys State meeting in Allendale, Lencioni learned what it takes for a leader to address his own community’s issues while also working with representatives from other parts of the state, who, in turn, prioritize their communities’ needs.
“It’s about taking problems and feeding them off with other cities and counties and the issues they are dealing with,” Lencioni said. “It’s figuring out, as a citizen, we’re not always aware of the underlying problems that our cities or other cities may have, and how in decisions we are making, whether it’s reacting to an oil spill that’s impacting the whole state or a small community issue, everybody is thinking about their own community, their own problems, and how best to solve them.”
Evoy and Lencioni didn’t have the opportunity to meet Michigan’s two U.S. senators — Sens. Gary Peters (himself a Boys State graduate) and Elissa Slotkin — but they did run into Sen. Slotkin’s staff and got insight into the team of people it takes to run a senator’s office.
“It takes a lot of people. The senators you see on TV, like Sen. Peters, for example, has 80 staffers overall just in Washington, D.C.,” Lencioni said. “So it takes a lot of people behind the scenes to make things happen. So when you think of your senator, you think he or she is representing the state, when really, it’s an entire group of people representing a constituency in Michigan, and a senator representing the interests of the staff, because you can’t expect a senator to be well-versed in everything. Still, you have to be briefed really quickly by these different experts on different things.”
The Boys Nation trip also included a visit to the White House, the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
Just like in the various Boys State gatherings, senators run for multiple positions in Boys Nation, including Senate president, Senate vice president, Senate pro tempore and Senate secretary.
Lencioni was in the early running for such a post, but when he didn’t get the position he was initially seeking, he found fulfillment in a role he didn’t expect.
“I was elected Senate chaplain at Boys Nation,” Lencioni said. “I was going to run for Senate secretary, which is one of the big four positions, but I lost really early in that race.”
“By the end of the week, I think (being chaplain) ended up being more impactful than even being president,” Lencioni added. “I was constantly reminded about my faith and about God throughout the week when writing prayers before the start of the Senate sessions or at the 9/11 memorial, giving a benediction there. I think that really impacted me even more than being one of those top four positions.”
Evoy said his experience in Boys State and Boys Nation left him with a “52-card deck” of business cards of fellow participants from across the country, young men with an interest in cultivating civic virtues for the betterment of the country.
“I was just on the phone earlier today with a guy from Maine, and we were talking in our group chat about everything going on in Texas with the flooding and the political redistricting, and the guys in Texas in the group chat were giving us the lowdown on how it all works; it’s really cool to have this network of people across the nation now,” Evoy said.
“It’s gaining this network of like-minded people, who might not have the same ideology or political beliefs,” Evoy said, “But they are civically like-minded people who want to see our country prosper.”
