Keystone Girls State
Keystone Girls State is Pennsylvania's Girls State program. Keystone Girls State is a competitively designed program to educate Pennsylvania's young women in the duties, privileges, rights and responsibilities of good citizenship. Delegates learn more about City, County, and State government through a week long process, delegates learn more about City, County, and State government.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Honesty, Integrity, Responsibilty, and Respectfulness
The American Legion Auxiliary units in Pennsylvania competitively select rising senior high school female students to participate in the Keystone Girls State (KGS). Our purpose is to teach you the fundamentals of government and instill in you a more earnest desire to be an interested citizen of our state and nation.
The State of Keystone is meant to model current Pennsylvania's local, county, and state government. At Girls State, you will be called a “citizen" of Keystone. You and your fellow citizens will establish your own city, county and state government and will serve as a member of the House of Representatives or Senate. Citizens will have the opportunity to campaign, run for office, draft and present legislation in the KGS House of Representatives and Senate. Citizens are also expected to actively engage in the Judiciary System as modeled by the state of Pennsylvania. You will be assigned to a political party – “National” or “Federal” – but, it is important to note, these parties are purely mythical and used solely for educational purposes. You and your fellow citizens will determine your party’s platform. The Girls State program is non-partisan and free from propaganda. The Education Staff, Counselors, and Directors in charge of the program are all former citizens of Keystone Girls State. Staff are in constant attendance, and no one is allowed to leave the grounds of Shippensburg University.
At the end of the one week program, two KGS citizens will be nominated to attend Girls Nation. Girls Nation senators will convene in Washington D.C. to campaign and run for national offices, draft and pass legislation in Congress, and possibly meet their State Representatives, Senators, and the President of the United States.