Nine Moorestown High School (MHS) students from the Class of 2023 attended the sumer’s American Legion Jersey Boys State (ALJBS) at Rider University.
“As somebody who wants to go into government and into political science, it was a really cool window to that kind of life, and I really appreciated the opportunity and everything that the post (William H. Snyder Post 42) did for us,” Lucas Megill said.
The other students who attended are Nathan Bunting, Ryan Casinelli, Xavier Ladik, Ryan O’Sullivan, Logan Procopio, Evan Schaffer, Henry Thyrum and Keyan Vojdani.
ALJBS is a program that offers citizenship training under the auspices of the American Legion, Department of New Jersey. Sessions have been held since 1946 and the program has three phases: seminars, functional activities and general assemblies.
Seminars are held in general subjects such as government, law enforcement, legislative and election procedures. The heart of the instructional program is the functional activity of citizenship practice, such as the operations of courts, legislative assemblies, administration of law enforcement and public welfare. Those activities take a considerable portion of the time allotted for instructional purposes and are the chief means of helping citizens “learn to do by doing”.
“We work with the high school to choose the boys (for ALJBS),” said Gene Clark, Post 42 commander. “ … There’s several things that they have to qualify for. The school helps us … They’re good about giving us a list of boys, then we go through that list and choose usually eight to 10 boys.”
Clark described student enthusiasm for ALJBS.
“Sometimes you’ll have a boy who maybe his brother went, or even his father,” he explained. “They’re always really receptive, and the parents, too … Sometimes the parents aren’t aware of the program, but once they talk to somebody or find out about it, then they’re pretty enthusiastic about making sure the boys go.”
Some of the week’s activities include lectures, speakers, a school fair, sports and band.
“The bottom line is that they want to do that election process,” Clark said. “They get together, they campaign, they vote, get the vote out, all that … So it’s pretty interesting.”
Ladik and Vojdani shared their ALJBS experiences.
“From Boys State, I had the feeling that local politics kind of is populari, and the way that local politics works is a lot of, ‘Who do you know and who have you talked to to get your name around?” Ladik noted. “ … It was a really surprisingly – I feel – surprisingly accurate representation of what politics is like at a local level.”
“The opportunity to have such a great audience to share your own views of how (the) government functions, as well as really understanding what your rights as New Jersey citizens are, was really interesting,” Vojdani remarked. “As well as learning that every section of New Jersey government truly does have a unique purpose.”
Clark shared what he would like the community to know about ALJBS.
“ … Just that it is a tradition in Moorestown that’s gone on for quite a few years,” he pointed out. “It’s not a political program … It teaches them about politics but it doesn’t sway them either way. It just says, this is the way the process should work …
“I think that’s the main thing, is just to let them know that it’s a teaching session that teaches them more about the political process.”
