WHEELING — U.S. Sen. Shelley Capito and Rep. David McKinley welcomed female high school seniors from across West Virginia to Wheeling Sunday night as Rhododendron Girls State kicked off at Wheeling Jesuit University.
A total of 340 young women are attending Girls State, which serves as a "political boot camp" for young women selected to represent their schools based on their leadership ability. During the next three days, they will be schooled in the workings of government and how to run an election. Some will file to run for a Girls State office and organize a campaign, while the camp concludes with the election and swearing in of next year's officers on Thursday.
This is the 19th year Girls State has been held on the WJU campus. Boys State, a similar program for male high school students, also is taking place this week at Jackson's Mill near Weston, W.Va.
This year's theme for Girls State is "rising up to be your best you."
Girls State governor Katie Mossburg of Bridgeport, W.Va., spoke to the residents and said too often the most successful female leaders are "detested," and are seen as harsh.
"As women, when we are called together during times of adversity, we should seek to support and nurture each other, and not tear each other down," she said.
The Republican Capito, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, is West Virginia's first female U.S. senator. There are still 24 states who have yet to elect a woman to the Senate, she told Girls State Citizens Sunday night. While there have been more than 1,900 men elected to the Senate in American history, there have only been 46 women voted in to the office.
Capito is currently one of 20 women serving in the Senate, and she said it's been determined that women actually work together better than do men.
"We negotiate better - we don't like gridlock, we hate gridlock," she said. "We work across party lines, we get more women on our bills. ... we pass more bills than many of the men.
"Things like Girls State across the nation are teaching us the skills to develop our leadership, to work together to solve problems, rather than be at logger heads. As the future leaders of the state and nation, you're going to get a head start on how to be that leader."
McKinley, R-W.Va., said he wanted to speak at Girls State as a means of inspiring the nation's youth to get involved in their nation and their communities.
"We're facing a lot of challenges in the country, and these challenges change dynamically over time," he said. "We need competent leaders - people who know themselves and are comfortable in their own skin and can understand how they want to proceed with some of these issues. We got to find ways to solve problems, because the problems keep mounting up. Maybe you will be the one to solve the next one.
"What you are doing is solving problems for your children and grandchildren. It's not about us anymore. We need to keep the focus on what's going to happen after us, because we've had our chance."
