Rider University to Host Boys State Program This Week

Editor's note: The following is a news release that was issued by Rider University.

More than 900 of the top high-school seniors-to-be from across the Garden State will experience a weeklong exercise in civic engagement and understanding self-government when Rider University hosts the 2011 American Legion Jersey Boys State Program from Sunday, June 19, to Friday, June 24, on its Lawrenceville campus.

Sponsored by the American Legion Department of New Jersey, Boys State has been held annually since 1946.

Boys State “delegates” have the opportunity to govern and interact with their peers as they run their own simulated 51st state. Delegates will not only learn about the real-life problems facing New Jersey’s municipalities, counties and the state as a whole, but also try to seek their own solutions. They will also hear how their real-life counterparts are dealing with those same issues in their jobs as councilmen, mayors, freeholders, county executives, assemblymen, senators and governor.

Elected officials who have addressed the Boys State delegates include former Gov. Christie Whitman, state Senate Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr., Assemblyman Bill Baroni and Thomas Byrne, former chair of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee.

The 2011 session will mark Boys State’s 66th anniversary, and the program has seen more than 50,000 delegates pass through its ranks.

Rider University has hosted Boys State since 1969.