The Girls
State History
Girls State began as one- and two-day sessions in the late 1930s. Washington
D.C. and Delaware are credited with first executing the program. In 1939, Girls
State was expanded to make it a week-long government education program. Since
1948, it has been a regular part of the Auxiliary's Americanism curriculum.
For more than 50 years, the American Legion Auxiliary has succeeded in giving
these girls the finest citizenship training program possible. The program has
grown from a few hundred participants to nearly 20,000 Girls State delegates
annually.
The Auxiliary has long been recognized by Freedom's
Foundation at Valley Forge, Pa., for the Girls State and Girls Nation
program. It has also received special recognition from the
National
Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), which has placed this
program on its
National
Advisory List of Contests and Activities.
