Thursday, Jun 17, 2010
An address by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will highlight a full week of activities when Rider University hosts the 2010 American Legion Jersey Boys State Program from Sunday, June 20, to Friday, June 25.
Sponsored by the American Legion Department of New Jersey, Boys State will offer approximately 900 of the top high-school seniors-to-be from across the Garden State an educational and informative week of exciting activities and speakers. Menendez will address the week’s final General Assembly meeting, scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m., on Friday, June 25, in Rider’s Alumni Gymnasium.
Boys State “delegates” have the opportunity to govern and interact with their peers, running 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.
The 2010 session will mark Boys State’s 65th anniversary, and the program has seen more than 50,000 delegates pass through its ranks. Rider University has hosted Boys State since 1969.