‘Boys State puts men on a track to succeed’

American Legion Boys State programs will be getting underway next month, giving rising high school seniors the opportunity to learn the rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens. Legion post select students to attend the program, and for Rontel Batie, he will be forever grateful to Post 194 in St. Augustine, Fla., for giving him the exposure he needed to leave his rough neighborhood and earn a full tuition college scholarship.

Now, the 2006 Florida Boys State alum is a legislative aide for Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., who serves as the ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school, but I knew I wanted to get out of town,” Batie said. “Boys State got me out of town for the first time; that was the exposure I needed.”

He “didn’t know anything” about politics, but upon arrival to Boys State, Batie saw other young men campaigning for mayoral positions.

“I watched guys get up there and do these one-minute speeches and I knew I could do that too,” he said. Batie ran for, and won, election as police chief and judge for his “city” at Boys State, and added duties as chief financial officer.

After high school graduation, Batie attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. There, he was freshman class president and president of the university’s chapter of College Democrats. And he interned for Brown in 2010 through the Congressional Black Caucus intern program.

“I applied for this program three times, didn’t get in three times,” Batie said. “But I just busted my butt, tried to show how talented I was.… she stayed in contact with me, visited my family.”
Batie worked in Brown’s office as an aide before earning a full-time job in her office as an advisor on veterans affairs, housing and higher education issues all because he got a chance through Post 194 to attend Boys State.

“A lot of guys in my neighborhood took to other means to help their families, they sold drugs … I was surrounded by people getting in trouble every day,” Batie said. “We had no one telling us, you can go to college.

“I think (Boys State) is life-changing, especially for young men that come from underserved communities. Boys State puts men on a track to succeed.”

As one of the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for high school students, Boys State is more than a training for future politicians. Distinguished program alumni include Michael Jordan, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Brokaw, Garth Brooks and Neil Armstrong.

The program is often described as “a week that shapes a lifetime” and has had a remarkable influence on this country since two Illinois Legionnaires established the first Boys State in 1935. I’m proud that through Boys State and Boys Nation, The American Legion has been a part of the forging of the next generation of American leaders.