From learning to be yourself to joining a network of top peers and mentors, these are some of the pitches past Boys State and Boys Nation attendees have for future generations.
For Manny Jones, American Legion Boys Nation — at least initially — was not the positive “week that shapes a lifetime” that has become the program’s motto.
Ten years later, though, Jones called the experience “a great time.”
“It’s a week that shapes a lifetime but you’ll have so much fun, you’ll meet so many guys, you’ll form some bonds, you’ll form some brotherhoods, that’s worth it in itself. But what you take out of the program is what you put in,” said Jones, an alumnus of the 2016 Boys Nation program, as he stood in the Marymount University gym after he and other alumni had spoken to this year’s Boys Nation senators.
“Go there and reach for the stars, and see what you get. I did that at Boys State and Boys Nation, and look at what I have. I became a man in this room. My best man in my wedding is a senator from Boys Nation. So I got my best friend in life from this program,” he said.
Jones’ week at Boys Nation 2016 began with him losing in the race for president pro tempore. Thinking that was it for his political ambitions for the week, Jones nonetheless ended up as the Nationalist candidate for president.
But his emotions got the better of him in his debate with Federalist candidate Anighya Crocker, who easily won the election.
For Jones, the lesson, hard-earned as it was, is one that helped shape his life. And it’s one he was happy to share with this year’s senators, and those to come.
“The reality is, you’re not going to win everything. You’re going to get down on your luck. You’re going to get smacked down, you’re going to get humbled, you’re going to get taught a lesson. So the lesson I learned while I was here, I keep that with me my entire life,” Jones said.
He turned around to face the stage. “Boys Nation taught me that I didn’t have to be anybody else to be successful. That I could be myself and I should be myself, and that I should work on myself as well. When you learn that you don’t have to play a character, you don’t have to be somebody else, and you really learn who you are. I learned who I was on this stage. I learned that I could get on that stage by being myself, but what I also learned was, I need to work on some things. But that’s the lesson I had to learn, and blessed for this experience, blessed for this week, and I am blessed to be back to kind of share my experience in life and in this program.”
Here’s what other Boys Nation senators past and present had to say when asked how they would pitch the program to those to come:
Rob Pekarek, 2016 alumnus from Maryland
“I think that Boys State and Boys Nation, absolutely incredible leadership opportunity. Also for me, it was an opportunity to interact with young men that I never would have met otherwise that were on a similar dedicated, motivated, hardworking path. And the thing that I didn’t realize when I was in high school is how important those connections with other people who are so motivated and dedicated and driven … iron sharpens iron. It becomes a lot easier to push yourself harder if you have a group of friends and people that you know from Boys State or Boys Nation that are pushing you to be better, and you can see the example they’re setting, and challenge yourself to be better and do better.”
2026 Secretary of the Senate John Alley Jr. from Utah
“It’s the best choice you can make of your high school career. It has already been so fun. If you’re considering this, please do. The American Legion is an amazing organization. Boys State, Boys Nation, just an absolute blast. You will get out of your comfort zone; I know I sure did.”
2026 Boys Nation President Sawyer Ray from Arkansas
“You live in the greatest country on Earth, and I would venture to say that every American believes that. And if you believe that we live in the greatest nation on Earth, you should also believe that we should never live up to less than our greatest potential. And that starts with you. That starts with you being involved, not just in your community, but in your state.”
2026 President Pro Tempore Brady Pace from Georgia
“It is ‘a week that shapes a lifetime.’ You are given the role and responsibility that you would never expect at 16, 17 years old, and you’re expected to do it, you’re expected to do it to the utmost and best of your ability. There is no program like it, no program as supportive, and I think every young man who is able should strive to get there, and if they don’t get there, that doesn’t mean they should give up either. They should still focus on what their goals are, what they want to do, and being the change.”
2026 Senator Charlie Russell from Tennessee
“You can learn something from just about every aspect of (Boys State). Whether you don’t know much about the state government — I know I didn’t know a lot about the procedures — or you want to meet people. I think the connections you make are everlasting, the camaraderie you make is everlasting, and the experience is just something you won’t ever forget. It’s a tight-knit community and something that’s going to be really important in your future. Whether you take stuff from it or not, you will always remember it as a defining experience in your life.”
2026 Senator Lincoln Laquidara from Pennsylvania
“Just go to Boys State and have fun. That’s how you go to Boys Nation. If you go to Boys State and say, ‘I want to go to Boys Nation,’ you’re not going to Boys Nation. You’re going to go to Boys State, you’re going to try your hardest, you’re going to have so much fun there, the staff there is going to see how much fun you’re having, and they’re going to say, ‘We want you to have all that fun in a week or two over in D.C. with some of the greatest men on earth.’”
2026 Senator Owen Kopfmann from South Dakota
“Why would you not try? The worst thing you could do is that you tried.”
Did you attend Boys State? Go on to Boys Nation? Share your “why to go” by emailing Assistant Editor Andy Proffet at wproffet@legion.org.
- Boys Nation