Sedona Red Rock High School juniors Alana Schradrer and Yonas Rahman have been selected by their teachers to represent the school in two American Legion leadership programs over the summer.
Sophomore Aubrie Doyle has also been chosen to attend the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Camp from June 13 through 16 at Arizona State University. Alana Schrader Schrader, a junior, will be taking part in the American Legion Auxiliary Girls State program, which is a government simulation from June 2 through 9 at the University of Arizona.
“We make a fake government and then we run it ourselves for a week,” Schrader said. Each participant is assigned to a fictitious cities and aligns themselves with either the “Federalist Party” or the “Nationalist Party.”
“American Legion Auxiliary Girls’ State is a nonpartisan participatory program that teaches young women responsible citizenship grounded in ethics, the principles of our nation’s founder and respect of God and Country,” the program’s website states. “American Legion Auxiliary Girls State is among the nation’s most respected educational programs of government instruction and leadership development of U.S. high students.”
The ALA Girls’ State program was founded in 1937 and has sent almost one million youth to various programs to teach them about the Legion’s ideals of governance. The Legion also sponsors a similar program named American Legion Boys’ State.
Female students must demonstrate academic achievement, leadership and service to be selected, which are traits that Schrader has demonstrated through community service through the Interact Club and on student council.
“[Schrader] was a foreign exchange [student] this past summer to Italy … for five weeks through the Rotary Club,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Administrative Assistant Teresa Lamparter said. “She’s also an excelling student who plays tennis. She’s my vice president in Interact Club. She’s always got a smile on her face, always in a good mood, which is lovely for a teenager … [Her] parents already had a family vacation planned [the days the program is taking place] and they bought their tickets to Hawaii. So her mom changed their tickets, which I thought [was] huge, so that [Doyle] could go to Girls State. Then her and her mom are going to fly and meet the family in Hawaii afterwards. That was pretty cool, that it meant that much to them [to do] that.”
Yonas Rahman
The American Legion Arizona Boys State program will take place from June 2 through 8 at the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff. Rahman said he is planning on attending NAU after graduation to study business and financial advising, and that he is taking the program as an opportunity to tour the campus.
“My whole life I’ve kind of been told that I’m more of a natural leader or that I lead by example,” Rahman said. “It’s not really something I do on purpose. But I guess it just happens and I think it’s pretty cool … and my teachers nominating me is pretty awesome, so I don’t want to let them down.”
“I’m just going to try and have a good time and do as much learning as I can,” Rahman said, adding that one of the leadership qualities he was hoping to develop during the week was “not fall into peer pressure. So just doing the right thing no matter what, even if it means other people don’t see me as cool.”
Aubrie Doyle
“I’m pretty shy, so I’d like to get out of my bubble a little bit and I feel like being dormed with a whole bunch of strangers that I don’t know will help me out with that,” Doyle said. “I hope to just have a good time and enjoy myself. It’s the first time I’ve ever been to summer camp and I want to come out a better leader than when I went in.”
In addition to being a member of the SRRHS track and field team, Doyle is also the sophomore class president and a member of the Interact Club and yearbook team.
