“There is no age limit in politics” said Toni Boucher, former CT state representative in Ms. President’s State Leaders Session on November 15th. Participants in Ms. President US heard from accomplished female leaders in this session including Laura Devlin (State Representative of the 134th District), Julie Kushner (State Senator of the 24th District), and Kyela McGuire (Ms. President US Ridgefield). The young girls learned about Connecticut and the organization of its government. Later on, on March 12th, participants will have a chance to visit the state capital and see all that they learned about in action.
Ms. President US’s goal is to inspire and prepare girls to run for office and other high leadership positions Friday’s session provided that inspiration and illustrated how to take your desire for change and put it into action. Kyela McGuire, who ran in 2019 on a Zero Waste Platform, said “it felt good to make change happen” after collecting five cent returnable cans and raising money for both Meals on Wheels and the Ridgefield Food Bank.
Ms President US participants, ranging from grades 4 through 8, received valuable advice for the future and stepping up to whatever goals they could accomplish. They were made aware of setbacks that can come up, and also how they can overcome these and accomplish anything that they want.
Their dreams and goals were further put in perspective through a vision board activity led by Pam Miles, the founder of the program Wisdom of Within and a local female leader. In this activity the young women put anything and everything they wanted to accomplish on a board and recognized how close their vision really is. Kyela McGuire concluded the panel with valuable advice to everyone, “Be trailblazers and share your point of view because other people are thinking the same thing.”
The next Ms. President US session will be held on December 13th. For more information, visit www.mspresidentus.org.
