Updated: April 22, 2020

Future citizens, parents, guardians, and school counselors:

We hope you and your families are well. Thank you for your patience as we reinvent American Legion Auxiliary Volunteer Girls State.

As we’ve previously communicated, we’ve been planning a special program of ALA VGS this year through a timely, interactive, and virtual experience. The ALA Volunteer Girls State 2020 Citizens’ Summit will take place over three days, in three brief, two-hour sessions, over a virtual platform:

 May 26, 27, and 28

Each day: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET // 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. CT

We are structuring each of these sessions as a mix of dynamic speakers, interactive Q&A, and facilitated panel discussions. While the agenda is still being finalized, our goals for these three sessions are to increase knowledge of and engagement with:

  • The 19th Amendment and Tennessee’s role in its ratification
  • Commemoration of Memorial Day and veterans’ service
  • Roles of city, county, and state government and health officials through the lens of a global pandemic
  • The judicial system, featuring one or more Tennessee Supreme Court Justices
  • Actualizing citizenship and media literacy in the real world

The fee for the ALA Volunteer Girls State 2020 Citizens’ Summit is $50, which will cover a citizen T-shirt, donation to the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, in lieu of our service project, technology costs, and other materials.

If your student has already been registered for our original session, you do not need to register again. If you have not already registered students, we have extended our deadline to May 15, 2020. Please check your email for registration and payment details, as well as accessibility questions and contact information. We are deeply concerned about accessibility and equity in presenting a program virtually, and we commit to you and to these citizens that we will do everything in our control to make access to our program as equitable as possible.

Thank you, stay well, and we look forward to providing engaging content and connections for these young leaders across Tennessee.