Five- and 10-year awards presented: Counselors Luikens, Newman celebrate pins

Emily Luikens has been assisting with South Dakota Girls State for 10 years, and Tiffany Newman for five. Both will be accepting their awards for these accomplishments at this year’s session.

Morgan Fischer: What draws you back to Girls State each year?

Emily Luikens: “The Girls, the main thing I like to do is try to make a difference in every girl’s life. Whether it is a small part or a big part, I come back because I like having the girls around!”

Tiffany Newman: “I would have to say it is the overall experience; every year we come back it is exciting. You see this group of girls looking like a deer in the headlights, and then all of a sudden it clicks and they know what is going on. It is a wonderful feeling.”

MF: What are your favorite memories from Girls State?

EL: “Finding out what the girl’s nickname is going to be for me every year. I have been Mom, Mother Hen and Dory. Memories we have made, friendships we have made and people that we can talk to all year round.”

TN: “It is so unique to have a system of empowering women that you may not see more than one week in the entire year, and you know when you get here, you pick up right where you left off. It doesn’t feel like you were away for a year. We have this bond. We hold each other up. We are a family, we are a weird bunch of sisters. Coconuts.”

MF: What makes Girls State so influential?

EL: “It helps the girls as women mature and know feminism. It makes them feel like they can do anything in their lives. It helps them not only go for things in their city and their state, but that they can do national things. They can do anything.”

TN: “Something I just recently discovered was how much I learned in my week as a delegate, how my experiences here at Girls State would help me with the bigger picture. It has been seven years. I didn’t realize it until after the fact, but because of doing this, because I ran for that, because I experienced these things, I had confidence somewhere inside myself.”

MF: How should this year’s delegates spread what they learn to their communities?

EL: “They can go back to their American Legion Auxiliary, they can go back to any VFW, to their sponsors and tell what they learned. They use it when they vote. In their careers if they decide to become a politician, they can take their experience at Girls State and apply it to their future. They use what they learn at Girls State more than they will know.”

TN: “I think it is that the week you are here you gain a respect towards being a vital member in your community. I remember coming and thinking, “They do this flag thing twice a day?” But by the end, you learn to respect it. It is so wonderful to see girls that do know how to respect the flag.”

(Photo: Emily Luikens, left, and Tiffany Newman, right, celebrate their combined 15 years of being counselors at South Dakota Girls State. Jordann Krouse / Sacajawea Scroll)