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Teen from Burley learns ITD from the inside
as part of annual Girls State conference

Three hundred high school girls descended on Northwest Nazarene University last week for Idaho Syringa Girls State, a week-long civic and public leadership camp in which selected high school juniors assemble to learn about issues such as Parliamentary Procedure, protocol and crafting bills and resolutions.

Of the 300 girls, 10 percent were chosen to visit with some of the state’s largest public employers, and Olivia Tateoko of Hazelton (just outside of Rupert) was among the special delegates.

Thursday (June 12) she spent four hours in ITD’s District 3, visiting with Director Pam Lowe and Deputy Director Scott Stokes at Headquarters, with Frank Lester and the Division of Aeronautics crew and with District 3 Engineer Dave Jones before heading back to Nampa.

Along the way, Tateoko (Tatch-yoko) spent time in the cockpit of the King Air (sitting, not flying), in the search planning room at Aero, discussing highway safety campaigns with Jones and kicked tires in the Boise District 3 maintenance yard.

Girls State teaches young women responsible citizenship and love for God and country. The Girls State program started in 1937 and gives girls who have completed their junior year of high school the opportunity to learn first-hand how their state and local government works.

Tateoko, a senior-to-be at Burley High School, wants to be a small-animal veterinarian and plans to attend either Brigham Young University (her father’s choice) or Utah State University (her preference) as an undergraduate and then finish up at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.

She expressed surprise at all the different facets of ITD, calling her time “a great experience.”