Carter Kohli is one of two young men from Ohio to attend Boys Nation in Washington D.C.
LIMA — Shawnee senior Carter Kohli has been selected as a senator for American Legion Boys Nation, which will begin Friday and run through July 29 in the Washington, D.C. area.
The purpose behind Boys Nation, run by the American Legion, is to increase civic knowledge, foster leadership development and help participants gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for America. Kohli had previously served as a Reporter at Ohio Boys State, which had 645 participants, after being sponsored by American Legion Post 96 in Lima. The national program will bring together nearly 17,000 incoming seniors who participated in Boys State programs across the nation.
“I’m excited to meet all the other people who were sent from their respective states,” Kohli said. “It’ll be really interesting to just meet people from all over. I’m excited because they’re going to walk us through the steps that actually happen in the Senate. There’s also a presidential campaign and election process. The campaigning at Boys State was really fun, so I hope it will be fun at Boys Nation, as well.
“Right now, I’m interested in political science and journalism and where the two overlap. One thing that I had looked at was going into foreign service, like embassy work. I also thought about law school at one point. So I have thought about a lot of different career paths, but a lot of what I want to do rotates back in some form or facet of government or writing,”
While those two areas are certainly of interest to Kohli, his experience at Shawnee featured a variety of other activities. Along with tennis, Kohli also has participated in Science Olympiad, where he recently had a fourth-place finish at the state level, esports, where he became a Northwest champion and state attendee at Esports Ohio, National Honor Society and Scouts BSA, where he is an Eagle Scout and the recipient of the Black Swamp Area Council Scout of the Year Award.
The eight-day Boys Nation event will allow participants to gain a first-hand perspective on how the federal government functions, with 100 participants serving as “senators.” They are divided into two political parties, the Federalists and the Nationalists, who then participate in an abridged version of typical party governance. Each party will hold a convention, create a platform and nominate members for elected offices, including Boys Nation president, vice-president and leaders within each party. Each senator will also participate in the legislative process by writing, introducing and debating a bill of his choosing, with that bill going to the appropriate Senate committee and, if successful, going to the entire Senate for a vote. Any bill passed in the Senate is later signed or vetoed by the Boys Nation president.
Carter is proposing a bill that will create an agency to facilitate clean energy by building thorium power plants, which is a newer nuclear energy that is supposed to be cleaner and more efficient than conventional nuclear energy. He also would like to amend the 13th Amendment by deleting the clause permitting slavery or involuntary servitude as a potential punishment for a crime.
“There’s a lot of stuff I’m excited for,” he said.
Kohli hopes to attend Ohio State but has not yet made a final decision on his plans after high school.
