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Over the summer, Westminster Christian School senior Santiago Ganley went to Tallahassee to participate for a week at Boys State.
“We got the chance to meet some of the representatives that are in the House in Tallahassee,” he says. “We got a full tour of both the house and senate floor. We got to use all the same stuff that the house actually uses on a daily basis.”
He was chosen to be a part of the House of Representatives which allowed him to vote on the bills. In all, they passed 17 bills. One of the bills sets new licensing requirements for senior citizens.
“A bill that talked about once you hit a certain age you have to retake your driver’s license test,” he says. “We got it passed.”
Another bill that passed requires that 51 percent of any incoming classes at Florida universities must be Florida residents.
“It gives an advantage to Florida residents whose parents are taxpayers,” he says. “It’s a fair thing.”
Another bill involved the Florida Wildlife Commission and boating. That bill stated that the FWC cannot stop boaters without probable cause.
“That law did get passed (by the actual legislature) and went into force in July,” he says.
In order to participate, Ganley had to apply to the American Legion program.
“That was an eye-opening experience and definitely a career field option,” he says.
Ganley says going to Boys State is a good pre-requisite for someone who wants to apply to a service academy.
“I want to apply to the Naval Academy,” he says. “I want to be a pilot at the Naval Academy. I think that’s super interesting.”
He wants to go into the Naval Academy because his dad was in the Marines for 22 years.
He also has a cousin at the Naval Academy.
He also wants to play baseball for the academy. He plays outfield and he is also a left-handed pitcher at Westminster.
He wants to major in engineering, possibly mechanical engineering.
Other colleges he’s considering include Auburn University, Florida State University, and Florida Atlantic University. He’s also been in talks with the University of Alabama Birmingham.
“I would do the ROTC program at Auburn,” he says. “I would be inclined to be a pilot there.”
This past summer Ganley went on a Blue Missions trip to the Dominican Republic.
“We built latrines for a local community,” he says. “We flew to the main part and there was a five-hour bus drive to this remote village over on the coast. It was up in the mountains.”
He says there is no water for the bathrooms. The teens dug the trench, laid the foundation, and then built the latrine.
It was his first time seeing so much poverty.
“It was eye opening,” he says. “They have so little, but they are so happy with what they have. Some of the bathrooms that they had were in such poor condition, that it was a blessing for us to come and build them new ones.”
At school, he’s a member of the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Rho Kappa, the National Science Honor Society and the National Spanish Honor Society.
He’s a member of the Angler’s Club, a fishing club.
Ganley is also active in the Ari Arteaga Foundation – Be the Light events.
“There is a flag football tournament that they do,” he says. “I always go there. Some years I play in the tournament, some I’ve gone to help out.”
In addition, he volunteers at the VFW in Homestead.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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