Boys State participant relishes DAS role
-- DAS Office of the Director, August 2003

Serving as director of a mock Ohio Department of Administrative Services has had a profound impact on a Pickerington teen.

James W. Ferguson II, a Pickerington High School graduate who begins his sophomore year at Miami University this month, has been part of the DAS team for three years at Buckeye Boys State, a seminar in which 1,400 Ohio boys entering their senior year of high school set up a mock Ohio government.

All participants are encouraged to run for elected office or seek appointed political positions. Current issues are discussed, debated and voted upon during the nine-day June program at Bowling Green State University sponsored by the Ohio American Legion.

As a citizen of Buckeye Boys State in 2001, the "governor" appointed Ferguson to serve in his cabinet as "director" of DAS. After being briefed by Dan Willis, a retired DAS employee who just completed his19th year as the coordinator of Boys State, Ferguson hired his staff and discussed their duties.

The next day state officials or their representatives met with their counterparts at Boys State. Dominick Guida of the Human Resources Division's Centralized Recruitment Office was appointed by Director Scott Johnson to represent him.

"Within the first 30 minutes we had issued several memos to a plethora of state departments, began the payroll process and arranged meetings with the Office of Budget and Management, the auditor and the treasurer," Ferguson said.

"Although Mr. Guida was only with my department for one day, the positive impact and vigor he brought to the team was extraordinary. Because of his broad state government knowledge and high impact approach to consulting my staff, we were able to function extremely efficiently in a very short period of time. He helped us fine-tune our own practices and procedures that we had developed, and, most importantly he showed us how to navigate through and research the Ohio Revised Code and Ohio Administrative Code to answer our customers' questions after he was gone.

"I quickly learned what made DAS one of the most interesting agencies in the state -- the fact that they interact and support every other agency so that they can better serve their customers. So I had the opportunity to learn first-hand how each process interacts to form a fully functional state government. From the smallest board to the largest agency, they all interact; DAS makes that interaction possible and increases the effectiveness of state government overall," Ferguson said.

The experience led Ferguson to decide to major in political science and public administration. In addition to learning about how state and local governments function, Ferguson also gained a mentor in Guida.

"Mr. Guida's influence on me lasted much longer than my term as director of DAS in 2001. I remained in contact with him throughout my senior year, informing him as to my academic status, extracurricular endeavors and my plans for college."

Guida invited Ferguson to return the following year to Boys State to be his assistant.

"Being given the opportunity to give so much back to a program that had given so much to me was absolutely phenomenal," Ferguson said.

During this past year, Ferguson kept in contact with Guida, sharing his experiences serving as a senator in Miami's student government and his leadership activities with his fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau.

"This summer, Mr. Guida once again recruited me to serve as his assistant to Buckeye Boys State. Once again the experience was unparalleled," Ferguson said.