WAITSBURG - Emma Philbrook - like most students - is quite familiar with the phrase, "Be all you can be." But her experience at Girls State last week left her walking away with the realization that she could be even more than she thought she could be - or at least something different. That and the state level Samsung American Legion Scholarship.

Philbrook left for Evergreen Girls State, held at the Central Washington University campus in Bellingham, Wash., on Sunday, June 15 and returned home the following Saturday. She said the days were "grueling" with a 6:30 a.m. wake-up followed by a fast-...