Mattson Smith can now be counted as one of the "Washington insiders."

Well, sort of.

The senior at Fort Mill High School was chosen as one of 16 township students to attend the American Legion sponsored Boy's State program in Columbia. Following his experience at the state level, Smith was selected as one of two South Carolina Senators to attend Boy's Nation in Washington, D.C., in July.

The program is a crash course in civics, with the students learning the ins and outs of local, county and state level government. During the course of the week they run for various elected positions and run through a series of mock government exercises, including setting policy on the local and county level and writing and passing bills at the state level.

"In my school I never did student government," Smith said. "There (in D.C.) I had people listen to my ideas and support my positions. I ended up mayor of my city, senator from my county and president pro tempore of the senate."

During the week of June 8 -14, Smith and about 800 other rising seniors from around the state stayed at dorms on the USC campus. The students were organized into 50 cities based on their proximity in the dorms. After electing city-level officials they campaigned for and elected state-level officers. Once at the state level, Smith and his fellow senators and representatives set about passing laws and resolutions.

"We raised the cigarette tax and passed some environmental rules requiring recycling bins," Smith said.

The Eli Bailes American Legion Post 43 sponsored Smith's trip to Boy's State. The Legion has been sending students to the program since at least 1962, according to Legion member Benny Patterson, who along with fellow member Nat Helms coordinates the program for the Fort Mill post. The Legion's Women's' Auxiliary sponsors the similar Girl's State program, Patterson said.

At the end of the week, the Boy's State staffers and counselors, who had been watching and evaluating the students the whole time, selected 10 students to interview with the Boy's State director and top staff members for one of two slots representing the state in Washington, D.C., at Boy's Nation. Smith was the first Fort Mill student to receive that honor.

Smith gave up a family trip to Australia this summer to attend Boy's Nation.

"I would have been coming back from Australia in the middle of Boy's Nation, so I decided to go to Boy's Nation instead," he said. "Australia won't be sinking into the ocean anytime soon."

At the national level, each member, who served as a senator from their state, was required to submit a resolution and a bill for consideration.

"We weren't able to get to my bill," Smith said. "It addressed the current tax policy and readjusted some of the numbers to make it more fair."

However, the senate did pass his resolution which took on off-shoring jobs by imposing tax penalties on companies that move jobs overseas while giving tax incentives to companies that keep jobs in the U.S.

At least one former Boy's Nation participant went on to become President. Bill Clinton has talked about his experience with the program and getting to meet President John Kennedy as the event that led him into politics. Now, Smith said he might like to follow in Clinton's footsteps and seek elected office some day.

"A few people had suggested politics to me before, but I always shrugged it off," Smith said. "But going through this experience and seeing how beneficial it can be when done right, I have definitely reconsidered going into politics later in life."