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“Genius is the ability to hold one’s vision until it becomes reality.” – Ben Franklin
One of the most significant thinkers in American history, Ben Franklin envisioned a unique nation and played a starring role crafting our republic’s founding documents. Principled in the pursuit of liberty and justice for all, for over 250 years, as a nation we have struggled to define, shed blood to defend, and enjoyed the fruits of Franklin and his colleagues’ artistry.
In Wyoming, we are surrounded by examples of genius — visionaries and reality-makers — every day. As I join the First Lady to pay tribute to local award-winning artist and recent Douglas High School graduate Maggie Booth, it is important to also acknowledge her folks Dan and Christina Booth, her brother Adam, her Converse County community, her middle school art teacher Emily Jensen, and the opportunities in Wyoming Maggie intends to use to move her art career forward and maintain her Wyoming heritage.
I became reacquainted with Maggie’s artwork when a staff member forwarded me The Western Governor’s Foundation FRONTIER Magazine article featuring the 2025 Celebrate the West State and Territory winners. Maggie’s Window Shopping painting earned 2nd Place Overall.
“I had the idea for this piece when driving home one day,” Maggie explained. “The grass was lit with such a beautiful low light, the antelope were out by the road and I knew I wanted to make a painting called Window Shopping with that wonderful view. The name comes from my experiences looking at antelope with my dad; we always watch out the truck windows for big bucks … my first antelope hunt took place out of that truck.”
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Maggie also had two pieces chosen this year by the First Lady for display in the Governor’s Residence, including a metal sculpture Hopper and Waiting and Hopper.
Students whose artwork is chosen for display at the Governor’s Residence understand the process is competitive. Maggie’s pieces were first hand-picked by her Douglas High School teacher Jeremy Settelmeyer for exhibition at the Casper Art Symposium. Of the roughly 4,000 items at the Casper event, the First Lady chose 32 pieces for display at the Governor’s Residence.
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 Pictured above: "Hopper" in the studio and at the Residence. Below: Waiting
"Selecting artwork to be displayed at the Governor's Residence is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Each piece represents a unique story and a personal vision, making it challenging to compare and choose without overlooking the deeper meaning behind the work. It is an honor to have Maggie's artwork as part of the exhibit as it depicts the Wyoming way of life,” First Lady Jennie Gordon said.
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 Big Game
Maggie Booth is an example of the very best parts of Wyoming — focused, passionate, resourceful, kind, innovative, smart, excited to give and come back to a community that has given her much. She is also poised to continue to take advantage of Wyoming’s unique educational offerings.
People in her hometown likely know Maggie's been dabbling in art ever since she was little, starting first with graphite pencils and basic lined three-ring notebooks. What folks may not know: Maggie’s GPA (4.0) or her ACT Score (26) and that her high proficiencies in science and math are equal to her strengths in writing and liberal arts studies.
“I am happy with how I ended high school with my academics,” Maggie offered, becoming exuberant describing her FFA team’s Poulty Evaluation first place win and Nationals berth.
Maggie’s Next Steps: What Makes Them Possible?
Maggie will attend Casper College in the Fall to study fine arts and graphic design. She intends to advance from CC to the University of Wyoming and has plans to continue her art career upon return to her hometown. Maggie’s plan requires intention, focus, planning, smarts, and execution.
“Graphic design will be an important part of my plans. The double major focus will allow me to come home to Douglas, work remote and help local business owners with their websites and online presence,” Maggie explained.
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Wyoming has developed aligned education pathways that connect high school, community colleges, and universities to ensure students can transition smoothly from secondary to postsecondary education. Through coordinated efforts, including dual and concurrent enrollment programs, career and technical education (CTE) pathways, and partnerships between K-12 and higher education institutions, students have access to clear, credit-bearing courses and certificates that prepare them for college and careers. This alignment reduces barriers, shortens time to degree completion, lowers costs, and helps meet the workforce needs of Wyoming’s economy.
Wyoming has every reason to be proud of our education system.
If we are to keep it strong and tweak it as necessary to meet student needs, we will need to collaborate (the Wyoming Way) vs. react to knee-jerk national jargon from out of state.
In recent months, and as we march toward the next legislative session, count on being besieged with email blasts, and social media posts originating from special interest groups outside of Wyoming making all sorts of outlandish claims. Their motivations are to fundraise and use issues dear to our hearts to stir up dissension. These groups seek to data mine your personal information and extract your hard-earned dollars, while pretending to know what’s best for Wyoming families.
Recently some guy from Massachusetts named Bill Gillmeister, saw fit to invade your text messages with uninformed and false information claiming Wyoming schools “... are failing to teach ‘our’ kids how to read or write.” To my knowledge, the spam urged Wyoming recipients to send money to the Austin, Texas-based American Action Fund, an organization that uses deceptive tactics and half-truths to line their pockets and data-mine personal information. This sort of stuff is obnoxious and disrespectful of the good people of Wyoming.
Maggie demonstrates what is special about Wyoming. We have thousands of exceptional students, taught by exceptional teachers and supported by parents and their communities. Wyoming is recognized as an academic leader and has also implemented innovative, locally-driven reforms that empower communities to shape education tailored to their unique needs while supporting the state’s workforce development goals.
- Wyoming is a national leader in academic achievement, consistently outperforming the national average on NAEP assessments, maintaining strong ACT results and has one of the highest high school graduation and completion rates in the country.
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