At GHS, Student Council is serious business. Tasked with the daunting prospect of creating school spirit and fond memories for hundreds of students -- all without the benefit of actually being at school -- many students might well decide to focus on other things until campus life looks a little more traditional. But for Student Council Co-Presidents Alan and Yana, that’s exactly why a strong, robust Student Council is more important than ever.
“When so much has already been canceled or postponed, especially for seniors who have been looking forward to this year for a long time, that made me even more motivated to do my best for Student Council this year,” said Yana. “If I can play a part in helping students stay motivated or keeping up school spirit, that’s something I want to contribute. And I never say no to a challenge.”
With the support of GHS’ Dean of Culture and Community Aumornai Edinburgh, Alan and Yana researched and implemented a host of sweeping reforms for Student Council, reasoning that increased structure would be necessary for the group to function well during distance learning and set it up for success as students return to campus in the future. Using local youth councils as a model, students drafted a book of by-laws, organized a slate of subcommittees, and developed new committee chair leadership roles to run them.
“With everyone being in distance learning, it was obvious that Student Council would have an important role bridging communication between students and teachers,” said Alan. “We realized we needed a strong start as soon as possible so students would see this was serious.”
The council is comprised of event, fundraising, communications, and health and wellness subcommittees, who together have organized a slew of events adapted to public health requirements -- from drive-thru socially distanced celebrations of holidays and student recognitions on campus, to a week of virtual activities and programming to keep students engaged through Completion Week prior to winter break -- each one a new “first” for Gateway.
“What they’ve started, and seeing it grow this year is really amazing,” said Aumornai. “You can definitely see the kids (on Student Council) being more confident, more vocal, feeling more comfortable reaching out to faculty themselves instead of waiting on me to reach out as the adult. I’m so proud to be supporting them.”
Student Council’s next big initiative is developing a series of student-led health and wellness workshops and services based on skills students identified as wanting to explore in a school-wide survey, such as self-care and time-management.
“We hope that even though this is a hard time, students will still take something positive away from the year, like all the activism we’ve seen from Gateway students or the different ways we’ve seen students make the best of the situation,” said Alan.
“I just hope people remember we tried our best!” Yana added, laughing. “The magic of Gateway is about it’s students, and we can still make the most of this time and have positive experiences to reflect back on.”