Heading into the 2024 school year, student government has a main goal — unity. Student government vice president Raya Wolyniec described this goal.
“I’m hoping that when the current board leaves and the new board takes over, I’m hoping that we will continue this goal of unity, because I do feel, personally that is our biggest issue right now. Because, like I said, there are so many people in this school and it’s so hard to keep everybody unified and remember that we are all together,” Wolyniec said.
Recently the student government has done many different events to try to reach this goal, such as the mental health summit and making the club fairs in person so more people could attend.
That doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with the decisions around the school. The recent cellphone procedure has been a big source of controversy around the school. Student government treasurer Grace Yang described students’ thoughts surrounding this procedure.
“We wanted to see what student’s thoughts were and some people have brought up the fact that cellphones aren’t allowed in the bathroom and that has been a concern for many students, but because of the new change we wanted to get more information on that,” Yang said.
“We talked a lot about the phone policy, how people have been feeling about it, because admin did come to us about it, and we had some thoughts, but ultimately we did feel like it was a good thing that it was passed,” Wolyniec said.
Student government can be for anyone and people can join for many different reasons.
“I moved here when I was 14 and when I started ninth grade and I think that moving here was really really rough especially at the beginning of high school, because I felt a lack of community and so my goal going into my junior year was really just to grasp that reality that I belong at State High,” student government parliamentarian Cheyla Ramirez Crawford said.
Wolyniec and Yang also explained their reasons for joining.
“I have been in it for three years and I still really don’t know but I just really like the idea of being able to make a change in the school and that seemed the most concrete way for me to do that,” Wolyniec said.
“I was a part of the leadership council last year… and I saw that the positions for student government were going out and I decided like why not, I wanted to get more involved and be able to have leadership in this position,” Yang said.
Students interested in eventually becoming a member of student government must attend leadership council meetings for one year to be eligible. Wolyniec described the leadership council aspect of student government.
“It’s sort of like a town hall meeting type thing, where like the whole school could honestly come if they wanted to and you just discuss issues that are happening in the school,” she said.
Wolyniec described the expectations for leadership council and student government.
“We meet in the morning at least once a week is the process that we’ve established this year, every year is pretty different, [student government president] Luca [Snyder] has really set an expectation that we meet in the mornings at least once a week which is really, really awesome and it’s super productive,” Crawford said.
Student government has run a variety of events over the past few years and believes the events have been impactful.
“We think there has been a positive impact we do want to do more throughout the school, I think fewer people know about student government and know more about student senate and how they run these activities but we want more students to be proactive in our school,” Yang said.
Participating in student government has benefitted members both inside and outside school.
“Student government has really helped me become more aware of how I can be an aid to my fellow peers and how I can responsibly communicate with administration in a way that’s respectful but also in a way that’s kind of understanding that we have some authority over what we experience at high school,” Ramirez Crawford said.
Wolyniec shared how student government helped her.
“I think it’s helped me a lot with, like, public speaking, you kind of have to do stuff on the fly sometimes, and like at a leadership council meeting, I remember our first [meeting], my president was like, ‘Raya, do you want to go over this slide?’ and I just had to stand up in front of the group and do it,” she said.
Yang explained how student government has helped her outside of the classroom.
“It has made me put myself out there more, like talking to students, talking to teachers, talking to administrators I think that’s helped me grow a lot as a leader,” she said.
If you want to talk to someone about any issues or questions, you can email any of the student council members or attend one of the leadership meetings.
