At LHS, two governing bodies plan many of the events for the school: Student Council and Class Representatives. Student Council members consist of students from all grades who oversee events and activities for the whole school. Class Reps, on the other hand, is broken down by class and those students work on activities and events for their particular class.
A lot of students participate in Class Reps and know what it’s all about. But what exactly does Student Council do?
Student Council was one of the first student-run organizations created when LHS opened in 1978. Retired Latin teacher Flora Sapsin was the first teacher that started the Student Council and got students interested and involved in the club. Math teacher Hannah Dailey, who is also the current adviser, actually had Sapsin as her adviser when she did Student Council.
Dailey joined Student Council during her freshman year as a regular member. By the end of her sophomore year, she decided to run for a position.
“I was on the state board for my junior year and senior year at LHS,” Dailey said. “Then I had an honorary board position on the school board.”
Student Council was a “positive experience” for Dailey as a student.
“I feel like it gave me a lot of good leadership skills,” Dailey said. “It was also a really great way to meet like-minded people that wanted to do similar activities, be positive leaders in the school, and do community service.”
Student Council impacts the school in many ways. This includes organizing events and having strong collaboration between the classes. The Student Council also has to attend executive meetings, which are when class officers and Student Council members meet monthly to discuss upcoming events and things that are impacting the school.
“It gives a chance for students to share their voices about activities that they want to see happening,” Dailey said.
The Student Council hosts activities throughout the year. One of these events is a teacher appreciation day, where students bring snacks and refreshments to teachers before parent-teacher conferences. Other roles that the Student Council has includes planning spirit week, homecoming, the annual craft fair, and much more.
“I would say [Student Council] is a mix of school spirit and [organizing] events at LHS,” Dailey said. “Then also finding ways to bring in the community to do some more events involving them as well.”
The “increase of school spirit” is one way they try to bring the school together as one community.
“I know after COVID there was sort of a big decline in [school spirit],” Dailey said. “We’re trying to figure out ways to bring it back and get people excited about dressing up for spirit days again, or getting excited about pep rally activities.”
Dailey believes the Student Council could “bring the whole student body together.”
“I think Student Council is a great spot to present [ideas],” Dailey said. “Then we can plan things out and then see what happens in terms of planning events.”
Student Council has collaborated with many clubs before such as Heal The World, Blue Star Lancers, Women Take Action, Class Reps and other clubs.
“For the craft fair that happened on Saturday, November 23, Heal the World club ran] the raffle portion of the event,” Dailey said. “At one point, we had done a collaboration with the Athletic Leadership Council, trying to get people to attend different games.”
Nkechi Wambu, Student Council president, has been a part of Student Council since she was in elementary school.
“I really like helping our school community,” Wambu said. “I like that there’s so much stuff that we can do.”
With all the events the Student Council puts on, they are always looking for new members who are interested in the club.
“Don’t feel that you have to make it too big of a commitment,” Wambu said. “It’s just helping out with your community, it’s not supposed to be a stressful thing. So, stop by, see what it’s like.”
