Monday, February 1, 2016

Big Rapids High School Student Council

Student Council is an opportunity for students to perform things like school duties and community service, as well as build up leadership skills within the group. Other than just being a member (for which a minimum GPA of 3.0 and a set level of community service hours are required), each student has the opportunity to run for the positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary for each class.Those same positions are also available on what we call the “Executive Board”, who run the all-school meetings, help make any larger decisions, help facilitate the class groups when needed, assist with elections, etc. The students, for the most part, assume the responsibilities of running the all-school and individual class meetings themselves.

Some of the events and duties that Student Council do include all high school dances (Homecoming, Snowcoming, and Prom), as well as the activities that go along with it. These include coming up with spirit days, spirit games throughout the week, assemblies, nominations/voting for “court”, float building competitions for the Homecoming parade, and PowderPuff football and PowerPuff volleyball games. The Executive Board plans and facilitates the Homecoming Parade and the football halftime ceremony where the Homecoming court is presented and the King and Queen are announced.

All of these duties are previously assigned to a certain class or to the Executive Board. Some other activities the Student Council is involved in are community outreach projects throughout the school year, such as teaming with Big Rapids Jaycees for a Penny War to raise money for Our Brother’s Keeper, decorating class hallway bulletin boards each month, “Leadership Night”, Halloween costume contests, a holiday-themed spirit week in December… and the list goes on.

Typically, some of the “lighter” responsibilities are assigned to the youngest class, as well as helping with certain things (like helping decorate at the dances, choosing spirit days, etc.) This way they can really see how things are typically done and the older students can model the responsibilities to them, too. However, as sophomores, students are already responsible for planning larger events (such as the Homecoming assembly and the Snowcoming dance).

Pictured above are Julie Farrier, Morgan Marek and Haley Geib with their class bulletin board they created.  January’s theme was New Year's resolution