Student Council is a place to come together

By Brittany Baer, Student Council President

Every school year, between 20 and 30 New Prague High School student council members have the opportunity to bond. As any leader would be, I was a little nervous to see how everyone would gel, because with each new group comes a new dynamic.

As the day of our annual summer trip arrived, my fears were alleviated when I was introduced to a group of extremely enthusiastic, confident and intelligent individuals. Grade and friendship cliques became irrelevant as everyone grew comfortable with each other throughout a day of tubing down the Cannon River followed by an evening campfire full of ideas.

Although in past years many of our great ideas have been lost, this year, due to the energy of our current student council (or Stud Co as we like to call it), these ideas have been followed through on.

We started off the school year by serving donuts and juice to the teachers on one of their workshop days. On the second day of school we were extremely lucky to welcome Mark Scharenbroich, an Emmy-award winning speaker, to our school. His style of speaking was very interactive and his message had an impact on many students, as he was one of the first speakers to receive such a strong hold of the student body’s attention. Council members also spent their Friday evenings selling Trojan Wear at home football games. And if you have seen any Council members in orange vests lately, don’t worry. We were just cleaning Highway 37, our adopted highway.

Last year we began an effort to bridge the gap between generations in our community. One of the things we did was to bring senior citizens into the high school one morning every two months to greet students. Students and senior citizens both enjoy the interaction, which is why we have continued it this year.

One of our favorite things to do as a council last year was to spend time at Philipp Square playing cards, Bingo and just hanging out with the residents. The evenings spent at Philipp Square were very rewarding and memorable, teaching each of us of others’ pasts. We hope to visit again soon.

Some other things we have been up to lately include hosting a mock election for all students on election day, holding a drawing contest for Veterans Day, preparing for our annual Smelly Clothes Contest (members wear the same outfit for approximately three weeks and whomever donates the most amount of clothing and wears the same outfit wins), and preparing for our December 4 Sadie Hawkins Dance.

This year our executive board includes myself, Brittany Baer, as president, Megan Headstrom as vice-president, Matthew Eldred as secretary, Britt Anderson as treasurer, Emily Bisek as sergeant at arms, Allison May as webmaster and Stephie Solheid and Nicole Jirik as co-historians.

With all that we have already accomplished, I am excited to see all the new activities we have yet to experience. The New Prague Student Council has and always will strive to be representatives of not only our student body but our community. So let us know of any questions, concerns or ideas you have for us.