St. Agnes StuCo Celebrates Pancake Breakfast

On the last Wednesday before Winter Break, the attention of any St. Agnes student walking into the cafeteria at the start of Community Time veered over to the left side of the room. While the right half of the cafeteria continued its normalcy, hosting students studying for final exams and tests, the left half was decked out in all things festive: red and green tablecloths, Christmas tree and nutcracker table toppers, and a towering stack of presents in the corner. Mariah Carey’s famous Christmas ballad played on over speakers, and a mountainous bar of pancakes complete with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and maple syrup graced a long table drawing eyes from all over. And while looking at the impressive lineup of pancakes and holiday galore might have been surprising on a seemingly random Wednesday, it should have been no surprise that the festivities were for St. Agnes’ Student Council December Pancake Breakfast. 

Student Council, more commonly known as StuCo, is the largest student-led organization on St. Agnes’ campus, with almost 200 members this year. Known for their grand events like Red Ribbon Week in October and the annual St. Agnes Open House, StuCo’s accomplishments rest heavily in the work of its members, who are made up of select students of the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes who work together to put on these events. Molly Sawyer - Director of Student Activities - and StuCo Executive (“Exec”) members play a critical role in how these events happen as well, and they come together every summer to set their goals and a plan for the upcoming school year. And this summer, after noticing a trend in the previous year, Ms. Sawyer came to their summer meeting with a goal in mind. 

“Every month, the whole of StuCo would meet in the dance room to discuss and plan upcoming events. We heard a lot from those of the junior-senior level as leadership roles are generally reserved for them, but I noticed freshmen and sophomores did not have much of a voice,” Ms. Sawyer said. “And these meetings are where we want to get most of the work done, but ultimately, those in leadership roles mostly did the talking even though there are so many eager underclassmen that would jump at an opportunity to speak up.”

St. Agnes’ Student Council bulletin board announcement for StuCo Pancake Breakfast. (Photo courtesy of St. Agnes Academy)

Ms. Sawyer and Exec wanted to find a way to both give underclassmen a more active role and also find a way to give back and celebrate the work of its members. How could they provide lower-level members more opportunities to stand out in such a huge organization? How could they recognize almost 200 members of the organization and still find time to accomplish all their responsibilities?

Eventually, they devised a solution. Instead of monthly, organization-wide meetings, they agreed for the whole of StuCo to meet once a quarter in more celebration-style gatherings meant to recognize the accomplishments of its members. Hence, the December Pancake Breakfast. However, to still accomplish the “real work” that produces StuCo’s famous events, they established monthly meetings for smaller committee groups to provide a more intimate environment to cultivate leadership amongst the underclassmen while still targeting the needs of St. Agnes’ campus.

And so far, these changes have been a success! Monthly committee meetings have produced remarkable achievements, like a new Student Council newsletter from the Communications and Media Committee and a “Midterm Destress Station” organized by the Drugs, Alcohol, Safety, and Health (DASH) Committee. And quite noticeably, the quarterly StuCo-wide celebrations have been a popular hit amongst its members. The December Pancake Breakfast was full of high spirits, smiles, and chatter as StuCo gathered to commemorate the work they accomplished that quarter while trading presents in a White Elephant exchange.

“Just seeing everyone come together was amazing,” recounts Ms. Sawyer. “Just the spirit of coming together over a meal and laughing without worrying about studying—it just showed me the need for these events and how important this change was.”