St. Agnes Student Council at TASC Summer Leadership Workshop

Despite the ongoing pandemic, the Texas Association of Student Council (TASC) led their annual leadership workshop this past summer, with a few changes. The four day workshop was broadcasted over Zoom. Students met other leaders from all over the state of Texas to exchange ideas and techniques. The workshop provided an open space for students to form connections with other leaders from schools around Texas. The St. Agnes student council executive committee participated in this summer leadership workshop. Though separated into different small groups, they experienced a sense of state-wide community and togetherness.

First, students were seperated into committee groups, with whom they spent most of their time. Committee groups acted as a real student council committee by choosing a name, mission, chairperson, and creating an event proposal.

Students spent the first day determining the underrepresented groups within their school community. These included special education students and student not involved in clubs and sports. The following days were spent creating a video, a powerpoint presentation, and a proposal to the principal. These elements allowed students to practice the necessary actions when planning an event throughout the school year.

The second group was the mixer group, which provided a space for students to socialize and discuss their goals and aspirations. During these groups, we participated in multiple icebreakers and watched inspirational videos. TASC leadership workshop allowed students to exchange ideas and beliefs with a diverse group of people in hopes of bettering their schools.

The SAA Student Council celebrated the start of the new year with a luau themed retreat. Bailey Raymond (’23) and Maya Harpavat (’22) pose in front of a light up sign decorating the central area of the retreat.

As a member of St. Agnes student council’s executive committee, I participated in this leadership workshop. I was a member of Group D, which we named the Back-to-Basics Committee. Our mission was to readjust, reevaluate, and realign our schools to create an environment even better than the one preceding Covid. To do so,  we chose to focus on the groundwork of the student community. We planned a Club Carnival, where students would be encouraged to visit different clubs and see all that the school had to offer.

This opportunity included outreach to students not previously involved, as well as those that had been virtual. Our committees worked diligently for two days to create different forms of presentations to propose the idea. The PR committee utilized Powtoon as a fun video platform. Though there were multiple hiccups along the way, the Back-to-Basics Committee learned the planning process behind creating a large scale event. Instructions throughout the days were goal-oriented reinforcing the idea that the why? is greater than the how? for student council. 

St. Agnes student council executives remained on campus for 3 hours after the end of the workshop each day to get a headstart on planning the year. We worked together to create a social contract, listing goals and expectations of the year. Each day was filled with snacks, icebreakers, and inspirational talks from our advisor, Cydryce McMillan. By the end of the week, the walls were covered in calendars and posters showing all the ideas we had come up with.

The final day of the retreat provided a forum for members to share their proposal videos. Students from all over Texas added ideas to the document to better the student council committee as a whole. The students left brimming with new ideas and excited to plan the upcoming year.