Roosevelt’s student council is an important part of our school and community, having many roles and responsibilities that provide students with fun activities and opportunities for all four years of high school. Here is an inside look into our student council and the hard work that they put into making our Roosevelt community welcoming and fun.
Student council is elected the year prior in order to serve the following school year. There are requirements to join including having a minimum 3.0 GPA, at least 80% attendance and being in good disciplinary status. If a student meets all of the listed requirements they can run for the position of their choice. If they win the majority vote of the student body they will officially become a member of the student council.
Student council is divided into four groups. These include district student council representatives, executive board, commissioners and class representatives. This year, the student council’s Executive Board includes President and Vice President Caelan Riley and Gwen Frye, Secretary Jasmin Reyes Contreras, and Treasurer Macy Drexler. Commissioners include Communication Commissioners Julia Rotherham and Roneel Sharma, Club Commissioner Juliana Rosete, School Spirit Commissioners Sa’nyaa Rouse and Aaniya Edwards-Ramirez, Athletics Commissioner Cameron Downs and our Wellness Commissioner, D’Angelo Strong. Class Representatives include Freshman Reps Milah Gilds and Juno Nebel, Sophomore Reps Kemiya Salah and Adelaide Riley, Junior Reps Hazel Patterson and Carolina Alonso, and Senior Reps Ellie Heslam and Ruby Wilder.
Student council functions off of a constitution and active by-laws. They are functioning member councils for the Oregon Association of Student Councils and the National Association of Student Councils. Student council meetings are held one to two times per month to set the calendar with plans for the year. Throughout the year they manage a multitude of different events and occasions. This includes filming weekly announcements, planning spirit weeks, directing assemblies, advertising sports games and managing school dances. Some events that took place for the first time this year were Kindness Week and the Giving Tree.
Student council will often collaborate with Roosevelt’s leadership classes when it comes to managing these events. Leadership’s biggest responsibility is to help with in school and out of school projects. You have most likely seen leadership students helping set up school dances, mediating assemblies, running concessions at sports games and in every weekly announcement video. Any student can join leadership by forecasting for Intro to Leadership elective and after a year of the intro class students can move to advanced leadership. There are two periods of Advanced Leadership, one of which is with the student council, to have their meetings during in class time.
Student Council Vice President, Gwen Frye says “It is important to have student council and leadership in our schools because it gives students a voice”. Student Council helps to give students a say in the school events and people who will advocate for their interests, concerns and well being. They advocate for our student bodies wants and needs in every aspect whether its extracurriculars or overall wellness. Leadership classes help bring people together to collaborate with one another, assist with events and learn to be leaders not only in our school but everywhere. Ms. Hill is the face behind both our student council and leadership classes at Roosevelt. She encourages students to be positive leaders, good communicators and hard workers. She has been teaching at Roosevelt for twenty two years and this is her third year running our leadership program where she continues to empower belonging in students both in and out of the classroom.
This year the student council applied to the National Association of Student Councils National Council of Excellence Award. They are the first student council in PIL to do so and currently there have only ever been three schools awarded in Oregon. To apply they needed to submit three qualifiers: charity, school spirit and school climate/wellness. For charity they submitted the Giving Tree, a program started by Hazel Patterson and Jasmin Reyes Contreras encouraging the community to buy gifts for students who are less fortunate around the holidays. For school spirit they submitted Homecoming and for school climate and wellness they submitted Kindness Week. Campaigning for next year’s student council will start this April. Students who are elected will begin to work with this year’s council members and over the summer to prepare for next school year.
