Skip to main content

Student Advisory Council - November 19

 


In the middle of August, I applied to be a member of state superintendent Richard Woods' Student Advisory Council! Each year, there is a new student council that helps the superintendent create decisions for the betterment of the Georgia Department of Education. The application consisted of questions that asked us about what we would contribute as a member and what problems we see within the educational system. I decided to talk about the lack of diversity within higher-level classes such as AP and IB and the recent obsession with STEM programs instead of English and History subjects and how it affects a student's ability to communicate with others. At the end of September, I was notified that I was 1 out of 69 students who were chosen for the council!

 Nearly two Thursdays ago, I had to travel to Atlanta to the Georgia Department of Education building that held the meeting we were all supposed to be in attendance for. The first thing on the agenda was to get breakfast which we all previously ordered a few days prior to the meeting. Then, there was an introduction presentation given by a select teacher who was chosen to lead this meeting. Later, a professor from the University of Georgia and a film producer came and asked us all to create a 15-second video about mental health that we would submit before Christmas. I am super interested in participating in this project because it encourages the normalization of getting help if you are struggling with mental health issues. Next, we divided into two groups that either went to speak to Superintendent Woods or stayed with the meeting advisor to talk about service projects. I really enjoyed this part because we all told Woods about our concerns with the educational system.  When we talked about service projects, I started to think about my CAS project and how they could intertwine. 

Eventually, we ate lunch and talked about the student health survey that every student has to take. We were able to review the questions and give suggestions to the leaders who made these surveys. After this, a member of the dual enrollment committee spoke to us about college application month and the special offers we have as seniors. It was such a long day but very resourceful and a wonderful learning experience. I love being a part of this council because I get to represent my classmates and the educational system as a whole. Being a part of an intellectual group of students is a wonderful opportunity.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Miss Sparkle Pageant

  This past Saturday, I chose to spend my day volunteering with the Serteen Club at Carrollton High School at the Miss Sparkle Pageant: a pageant that contains the special needs community throughout Carrollton. There are Little Miss, Junior Miss, Teen Miss, and Miss categories which separate the girls into four groups. Within their group, they are judged by about ten judges and are each crowned and given a flower at the end of the ceremony. However, there will be one winner throughout each category. Sometime during the pageant, each girl is escorted by a male member and given a description of who they are and their interests. This whole day was a huge learning experience on my part, but it is one experience I will never get tired of sharing.  At 12:00 p.m. all of the volunteers arrived to help welcome the girls, sign them in, and hang up their dresses so they could attend the pageant rehearsal. While they rehearsed, volunteers continued their role of welcoming contenders. Afte...
Post a Comment
Read more

Final CAS Blog - 5/6

  How can we make CAS more relevant to the real world?  I think CAS can be encouraged to be more relevant to the real world by incorporating activities the IB group as a whole can do that contributes to the CAS experience. We got a few opportunities to do this last year, but as senior year rolled around, group IB CAS experiences occurred less frequently. How can you better support an IB student through the program? You have done a wonderful job supporting our group as IB seniors, especially since we are going through a lot of changes in our lives with graduation and college coming up. I think the only support that we are looking for is just some motivation or assistance in our future lives beyond IB. How to prepare future IB diploma candidates with the requirements of CAS? You have done a great job of keeping us on track with our blogs! The only thing I can think of is to ultimately tell them that this should not be an additional weight that they should significantly worry abo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prepping for Student Advisory Council

  On Wednesday, I have another Student Advisory Council meeting. As mentioned previously in one of my blogs, to be a member of this council means taking on great responsibility. The introductory meeting took place on November 9th, where there were a lot of icebreakers and activities for us to get to know one another. Now that we have gotten the hang of what it takes to be a member and to know one another, they put us to work and asked for our opinions on different things the Georgia Board of Education was willing to implement. Things such as a video on mental health, questions that are on the student safety survey, and Georgia Futures scholarships were brought to our attention. I really enjoyed this because it allowed me to gain a voice for my peers at Carrollton High School and to advocate for what is best for our students.  At this moment, I am preparing for the next meeting for whatever it may intail. It was very important last meeting that we as members come up with a serv...
Post a Comment
Read more