Student Council organized the annual Texas Association of Student Councils (TASC) District 3 (D3) Spring Conference on Feb. 23 on campus. With over 750 students and 100 advisors in attendance, StuCo had planned the day down to the minute, an entire year in advance. The neighboring seventeen local districts came together for a whole day of council activities and a districtwide service project.
The theme of this conference was “Making Your Student Council SUPER.” This light-hearted concept shed light on how student council members manage their life.
“These students are superheroes because of the way they handle things,” Student Body Secretary, Erica Seay said. “With all of the work they do and all of the things they have to manage, StuCo is full of superheroes.”
To further express this idea, speaker Sara Sampson presented a speech entitled “Are there holes in your cape?”, that addressed possible reasons why a student may not be reaching their full potential in true, good health. Stressors often bombard student leaders, given that they are often leaders in their communities as well.
Beyond this conference, the TASC state project is “Resolve to Rise.” In doing their part, D3 holistically came together to create Breathe Bag Kits and Donation Kits. The Breathe Bag consists of sensory objects and stress relief items to give to students to help them relax in times of high stress or anxiety. The Donation Kits included personal care items, shoes, socks, and other necessities. Attending schools had brought various items to assemble together. Once assembled and completed, the Breathe Bags are to be distributed to the school counselors of District 3 schools and the Donation Kits were given to the Terrell State Hospital.
This conference entailed various schools campaigning for the upcoming year. Within the political rally, candidate schools performed a skit expressing their particular platform. A fair portion of the day was politically centric. The positions that were available to fill were District 3 President, Vice President, Parliamentarian, Recording Secretary, and Corresponding Secretary. Following the same-day elections, Timber Creek was nominated the D3 Parliamentarian for the 2019-20 school year.
TImber Creek’s StuCo campaigned with the platform, “Health Watch Health Cards”. They believe that it only takes one card, one call, to change a life. Throughout the year, StuCo distributed cards that included the hotline phone numbers of various circumstances such as substance abuse, domestic violence, or suicide. This was done with the intention of providing an outlet or safe space for those in need.
While also named District 3 Parliamentarian, the council is also running to hold an officer position at the statewide level. Specifically, the position of State Secretary for the 2019-20 school year. On April 14, StuCo will be attending the State Conference in Arlington to join with councils from all parts of Texas. Here, StuCo will share their platform to “Partner Against Poverty” and how they have already given aid and awareness to the situation.
“Because of this, our own council was able to have the experience of planning and carrying out a districtwide conference,” Seay said. “They did an amazing job. StuCo asks a lot of these students, and they do nothing but embody the ‘superhero’ title.”