STEM Academy’s Student Council has set the bar high being recognized as a 2023 National Gold Council of Excellence by the National Student Council.
The announcement was made at a breakfast held in the multipurpose room of the school Monday. The NatStuCo program is supported by its parent organization, the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
STEM was recently awarded at the district level for meeting minimum standards in all four categories including DASH (Drug, Alcohol, Safety and Health), Pride and Patriotism, Energy and Environment and Community Service. In addition, the fur state committee area scores were high enough that STEM earned a sweepstakes and was recognized as an Outstanding Student Council. STEM also will serve as the District 8 president school for the 2023-24 school year, a news release said.
A student council must meet a variety of criteria to earn the National Council of Excellence Award. In addition to basic requirements such as a written constitution, regular meetings and a democratic election process, the councils must have demonstrated successful sponsorship and participation in activities such as leadership development and service to the school and community.
Nine Student Council members and two sponsors, Principal Cody Griffin and sponsor Keli Gunn, will go to Irving for a three-day state conference April 21.
“I looked through everything you submitted and I know it’s a lot of work. I’m very, very proud of all of you,” Griffin said.
Student Council President Allison Barnes said the ward means that they get to continue their legacy. Barnes is heading to Texas A&M University to study aerospace engineering.
“I’m graduating, but I’ve got a lot of younger people here who are not graduating and the idea behind getting these recognitions is to set a standard for the council to continue to have moving forward. This is the first step in a long line of things we’re going to continue to do to continue to improve as a council,” Barnes said.
She added that she has learned leadership, organizational and communications skills that are going to be useful in her future career as an engineer.
“Those skills become useful in a workplace environment …,” Barnes said.
She added that Student Council has taught her not to be afraid of authority figures. She emails Griffin all the time.
Barnes said there are about 60 Student Council members.
Barnes said STEM Academy is one of the best schools in the Permian Basin.
“I’m a little bit biased, but that’s my opinion because it’s such a good community and the Student Council is the core of that community here,” Barnes said.
Sophomore Bryan Nash and junior Georgi Shoumaroff also are Student Council members. Both said the National Gold Council of Excellence award was unexpected.
A lot of members had good ideas that they pushed for and they worked really hard. Nash said the council organizes things like prom and dances and then they have more unusual events like a plant pageant that a lot of people participated in.
“We all worked really hard and had to talk to a lot of people,” Shoumaroff said. “It’s pretty cool that it (their hard work) was acknowledged.”
Griffin said Gunn is looking at what they’re doing to make sure they are a fantastic student council.
“For us to get recognized as a National Gold Council of Excellence I think says a lot about Ms. Gunn’s work and our kids’ work achieving a national standard,” Griffin said.
Griffin has watched these students grow from middle school through high school.
“… It helps me as an educator know what influences their decisions. I work with their teachers. I work with their counselor and with their parents to help get them the tools that they need to achieve the goals that they want. …,” he added.
He said maintaining the award is something difficult, but achievable.
“And so for the kiddos that are here that are young underclassmen, they know that it’s possible so it’s not as ‘unachievable.’ They know that it’s something that can be done and so we’re really, really proud of knowing that it can be accomplished and that they can in the future continue,” Griffin said.
