If Student Council Were a Pencil

If Student Council Were a Pencil

by by Keito, Oliver, Kieran, Lewis, Yutika (HS Student Council)

It’s no coincidence that the High School Student Council rhymes with pencil; after all, they both bring ideas to life. But how does the pencil factory make its pencils?

In this article, we’d like to provide a sneak peek into how we, the HS Student Council, approach our event planning process. Just as a pencil needs to be sharpened, our primary purpose is a dedication to fostering the YIS community spirit, as well as giving student voices a platform in a world of teachers. 

Throughout the 2023 - 2024 school year, we’ve planned various events such as the High School Dance, Pi Day, and Spirit Day. Focusing on the Winter Studentainment event, we experienced both triumphs and hardships. As with any event, we started with group brainstorming. We broke down our previous reflections on the Back to School Concert, considering both its successful aspects and areas that could be improved. Once we had a base idea of how we wanted the event to look, it was time to split into our respective teams.
 

Students enjoying the performances at Studentainment
 

Communications - Lewis

As part of the Communication Team, we play the role of keeping the students informed and involved, and do this by advertising events like Studentainment. We start by creating posters to hang around the school, which are then posted on the Daily slideshow. This step requires communication not only within our team, but also with the entirety of StuCo, as we need to know all the required information to share with students. For this specific event, we visited the different homerooms and encouraged students to sign up to perform, even creating an online form. Beyond Studentainment, we are always dedicated to finding new communication methods with the student body, one example being our short-form videos on the “Student Life” Instagram page.

Events - Yutika

To effectively prepare for Studentainment, the Events Team started creating an action plan. After confirming details such as the date, place, and timing, we reserved the location and started contacting performers who had signed up to perform. In doing so, we created appropriate rehearsal and performance schedules, carefully considering transition times between performances. For instance, koto ensembles are usually placed at the beginning of Studentainment due to the long time it takes to set up their instruments, stands, and chairs.


 

MS Students perform on the Koto for their peers
 

Student Concerns - Oliver, Keito

As we hung up our coats, we finished Studentainment the way we finished all of our events; reflecting. So, let us provide you with an introspection into our reflections. There were many clear successes: high audience engagement, a constant flow of performers, and a general lack of technical difficulties. However, we also recognized some issues, such as some of the ‘games’ in between performances dragging on for too long.

 

HS Students take to the stage to showcase their talents.
 

By dividing up work across teams and consistently reflecting upon our events, the HS Student Council has always strived for — and achieved — improvement. Our most recent Studentainment was our best yet due to our exhaustive measures in ensuring every detail is thought out, resolving our hardships from previous events.

Because if StuCo were a pencil, its members would surely be its pencil sharpeners.