By Carol Bello Features Editor & Alexa Marquis Staff Writer
River Hill’s student government (SGA) along with officers from the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club coordinated a student leadership conference on the 30th of September. This conference included approximately 70 River Hill students from all grades. These students participated in a series of workshops led by SGA members and guest speakers, such as Jeff Sherrill, the associate director at the National Association of Student Councils and newly elected county executive Allan Kittleman.
They enlightened the students about the introduction of the RSVP program. RSVP or “Raising Student Voice and Participation” is a pre-existing program used throughout school systems to ensure that the student body has a say in issues that may exist in the school. By incorporating this program, school administrators can ensure feasible alternatives that come from students to benefit the overall well being of the school.
The RSVP program consists of four summits or steps that need to be achieved in order to make a change. Although the first meeting completed two of the four, the summits were explained in the conference to the selected student body so that they could begin to collaborate with the SGA board about issues that are germane to students.
The first summit introduced was “voice” where guest speaker Jeff Sherrill discussed the importance of the student’s voices when making changes in the school system. After his speech, the student body then had a better understanding of how to efficiently communicate the student body’s voice with administration. The student voice in a school system is crucial and should be acknowledged, thus leading into the next summit, “recommendations.”
“Recommendation” consisted of the selected student body listing recommendations for change in the school and determining which ones were feasible and which ones could not be achieved. The students left the conference with summit 3, which was explained as “action plan” which is the selected students job to get feedback and more recommendations from the rest of the student body.
Throughout the day, the students also participated in three workshop sessions. These workshops included leadership essentials, informing, enlightening, and empowering to action. Students were able to construct ideas for change in school through activities that featured real world examples. Many students feel that they aren’t able to have their ideas and voice heard, but through this program they finally have a chance.
Patrick Mikilus, the Student Member of the Board for Howard County, helped lead the conference. “The leadership conference was a great success, we provided students with the tools needed to seek out causes. Through the summits, workshops, and administrative guidance, we were successful in helping the students feel like they are a part of the process and hopefully made them feel like they do have a say in changes.”
Patrick led workshops and spoke to the selected student body about how its voices can make a difference at River Hill. Patrick and co-sponsors Kristen Mitchell and John Difato were present throughout the day and ensured that things were running smoothly during the conference. Principal Nick Novak also made an appearance at the leadership conference to experience how RSVP will work in the school and most importantly, his role in the program.
Recommendations and results of the conference included some current concerns the student body had about certain aspects of River Hill. The most prevalent and feasible being, A third hawk time, standing at basketball games, and fixing the schools wifi issue. Most of the recommendations suggested are feasible and legitimate problems that can be fixed through staff and student efforts. Some of the issues that can not be achieved were jurisdictional issues regarding the county that our school unfortunately does not have much control over. Although the county may be against a specific issue, River Hill High School’s administration and student body can make attempts to improve situations to the best of our ability through the RSVP program.