This is the first time nine students have been selected for this role.
Nine students at Indian Mills Memorial School were provided the unique opportunity to represent the school as board of education representatives.
Although student representatives have been in place for the past 12 years, this is the first time nine students have been selected, being sectioned into groups of three students for the fall, winter and spring months.
The selected students are Peyton Dooley, Lindsey Hough, Morgan Rosenthal, Riley Gardner, Emily Lechner, Abby Mazzatta, Jazmyn Cruz, Michalah Dillard and Amy Lennox.
The students were informed of the opportunity by IMMS Principal Tim Carroll in early October, where they then completed an application, turned in letters of recommendation from their teachers, along with completing an interview with Superintendent Christine Vespe, Carroll and Board Secretary/Business Administrator Laura Archer.
The process took about two weeks, and all nine applicants were informed they were selected for the position and were sworn in at the October board meeting.
“Since there were nine of us, it was pretty nerve-wracking to see who was going to get the role, and it was really exciting to see all of us get it,” Mazzatta said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to have, especially speaking in front of very important people — it can open lots of opportunities for us.”
Typically, there are only two or three eighth-grade representatives chosen, so what makes these students exceptionally qualified for the position?
“Each applicant was excellent. They put forth a beautiful application and in their interviews they were very poised, they could express themselves, they had ideas they wanted to share, reasons why they wanted to do this position,” Vespe said at the October board meeting. “Yet they were each unique in the experiences that they brought with them to the table — clubs they were involved in, sports they were involved in or outside activities and other interests that they have.”
Vespe thought of the idea to have fall, winter and spring representatives, and the students are all on board with the concept.
“I was so happy that I got in and I liked the idea of fall, winter and spring representatives, so we each get a few months to state our reasoning and to be a leader,” Gardner said.
Each student expressed their dedication to the role, understanding the position will require hard work and should be taken seriously. They are excited to grow their leadership, teamwork and public speaking skills to help them grow into their professions in the future. “They’re so eager and so willing to learn and they want to seek out leadership opportunities and they’ll do whatever is necessary — I can’t say enough good things.” Carroll said. “They went out of their friend group to volunteer for something, and that just shows so much about who they are.”
The students will report monthly on activities taking place at IMMS, along with introducing new ideas to be implemented into the middle school. So far, the fall representatives came up with the idea of buddying incoming fifth graders with eighth graders, as a means of making fifth graders more comfortable at a new school.
They came up with the idea to sit at each lunch table and play games with them to pair students with common interests.
This is only one of the ideas in the works with the representatives, and the winter and fall students are looking forward to their chance to share ideas.
“It’s going to be nice to work together as a team to accomplish this goal of representing our school,” Dillard said.
