Student Council teaches young people vital skills — and parents can help

Most parents remember that student council existed at their high school and some parents even remember getting involved. But many grownups raising kids today may not realize what a great opportunity student council could be for their child.

Student councils serve as a crucial link between the student body, teachers, and administrators. They give members the opportunity to develop life-long skills, and allow students to take initiative and organize events to boost student morale. Student councils give all students a voice in school decisions through the classmates they elect to represent them. These representatives build skills like communication, leadership, responsibility and collaboration.

How to support your student on a council

Parents play an important role in the success of their children on a student council. The most important thing a parent can do is encourage and help their child get involved. The more time and effort a student dedicates into their student council experience — or any experience — the more they will get out of it.

How can parents help? Take interest in the student’s activities by asking about upcoming projects or seeking details about a recent event. Be sure to celebrate your student’s accomplishments to boost their confidence and motivation.

Parents can guide their children in developing the skills that student councils promote by noticing and working on the ways they lead by example: Things like practicing healthy communication and time-management, demonstrating strong leadership, and maintaining organization can help students build those skills.

In a more practical sense, be there for your children when they need a ride to or from a student council event, and make sure they have the supplies they need to handle their responsibilities.

What student council is really like

I’m involved in student council at Purchase Line High School. We just finished our busiest time of year, the holiday season. The sense of community, and caring that this season brings, goes hand-in-hand with the student council’s winter-time events and the character traits it encourages year-round.
These are some of our recent projects:

We kick off the year with a tailgate for the first home football game. We work hard to create a great atmosphere with activities like face-painting and cornhole, plus refreshments and snacks. We want students and teachers to feel excited about the school year. We also want to learn: This project teaches us to collaborate, think creatively and manage projects — skills we’ll need in the future.

It has been our goal for a few years to allow driving students to paint their parking spots. This year, the goal was met. Senior students had the opportunity to personalize their parking spots at the beginning of the school year. We learned a lot by working with school leadership to make this happen and we plan to make this an annual event.

During the holiday season, we lead a door decorating competition throughout the high school. Every flex class has the opportunity to decorate their classroom’s door with a theme for the holidays, and the best door wins an ice cream party.

We host a semi-formal winter dance that is primarily geared towards junior high students, since they’re not included in homecoming or prom. The dance includes fun music, snacks, and a photobooth with fun props. While the student council makes donations to Purchase Line’s food pantry and comfort closet, as well as local fire departments, its major charity event is the Love Basket.

What is the Love Basket?

At Purchase Line High School every December, the student council leads a food drive for families in need within the district called the Love Basket. The Love Basket encourages students, if able, to bring non-perishable food items to their flex classrooms. Student council members collect the items to store in the school’s food pantry.

This year, we offered creative opportunities to donate:

• Teachers could wear jeans on a Friday in exchange for food item donations.
• Via the school’s social media pages, we encouraged families to bring items to home basketball games. Student council members collected the items in the gym lobby.
• We also paid for each family to receive a turkey or ham, along with any other important items not already donated.

Meaningful events like the Love Basket help us grow into confident leaders who make a difference in their school and community. And when our parents support our involvement and commitment in work like this, it inspires us to keep on learning and growing.