Student Government

Author's Note: This is my application for Student Government Class Representative for PHS next year. There were three questions that we had to answer, and I decided to format the three questions within an essay. This essay should express a clear voice and persuasion.

Student senate is an incredibly prominent aspect of our student body, and provides the voice for our school. As Student Government Class Representative, I will make it a priority that our voice be heard, and action is taken.

Class representatives are defined as leaders -- a person who has a vision, a drive, a commitment, and the skills to make it all happen. If I were privileged with the election of Class Representative, this is exactly how I would operate. Of course, it is always intelligible to view the qualifications of a candidate, of which I possess many. For example, I have been elected Class Representative for the past five years and have therefore been a part of Student Council since fourth grade. I have been involved in many community service activities such as shoe drives, reading books to the elderly, taking non-perishable goods down to the Pewaukee Food Pantry, coat drives, Leukemia fundraisers, and many more activities to serve and provide for others throughout the past few years. Last year I was involved in putting on a carnival to produce donations for the American Diabetes Association, and am actually a head chair of putting on the carnival again this year. These experiences have helped me to express my creativity through voluntary involvement in assisting the community. Also, I attended a leadership camp at Edgewood College in Madison last summer for a week to further practice my leadership skills, bring back innovative ideas to our school, and grow as an individual. Lastly, I spoke at Carroll College as a part of a student panel to share my experience with individualized learning, along with being interviewed by a television crew on similar topics of interest. The result of all of my experiences has been tremendously rewarding not only personally, but with helping assist both my peers and the school.

I would be honored to serve as one of your Student Government Class Representatives because I am determined to make the voice of our student body heard. As Representative, I will be taking on the responsibility to respect all view points, take all opinions into consideration, and listen attentively to piers suggestions, turning them into actions. I am fully prepared to do all of the above.

"Leadership is action, not position." This quote spoken by Donald McGannon reflects the ideal role of a leader. To simply own a title, to simply be elected, is not where your work ends. Once you have been chosen, it is your job to take on that leadership role and take action. As Student Government Class Representative, I understand the importance of this task, and plan on taking your ideas to meetings, as well as producing original ideas, and turning them into action. One of my plans to benefit PHS and our surrounding community is to bring Rachel's Challenge to our school. Now, this idea has been suggested numerous times after the Student Council attended a presentation of Rachel's Challenge, but it has yet to be put into action because of cost restrictions. My original idea is to give the presentation through our Student Council, instead of paying to have the program come to us. Our Student Council is already so passionate about the whole idea behind the challenge, Rachel's story, and the final overall action plan to better you and others, therefore having the students present would be an innovative and resourceful plan. When this presentation was given, it really spoke to the entire Student Council, including myself, and made us motivated to continue in Rachel's footsteps. To have the Student Council bring this challenge back to PHS and inform everyone about it would truly be a wonderful experience.

As you can see, Student Government Class Representative is a very involved role, and one that I plan to take on fully if elected. Vote for change; vote for your voice to be heard; vote for action; vote for Madeline Collins as Student Government Class Representative.