Elisa Gonzales is the student council representative at Willow Bend. She said that each year they attend the Leaders ‘R’ Us conference hosted at Frenship. She said they then submit projects they have been working on in order to qualify for the award.
“[Last year] We applied and talked about two different projects that we worked on during the year,” Gonzales said. “We talked about our Winter Wonder Land, which is a free carnival night hosted by our students for our school families. We have games, pictures with Santa, a silent auction, crafts, and concession stand. The other project we highlighted, was the scholarship fund. We raised money to award a Frenship High School Senior that attended Willow Bend for their elementary education. Last year we award a $1000 to Sara Mousavi!”
Gonzales said that this year, the student council is trying to find creative ways to still include the community and entire school in their projects. Gonzales said though it is difficult at times, they are used to going with the flow.
“This year has definitely looked different, but we are making it work,” Gonzales said. “We normally divide our council into different committees to do different projects. This year we created our committees by leaving them with their classes. We only have one big council meeting a month, the rest of the projects or meetings are done only with their classes so we do not mix cohorts.”
Gonzales said that due to COVID-19 the student council had to cancel many of their fund raising events this year.
“We did not get to do our annual volunteer field trip or host our Winter Wonderland event, but we still have hope we can do something in the spring,” Gonzales explained. “We are still fundraising just in different ways. We sold reusable water bottles in October by just using order forms, making posters, and doing announcements. Since we are not allowed to use the water fountains, it was a great fall fundraiser. We also sold goodie bags to go home at our COVID style Fall festival by again using order forms and promoting it. Also, we plan on doing the same for a “Winter Wonder Land” goodie bag.”
Gonzales said the administration and support at her campus is what drives the Student Council to do so much.
“Our school administration and staff 100% support our Student Council in their ideas and projects,” Gonzales. “They want our students to have these opportunities to go volunteer, to raise money, and to do different jobs around our campus.”
Gonzales said the students are her driving force and the best part of being the student council representative.
“I love seeing a student who typically has had a hard time following rules want to join student council and do an amazing job,” Gonzales said. “They begin to understand that they have to make good choices to be in student council, and if they don’t, they can be removed. They start to use their influence for good because they take their job very serious and become great leaders.”